The New Kaldor Facts: Ideas, Institutions, Population, and Human Capital

31 Pages Posted: 20 Jun 2009 Last revised: 31 Mar 2023

See all articles by Charles I. Jones

Charles I. Jones

Stanford Graduate School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Paul M. Romer

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Date Written: June 2009

Abstract

In 1961, Nicholas Kaldor used his list of six "stylized" facts both to summarize the patterns that economists had discovered in national income accounts and to shape the growth models that they were developing to explain them. Redoing this exercise today, nearly fifty years later, shows how much progress we have made. In contrast to Kaldor's facts, which revolved around a single state variable, physical capital, our six updated facts force consideration of four far more interesting variables: ideas, institutions, population, and human capital. Dynamic models have uncovered subtle interactions between these variables and generated important insights about such big questions as: Why has growth accelerated? Why are there gains from trade?

Suggested Citation

Jones, Charles I. and Romer, Paul M., The New Kaldor Facts: Ideas, Institutions, Population, and Human Capital (June 2009). NBER Working Paper No. w15094, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1422972

Charles I. Jones (Contact Author)

Stanford Graduate School of Business ( email )

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HOME PAGE: http://www.stanford.edu/~chadj

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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Paul M. Romer

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

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United States

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