NBER Publications by Paul A. Johnson

Labor force participation of men over age 50 fell sharply in the UK between the early 1970s and early 1990s. Despite the fact that the state retirement pension does not become available to men until age 65, half of men aged 60-64 were economically inactive in the mid 1990s. The main element of the state retirement pension is flat rate, and for most people is unaffected by any potential contributions made after age 60. Additional amounts of the earnings related component, SERPS, are earned as a result of extra contribu- tions. Overall the state retirement pension system offers no incentives for people to retire early. However, other benefits are available to people before the age of 65. Once the age of 60 is reached there is no availability for work test for receipt of means-tested benef...

This paper reexamines the ability of the Solow-type growth models to explain the pattern of cross-country growth rates. Recent authors, most notably Mankiw, Romer and Weil [1990], have argued that differences in national growth rates are compatible with the view that each country has access to a common, neoclassical aggregate production function. Such models imply that, conditional on population growth and savings rates, disparate economies are converging over time to the same level of per capita output. We argue that cross-country growth is better explained by a model of local versus global convergence. Countries converge locally in the sense that economies with similar initial conditions tend to converge to one another. However, we find little evidence of convergence across economies wi...