Using data from the United Nations Comparison Project and the Penn World Table, we find that machinery and equipment investment has a strong association with growth: over l9 &)?l95 each percent of GDP invested in equipment is associated with an increase in GDP growth of 1/3 a percentage point per year. This is a much stronger association than found between growth and any of the other components of investment. A variety of considerations suggest that this association is causal, that higher equipment investment drives faster growth, and that the social return to equipment investment in well functioning market economies is on the order of 30 percent per year.

The recent literature on the sources of economic growth has challenged the traditional growth accounting of the Solow model, which assigned a relatively limited role to capital deepening. As part of this literature, De Long and Summers have argued in two papers that the link between equipment investment and economic growth across countries is stronger than can be generated by the Solow model. Accordingly, they conclude that such investment yields important external benefits. However, their analysis suffers from two shortcomings. First, De Long and Summers have not conducted any formal statistical tests of the Solow model. Second, even their informal rejection of the model fails to survive reasonable tests of robustness. We formally test the predictions of the Solow model using De Long and Summers' data. Our results cast doubt on the existence of externalities to equipment investment. In particular, we find that the empirical link between investment and growth in the OECD countries is fully consistent with the Solow model. Moreover, for De Long and Summers' full sample, the evidence of excess returns to equipment investment is tenuous.

While production of ICT equipment plays a subordinate role for economic growth in most of these countries, they do benefit from capital deepening arising from falling prices of ICT equipment. Adapting established growth accounting approaches to the data environment of low-income countries, we quantify the growth impacts of absorption of ICT equipment, finding that ICT-related capital deepening contributed 0.2 percentage points to growth in low-income countries, and 0.3 percentage points in low-middle-income countries. The latter is about half the level typically found for industrialized countries.

In several articles published in the 1990s, de Long and Summers argued that investment in producer durables had a high propensity to generate externalities in using industries, resulting in a systematic and substantial divergence between its social and private return. They maintained, moreover, that this was not the case for structures investment. Together, these claims constitute the equipment hypothesis. This paper explores the degree to which the history of U.S. economic growth in the twentieth century supports it.

This volume presents studies to explain international investment behaviour and assess its impact on growth and jobs. The authors also examine policy measures to reverse the climate of low investment that has characterised recent years

The fourth installment of the Fisher Investments On series is a comprehensive guide to understanding and analyzing investment opportunities within the global Industrials sector. Fisher Investments on Industrials can help you quickly become familiar with this highly diversified sector, how the sector is segmented by industries, their respective macroeconomic drivers, and the challenges facing Industrials firms. This reliable guide skillfully addresses how to determine optimal times to invest in Industrials stocks, and which industries and sub-industries have the potential to perform well in various environments. The global Industrials sector is complex, including a variety of sub-industries and countries—each with their own unique characteristics. Using the framework found here, you'll discover how to identify these differences, spot opportunities, and avoid major pitfalls. Fisher Investments on Industrials: Discuses industry fundamentals, drivers, attributes, and potential challenges Profiles each of the Industrials sector's sub-industries, broken down by industry group: Capital Goods, Transportation, and Commercial Services & Supplies Delves into a top-down investment methodology as well as individual security analysis led with in-depth insights and expert advice, Fisher Investments on Industrials provides a framework for understanding this sector and can help you make better investment decisions—now and in the future. With this book as your guide, you can quickly gain a global perspective of investing with regard to Industrials. For more information visit www.industrials.fisherinvestments.com