The Global Financial Resource Curse

50 Pages Posted: 3 Mar 2020 Last revised: 16 Aug 2020

See all articles by Gianluca Benigno

Gianluca Benigno

Federal Reserve Bank of New York; London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics

Luca Fornaro

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI); Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Barcelona GSE)

Martin Wolf

University of Vienna - Department of Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); University of St. Gallen; University of Bonn

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Date Written: February 2020

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, the United States has received large capital flows from developing countries - a phenomenon known as the global saving glut - and experienced a productivity growth slowdown. Motivated by these facts, we provide a model connecting international financial integration and global productivity growth. The key feature is that the tradable sector is the engine of growth of the economy. Capital flows from developing countries to the United States boost demand for U.S. non-tradable goods, inducing a reallocation of U.S. economic activity from the tradable sector to the non-tradable one. In turn, lower profits in the tradable sector lead firms to cut back investment in innovation. Since innovation in the United States determines the evolution of the world technological frontier, the result is a drop in global productivity growth. This effect, which we dub the global financial resource curse, can help explain why the global saving glut has been accompanied by subdued investment and growth, in spite of low global interest rates.

Keywords: Bretton Woods II, Capital Flows, export-led growth, global productivity growth, global saving glut, International financial integration, low global interest rates, U.S. productivity growth slowdown

JEL Classification: E44, F21, F41, F43, F62, O24, O31

Suggested Citation

Benigno, Gianluca and Benigno, Gianluca and Fornaro, Luca and Wolf, Martin and Wolf, Martin and Wolf, Martin and Wolf, Martin, The Global Financial Resource Curse (February 2020). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP14441, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3547374

Gianluca Benigno (Contact Author)

Federal Reserve Bank of New York ( email )

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London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) - Department of Economics

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Luca Fornaro

Universitat Pompeu Fabra - Centre de Recerca en Economia Internacional (CREI) ( email )

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Barcelona, 08005
Spain

Barcelona Graduate School of Economics (Barcelona GSE) ( email )

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Spain

Martin Wolf

University of Vienna - Department of Economics ( email )

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Austria

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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University of St. Gallen ( email )

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University of Bonn ( email )

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Germany

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