Why Does Capital Flow to Rich States?
Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, Bent Sorensen, Ariell Reshef, and Oved Yosha
,
4
(
92
)
The Review of Economics and Statistics
769-783
November
2010
Abstract
The magnitude, and even the direction, of net international capital flows does not fit neoclassical models well; in particular, rich countries attract net flows that should go to poor, capital scarce countries according to the models. The 50 U.S. states comprise an integrated capital market with very low barriers to capital flows, which makes them an ideal testing ground for neoclassical models. We develop a simple frictionless open economy model with perfectly diversified ownership of capital and find that capital flows between the U.S. states are consistent with the model.