Essays on growth under alternative preference specifications.

详细信息   

• 作者：Alvarez ; Francisco.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2004
• 导师：Turnovsky, Stephen J.
• 毕业院校：University of Washington
• 专业：Economics, General.;Economics, Theory.
• CBH：3131113
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：5383693
• Pages：134

文摘

Our objective is to investigate how alternative assumptions about preferences affect the process of economic growth. To do this, we analyze a neoclassical growth model under three alternative preference specifications: (i) time separable, (ii) catching up with the Joneses and (iii) habit formation. Departing from the time separable specification leads to important differences in the dynamic structure, the adjustment path followed by key economic variables, the correlation patterns implied by the time series generated by the model, and the speed of convergence to the new steady state. In the catching up with the Joneses economy the differences arise from a consumption externality, while in the habit formation economy the difference arises from the fact that agents not only smooth consumption but also its rate of change. In the context of post-WWII Western Europe, we find that non-separabilities are not only a theoretical possibility, but they are also empirically relevant. We exploit the large destruction of capital in continental Europe during World War II, to characterize the transitional dynamics of an economy that begins with a capital stock below its steady state level. We use these regularities as a benchmark to discriminate among competing growth specifications. A model that combines non-separabilities in preferences with a technology that restricts the degree of substitutability between inputs outperforms the widely used AK and Ramsey-Cass-Koopmans specifications. Our results suggest that policy evaluations based in growth models that overlook non-separabilities in preferences or impose strong restrictions on the technological structure might be grossly misleading. Finally, the economic history literature has identified alternative factors, aside from the large destruction of capital, behind post-war success, specifically; the large migrations from agriculture to manufacture that took place in post-war Europe, the contribution of the Marshall Plan combined with the public provision of infrastructure and the surge of intra-European trade. We attempt to quantify the relative magnitude of these factors and highlight their limitations to fully account for the stylized facts of the post-war experience.