Growth accelerations and takeoffs: Is there a role for capital accumulation?

Abstract

This paper investigates the extent to which the determinants of worldwide accelerations in GDP per capita growth since the 1950s are sensitive to changes in the penalty parameter of the HP filter. When using values for the penalty parameter typically assumed consistent with annual data, the paper finds that physical capital accumulation exerts a positive effect on the probability that a country may experience a growth acceleration. Furthermore, this effect tends to strengthen as the size of the penalty parameter of the HP filter decreases. However, this result is found to hold only for those countries that are abundant in physical capital.