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Journal ArticleDOI

The mathematical theory of saving

01 Dec 1928-The Economic Journal (ECONOMIC JOURNAL)-Vol. 38, Iss: 152, pp 543-559
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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a fully specified model of long-run growth in which knowledge is assumed to be an input in production that has increasing marginal productivity, which is essentially a competitive equilibrium model with endogenous technological change.
Abstract: This paper presents a fully specified model of long-run growth in which knowledge is assumed to be an input in production that has increasing marginal productivity. It is essentially a competitive equilibrium model with endogenous technological change. In contrast to models based on diminishing returns, growth rates can be increasing over time, the effects of small disturbances can be amplified by the actions of private agents, and large countries may always grow faster than small countries. Long-run evidence is offered in support of the empirical relevance of these possibilities.

18,200 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: This article extended these models to include tax- financed government services that affect production or utility, and showed that growth and saving rates fall with an increase in utility-type expenditures; the two rates rise initially with productive government expenditures but subsequently decline.
Abstract: One strand of endogenous-growth models assumes constant returns to a broad concept of capital. I extend these models to include tax- financed government services that affect production or utility. Growth and saving rates fall with an increase in utility-type expenditures; the two rates rise initially with productive government expenditures but subsequently decline. With an income tax, the decentralized choices of growth and saving are "too low," but if the production function is Cobb-Douglas, the optimizing government still satisfies a natural condition for productive efficiency. Empirical evidence across countries supports some of the hypotheses about government and growth.

5,497 citations

Book
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an appropriate way to examine the economics of climate change, given the unique scientific and economic challenges posed, and suggest implications for emissions targets, policy instruments, and global action.
Abstract: �Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are exter nalities and represent the biggest market failure the world has seen. We all produce emissions, people around the world are already suffering from past emissions, and current emissions will have potentially catastrophic impacts in the future. Thus, these emissions are not ordinary, localized externalities. Risk on a global scale is at the core of the issue. These basic features of the problem must shape the economic analy sis we bring to bear; failure to do this will, and has, produced approaches to policy that are pro foundly misleading and indeed dangerous. The purpose of this lecture is to set out what I think is an appropriate way to examine the economics of climate change, given the unique scientific and economic challenges posed, and to suggest implications for emissions targets, policy instruments, and global action. The sub ject is complex and very wide-ranging. It is a subject of vital importance but one in which the economics is fairly young. A central challenge is to provide the economic tools necessary as

3,162 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: For example, this article found that people think they were less happy in the past and will be happier in the future, because they project current aspirations to be the same throughout the life cycle while income grows.
Abstract: Material aspirations are initially fairly similar among income groups; consequently more income brings greater happiness. Over the life cycle, however, aspirations grow along with income, and undercut the favourable effect of income growth on happiness, although the cross-sectional happiness-income difference persists. People think they were less happy in the past and will be happier in the future, because they project current aspirations to be the same throughout the life cycle, while income grows. But since aspirations actually grow along with income, experienced happiness is systematically different from projected happiness. Consequently, choices turn out to be based on false expectations.

2,388 citations


Cites background from "The mathematical theory of saving"

  • ...De la Croix (1998), building on Ramsey (1928), presents a formal economic model of well-being, using this approach....

    [...]

Posted Content
TL;DR: The relationship between economic growth and environmental quality is not fixed along a country's development path and it may change as a country reaches a level of income at which people can demand and afford a more efficient infrastructure and a cleaner environment as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Will the world be able to sustain economic growth indefinitely without running into resource constraints or despoiling the environment beyond repair? What is the relationship between steadily increasing incomes and environmental quality? This paper builds on the author's earlier work (1993), in which he argued that the relationship between economic growth and environmental quality – whether inverse or direct -- is not fixed along a country's development path. Indeed, he hypothesized, it may change as a country reaches a level of income at which people can demand and afford a more efficient infrastructure and a cleaner environment. This implied inverted-U relationship between environmental degradation and economic growth came to be known as the "Environmental Kuznets Curve," by analogy with the income-inequality relationship postulated by Kuznets (1965, 1966). The objective of this paper is to critically review, synthesize and interpret the literature on the relationship between economic growth and environment. This literature has followed two distinct but related strands of research: an empirical strand of ad hoc specifications and estimations of a reduced form equation, relating an environmental impact indicator to income per capita; and a theoretical strand of macroeconomic models of interaction between environmental degradation and economic growth, including optimal growth, endogenous growth and overlapping generations models. The author concludes that the macroeconomic models generally support the empirical findings of the Environmental Kuznets Curve literature. He suggests further empirical investigation related to the assumption of additive separability, as well as development of additional macroeconomic models that allow for a more realistic role for government.

2,378 citations


Cites background from "The mathematical theory of saving"

  • ...” More recent extensions of these Ramsey models, including Selden and Song (1995) and Tahvonen and Kuuluvainen (1994) are more...

    [...]