Over the past three decades, the price of machinery and equipment fell dramatically relative to other prices in advanced and emerging market and developing economies. Using cross-country and sectoral data, we show that the decline in the relative price of tangible tradable capital goods provided a significant impetus to the capital deepening that took place during the same time period. The broad-based decline in the relative price of machinery and equipment, in turn, was driven by the faster productivity growth in the capital goods producing sectors relative to the rest of the economy, and deeper trade integration, which induced domestic producers to lower prices and increase their efficiency. Our findings suggest an additional channel through which rising trade tensions and sluggish productivity could threaten real investment growth going forward.

在过去的三十年中，与先进和新兴市场以及发展中经济体中的其他价格相比，机械和设备的价格大幅下降。使用跨国和部门数据，我们显示，有形可交易资本货物的相对价格下降为同期发生的资本深化提供了重要动力。相反，机械和设备相对价格的普遍下跌是由于资本货物生产部门相对于其他经济部门的生产率增长较快，以及贸易一体化的深入，这促使国内生产商降低了价格。并提高他们的效率。我们的发现表明，贸易紧张局势加剧和生产力低迷可能通过另一种渠道威胁到未来的实际投资增长。