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Quarterly Journal of Economics Vol. 111 No. 1 1996

Is Fixed Investment the Key to Economic Growth?

M. Blomstrom; R. E. Lipsey1; M. Zejan

1 National Bureau of Economic Research

open access

Abstract

This paper examines shares of fixed capital formation in GDP and rates of economic growth for more than 100 countries over successive five-year periods between 1965 and 1985 to determine the direction of causality between them. Simple regressions and multiple regressions including several standard determinants of growth, as well as a simple causality test, provide more evidence that increases in growth precede rises in rates of capital formation than that increases in capital formation precede increases in growth. High rates of fixed capital formation accompany rapid growth in per capita income, but we find no evidence that fixed investment is the only or main source of ignition for economic growth.

DOI
10.2307/2946665
Volume
111
Issue
1
Pages
269-276
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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