On the Matthew effect on Individual Investments into Skills in Arts, Sports and Science

The paper describes the process of capital accumulation subject to the following characteristics: (i) convex returns to (human) capital; (ii) the need to self _nance the investment. This set up is applicable to explain some peculiarities in arts, sports and science, inter alia, the \Matthew effect" coined in Merton (1968) to explain why prominent researchers get disproportional credit for their work. The potential young artist's (or sportsman's or even scientist's) optimal strategies include quitting, or continuing and even expanding one's human capital in a profession. Both outcomes are separated by a threshold level in human capital. In addition, it can be optimal to stay in business although consumption falls and stays at the subsistence level (we call this outcome a \Sisyphus point")

Endogenous Growth of Population and Income Depending on Resource and Knowledge

We consider a three sector demoeconomic model and its interdependence with the accumulation of human capital and resources. The primary sector harvests a renewable resource (fish, corn or wood) which constitutes the input into industrial production, the secondary sector of our economy. Both sectors are always affected by the stock of knowledge. The tertiary sector (schooling, teaching, training, research) is responsible for the accumulation of this stock that represents a public good for all three sectors. Labor is divided up between the three sectors under the assumption of competitive labor markets. A crucial feature of this economy is the importance of public goods--stock of knowledge and the common--which requires collective actions. Absence of collective actions describes the limiting case of hunters and gatherers. The central focus of this study is whether and what kind of interactions between the economy, the population and the environment foster sustainability and, if possible, continuous growth

On the matthew effect on individual investments in skills in arts, sports and science

This paper describes the process of capital accumulation subject to the following characteristics: (i) convex returns to (human) capital and (ii) the need to self-finance investments. Our setup is applicable to some peculiarities in the arts, sports and science, inter alia, coined the Matthew effect in Merton (1968) and explains, e.g., why prominent researchers get disproportional credit for their work. The potential young artist’s (athlete’s or scientist’s) optimal strategies include quitting, or continuing and even expanding one’s human capital in the respective profession. Both outcomes are separated by a threshold level in human capital. In addition, we find that it can be optimal to stay in business although consumption falls and stays at the subsistence level forever (we call this outcome a Sisyphus point). This possibility is also interesting from a theoretical point-of-view, as the optimal control problem may turn abnormal, i.e., the objective does not enter the Hamiltonian

On the Interplay between Resource Extraction and Polluting Emissions in Oligopoly

This paper offers an overview of the literature discussing oligopoly games in which polluti ng emissions are generated by the supply of goods requiring a natural resource as an input. An analytical summary of the main features of the interplay between pollution and resource extraction is then given using a differential game based on the Cournot oligopoly model, in which (i) the bearings on resource preservation of Pigouvian tax rate tailored on emissions are singled out and (ii) the issue of the optimal number of firms in the commons is also addressed