The Return to capital: new facts and interpretation

This thesis presents new facts on the aggregate return to capital and shows their implications for underlying drivers of investment and the efficiency of the alloca-tion of capital. The first chapter analyzes aggregate returns to capital across countries. Although international capital flows were sm...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Faltermeier, Julia
Tipo de recurso: tesis doctoral
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2019
País:España
Institución:CBUC, CESCA
Repositorio:TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red
OAI Identifier:oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/666913
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10803/666913
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Return to capital
Retorn agregat del capital
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Descripción
Sumario:This thesis presents new facts on the aggregate return to capital and shows their implications for underlying drivers of investment and the efficiency of the alloca-tion of capital. The first chapter analyzes aggregate returns to capital across countries. Although international capital flows were small, returns have converged since the 1970s. Trade integration appears a key driving force behind this trend because factor in-come shares of capital move with the aggregate return. As barriers to international trade fall, specialization in capital- or labor-intensive industries can explain a sig-nificant share of the convergence. The second chapter examines why the return to capital in the U.S. has not fallen along with interest rates. Using firm-level data in production function estimation addresses some shortcomings of aggregate data. The results suggest that higher capital frictions dampened investment demand despite low interest rates. Rising markups, on the other hand, appear to have limited explanatory power.