This paper explores how changes in energy intensity and the switch to renewables can boost economic growth. To do so, we implement a dynamic panel data approach on a sample of 134 countries over the period 1960 to 2010. We incorporate a set of control variables, related to human and physical capital, socio-economic conditions, policies and institutions, which have been widely used in the literature on economic growth. Given the current state of technology, improving energy intensity is growth enhancing at the worldwide level. Moreover, conditional to energy intensity, moving from fossil fuels to frontier renewables (wind, solar, wave or geothermic) is also positively correlated with growth. Our results are robust to the specification of the dynamic panel with respect to alternative approaches (pooled OLS, within group or system GMM), and to alternative specifications (accounting for heterogeneity across countries, a set of institutional factors, and other technical aspects).

This paper studies the impact of the information and communication technologies (ICT) on economic growth in Spain using a dynamic general equilibrium approach. Contrary to previous works, we use a production function with six different capital inputs, three of them corresponding to ICT assets. Calibration of the model suggests that the contribution of ICT to Spanish productivity growth is very relevant, whereas the contribution of non-ICT capital has been even negative. Additionally, over the sample period 1995-2002, we find a negative TFP and productivity growth. These results together aim at the hypothesis that the Spanish economy could be placed within the productivity paradox.

a b s t r a c tThis paper studies the impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on US economic growth using a dynamic general equilibrium approach. A production function with six different capital inputs is used, three of them corresponding to ICT assets and the other three to non-ICT assets. The technological change embedded in hardware equipment is found to be the main leading non-neutral force in US productivity growth, accounting for about one quarter of total growth during the period 1980-2004. As a whole, ICTspecific technological change accounts for about 35% of total growth in labor productivity.

E13, O30, O40, O47,

The number of diesel cars in Europe has grown significantly over the last three decades, a process usually known as dieselization, and they now account for nearly 40% of the cars on the road. We build on a dynamic general equilibrium model that makes a distinction between diesel motor and gasoline motor vehicles and calibrate it for main European countries. Firstly, we find that the dieselization can be explained by a change in consumer preferences paired with the productivity gains from the specialization of the European automotive industry. Secondly, the lenient tax policies in favor of diesel fuel help to explain the rebound effect in road traffic. Finally, from a normative standpoint, the model suggests that a tax discrimination based on the carbon content of each fuel (higher for diesel relative to gasoline) would actually be more effective in curbing $${\text {CO}}_{2}$$CO2 emissions rather than a tax based on fuel efficiency. Based on the existing studies, we also document that other external costs of diesel are always higher than those of gasoline, and the Pigouvian tax rates should reflect this aspect. This recommendation is radically different to the existing fuel tax design in most European countries.