William F. Maloney, World Bank, Chief Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions
William F. Maloney, World Bank, Chief Economist, Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions
CANCELLED - SBBI Seminar: “Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas” (Paper joint with Felipe Valencia Caicedo)
CANCELLED - SBBI Seminar: “Engineering Growth: Innovative Capacity and Development in the Americas” (Paper joint with Felipe Valencia Caicedo)
02 Mar 201812:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Harvard community only
ABSTRACT:
This paper offers the first systematic historical evidence on the role of a central
actor in modern growth theory– the engineer. It collects cross-country and state level
data on the labor share of engineers for the Americas, and county level data on engineering
and patenting for the U.S. during the Second Industrial Revolution. These are robustly
correlated with income today after controlling for literacy, other types of higher
order human capital (e.g. lawyers, physicians), and demand side factors, as well as
after instrumenting engineering using the Land Grant Colleges program. A one standard
deviation increase in engineers in 1880 accounts for a 10-15% increase in US county
income today, while patenting capacity contributes another 10%. We further show engineering
density supported technological adoption and structural transformation across intermediate
time periods. Our estimates help explain why countries with similar levels of income
in 1900, but tenfold differences in engineers diverged in their growth trajectories
over the next century. The results are supported by historical case studies from the
US and Latin America.
Organizer:
BIO:
William F. Maloney is Chief Economist for Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions in the World Bank Group. Previously he was Chief Economist for Trade and Competitiveness and Global Lead on Innovation and Productivity. Prior to the Bank, he was a Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1990-1997) and then joined, working as Lead Economist in the Office of the Chief Economist for Latin America until 2009. From 2009 to 2014, he was Lead Economist in the Development Economics Research Group. From 2011 to 2014 he was Visiting Professor at the University of the Andes and worked closely with the Colombian government on innovation and firm upgrading issues.
Mr. Maloney received his PhD in economics from the University of California Berkeley (1990), his BA from Harvard University (1981), and he studied at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia (1982-83).
He has published on issues related to international trade and finance, developing country labor markets, and innovation and growth as well as several flagship publications of the Latin American division of the Bank, including Informality: Exit and Exclusion. Most recently, he published The innovation paradox: Developing Country Capabilities and the Unrealized Potential of Technological Catch-Up. In addition to publications in academic journals, he coauthored Natural Resources: Neither Curse nor Destiny and Lessons from NAFTA, Does What you Export Matter: In Search of Empirical Guidance for Industrial Policy, as well as several flagship publications of the Latin American division of the Bank, most recently Informality: Exit and Exclusion.