IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/usi/wpaper/684.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Construction and economic development:empirical evidence for the period 2000-2011

Author

Listed:
  • Daniele Girardi
  • Antonio Mura

Abstract

This article provides evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the share of construction in GDP and economic development, employing panel data for world countries for the period 2000-2011. The relationship holds only after logarithmic transformation of the data, implying that the curve is asymmetric with respect to its maximum. This means that the relative level of construction activity tends to increase in developing countries, to peak during industrialization and to decrease at a slowing pace in industrialized countries, approaching stabilization in mature economies. The ?tness of the model increases signi?cantly if we measure economic development by means of alternative indicators instead of per-capita GDP. The curve is robust to the inclusion of control variables and there is evidence of a linear relation between income distribution and construction activity level.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniele Girardi & Antonio Mura, 2013. "Construction and economic development:empirical evidence for the period 2000-2011," Department of Economics University of Siena 684, Department of Economics, University of Siena.
    • Handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:684
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://repec.deps.unisi.it/quaderni/684.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roger Hosein & Timothy Michael Lewis, 2005. "Quantifying the relationship between aggregate GDP and construction value added in a small petroleum rich economy - a case study of Trinidad and Tobago," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 185-197.
    2. Strassmann, W Paul, 1970. "The Construction Sector in Economic Development," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 17(3), pages 391-409, November.
    3. J. Bradford De Long & Lawrence H. Summers, 1991. "Equipment Investment and Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 445-502.
    4. J. Bradford DeLong & Lawrence H. Summers, 1992. "Equipment Investment and Economic Growth: How Strong Is the Nexus?," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 23(2), pages 157-212.
    5. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1961. "Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number kuzn61-1.
    6. Les Ruddock & Jorge Lopes, 2006. "The construction sector and economic development: the 'Bon curve'," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(7), pages 717-723.
    7. Roberto Pietroforte & Tullio Gregori, 2003. "An input-output analysis of the construction sector in highly developed economies," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 319-327.
    8. David Crosthwaite, 2000. "The global construction market: a cross-sectional analysis," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(5), pages 619-627.
    9. Andrei Bougrov & Robert Johnson & Benno Ndulo & Pedro Paez & Avinash Persaud & Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul & Akhtar Aziz Zeti & Charles Goodhart & Jomo Kwame Sundaram & Youssef Boutros-Ghali & José Anto, 2010. "The Stiglitz Report," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03415638, HAL.
      • Andrei Bougrov & Robert Johnson & Benno Ndulo & Pedro Paez & Avinash Persaud & Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul & Akhtar Aziz Zeti & Charles Goodhart & Jomo Kwame Sundaram & Youssef Boutros-Ghali & José Anto, 2010. "The Stiglitz Report," Working Papers hal-03415638, HAL.
    10. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1961. "Appendices and Index, "Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing"," NBER Chapters, in: Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing, pages 465-664, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Maddison, Angus, 1987. "Growth and Slowdown in Advanced Capitalist Economies: Techniques of Quantitative Assessment," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 649-698, June.
    12. Smith, Adam, 1776. "An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number smith1776.
    13. Chang, Tsangyao & Nieh, Chien-Chung, 2004. "A note on testing the causal link between construction activity and economic growth in Taiwan," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 591-598, June.
    14. Simon Kuznets & Elizabeth Jenks, 1961. "Introduction to "Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing"," NBER Chapters, in: Capital in the American Economy: Its Formation and Financing, pages 3-14, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Amartya Sen, 2000. "A Decade of Human Development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 17-23.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Erol, Isil & Unal, Umut, 2015. "Role of Construction Sector in Economic Growth: New Evidence from Turkey," MPRA Paper 68263, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Gapinski, James H., 1996. "Heterogeneous capital, economic growth, and economic development," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 18(4), pages 561-585.
    3. Hofman, André A., 2000. "The economic development of Latin America in the twentieth century," Copublicaciones, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), number 1650 edited by Eclac.
    4. Thomas L. Hogan & Daniel J. Smith, 2022. "War, money & economy: Inflation and production in the Fed and pre-Fed periods," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 15-37, March.
    5. Guillén, Osmani Teixeira de Carvalho & Issler, João Victor & Franco-Neto, Afonso Arinos de Mello, 2014. "On the welfare costs of business-cycle fluctuations and economic-growth variation in the 20th century and beyond," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 62-78.
    6. Alexandre Aspremont & Simon Ben Arous & Jean-Charles Bricongne & Benjamin Lietti & Baptiste Meunier, 2023. "Satellites Turn “Concrete”: Tracking Cement with Satellite Data and Neural Networks," Working papers 916, Banque de France.
    7. Barry Eichengreen, 2015. "Secular Stagnation: The Long View," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 66-70, May.
    8. Gerben Bakker & Nicholas Crafts & Pieter Woltjer, 2019. "The Sources of Growth in a Technologically Progressive Economy: The United States, 1899–1941," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 129(622), pages 2267-2294.
    9. Cogley, Timothy & Nason, James M., 1995. "Effects of the Hodrick-Prescott filter on trend and difference stationary time series Implications for business cycle research," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 19(1-2), pages 253-278.
    10. Steven Gjerstad & Vernon L. Smith, 2014. "Consumption and Investment Booms in the 1920s and Their Collapse in 1930," NBER Chapters, in: Housing and Mortgage Markets in Historical Perspective, pages 81-114, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Xavier Tafunell & Cristián Ducoing, 2015. "Non-residential capital stock in Latin America. 1875-2008," Economics Working Papers 1472, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    12. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 2024. "The Incubator of Human Capital: The NBER and the Rise of the Human Capital Paradigm," NBER Chapters, in: The Economic History of American Inequality: New Evidence and Perspectives, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Annie Tubadji & Vassilis Angelis & Peter Nijkamp, 2016. "Kuznets' swings and intangible investments in forecast: the case of Greece," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 56-62, January.
    14. Hugh Rockoff, 2010. "On the Origins of A Monetary History," Chapters, in: Ross B. Emmett (ed.), The Elgar Companion to the Chicago School of Economics, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. V. Carlei & E. Colantonio & D. Furia & N. Mattoscio, 2011. "Economic patterns of sustainable development: an analysis of absolute ecological footprint through self-organizing map," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 157-171, January.
    16. Michelle Alexopoulos, 2007. "Believe it or not! The 1930s was a technologically progressive decade," 2007 Meeting Papers 195, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    17. Dezhbakhsh, Hashem & Levy, Daniel, 1994. "Periodic properties of interpolated time series," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 221-228.
    18. Polachek, Solomon W., 2008. "Earnings Over the Life Cycle: The Mincer Earnings Function and Its Applications," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 4(3), pages 165-272, April.
    19. Katharine G. Abraham & Justine Mallatt, 2022. "Measuring Human Capital," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 36(3), pages 103-130, Summer.
    20. Robert A. Taggart, Jr., 1981. "Secular Patterns in Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 0810, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Construction; Development; Investment; Measures of Development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L74 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Primary Products and Construction - - - Construction
    • O10 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
    • N60 - Economic History - - Manufacturing and Construction - - - General, International, or Comparative

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:usi:wpaper:684. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Fabrizio Becatti (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desieit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.