113 research outputs found
Volatile public spending in a model of money and sustainable growth
No full textIn a model where seignorage provides the financing instrument for the government’s budget, public spending volatility has an adverse effect on long-run growth. This negative relationship arises because the incidence of volatility in this type of public policy is responsible for higher average money growth, thus induces individuals to devote less time/effort towards capital accumulation. Another implication of the model is that policy variability provides a possible argument behind the positive correlation between inflation and inflation variability.Growth, Inflation, Seignorage, Volatility
On the Joint Dynamics of Pollution and Capital Accumulation*
No full textThe current paper offers a new explanation on the emergence of threshold effects and multiple equilibria, for which the high (low) income equilibrium is associated with high (low) environmental quality. This new explanation rests on endogenous technological choice in the presence of environmental taxation – an idea whose foundations find strong support from existing empirical evidence. Thus, the interactions between environmental policy and technology choice, within a framework that accounts for the health effects of pollution, can explain some of the observed differences in income, life expectancy and environmental quality among countries.Pollution; Capital accumulation; Endogenous longevity; Multiple equilibria
On stabilisation policy: Are there conflicting implications for growth and welfare?
No full textThe paper examines the choices for fiscal stabilisation policy that maximise aggregate welfare and long-run growth. This is done in the context of a stochastic dynamic general equilibrium model where premeditated learning provides the engine of human capital accumulation and growth, and technology shocks provide the impulse source of fluctuations. Contrary to existing conventional wisdom, the results indicate a conflict between the two policy objectives: the choice of no stabilisation, associated with maximum growth, is also associated with minimum welfare. Welfare maximisation requires a full stabilisation response to the occurrence of business cycles.money; growth; volatility.
Intergenerational complementarities in education, endogenous public policy, and the relation between growth and volatility
No full textWe construct an overlapping generations model in which parents vote on the tax rate that determines publicly provided education and offspring choose their effort in learning activities. The technology governing the accumulation of human capital allows these decisions to be strategic complements. In the presence of coordination failure, indeterminacy and, possibly, growth volatility emerge. This indeterminacy can be eliminated by an institutional mechanism that commits to a minimum level of public education provision. Given that, in the latter case, the economy moves along a uniquely determined balanced growth path, we argue that such structural differences can account for the negative correlation between volatility and growth.Human Capital, Intergenerational Complementarities, Economic Growth, Endogenous Taxation, Volatility
Intergenerational Complementarities in Education and the Relationship between Growth and Volatility
No full textWe construct an overlapping generations model in which parents vote on the tax rate that determines publicly provided education and offspring choose their effort in learning activities. The technology governing the accumulation of human capital allows these decisions to be strategic complements. In the presence of coordination failure, indeterminacy and, possibly, growth cycles emerge. In the absence of coordination failure, the economy moves along a uniquely determined balanced growth path. We argue that such structural differences can account for the negative correlation between volatility and growth.Human Capital; Economic Growth; Volatility
Growth and Demographic Change: Do Environmental Factors Matter?
No full textWe incorporate health-damaging pollution into a three period overlapping generations model in which life expectancy, fertility and economic growth are all endogenous. We show that environmental factors can cause significant changes to the economy’s demographics. In particular, the entrepreneurial choice of less polluting production processes, induced by environmental policy, can account for such demographic changes as higher longevity and lower fertility rates.Economic growth; Pollution; Demography
Pollution Abatement as a Source of Stabilisation and Long-Run Growth
No full textIn a two-period overlapping generations model with production, we consider the damaging impact of environmental degradation on health and, consequently, life expectancy. The government’s involvement on policies of environmental preservation proves crucial for both the economy’s short-term dynamics and its long-term prospects. Particularly, an active policy of pollution abatement emerges as an important engine of long-run economic growth. Furthermore, by eliminating the occurrence of limit cycles, pollution abatement is also a powerful source of stabilisation.Growth; Cycles; Environmental quality; Pollution abatement
Inflation, volatile public spending, and endogenously sustained growth
No full textInternational audienceI construct a model of an economy whose government finances volatile public spending via money creation. The model jointly accounts for the emergence of some well-known empirical observations. Specifically, it predicts a negative correlation between output growth and policy volatility. Furthermore, given that both the mean and the variance of the inflation rate are elevated by fluctuations in public spending, the model provides a novel theoretical justification for the simultaneous negative correlation of long-run growth with both average inflation and inflation variability. The model also supports the view that policy volatility reduces social welfare
Environmental Quality, Life Expectancy, and Sustainable Economic Growth
No full textI construct a model of a growing economy with pollution. The analysis of the model shows that the interactions between capital accumulation, endogenous longevity and environmental quality determine both the long-run growth rate of the economy and the pattern of convergence (i.e., monotonic or cyclical) towards the balanced growth path. I argue that such interactions can provide a possible explanatory factor behind the, empirically observed, negative correlation of longrun growth with its short-term cycles. Furthermore, the model may capture the observed pattern whereby economic growth and mortality rates appear to be negatively related in the long-run, but positively related in the short-run.Environmental quality; longevity; economic growth; cycles
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