Public expenditure on health and private old-age insurance in an OLG growth model with endogenous fertility: chaotic dynamics under perfect foresight

This study analyses the dynamics of an economy with overlapping generations, endogenous population (fertility and adult mortality), logarithmic preferences and Cobb-Douglas technology. We show that the public provision of health investments and the existence of a private system of old-age insurance (i. e., transfers from children to parents) may cause the birth and death of multiple (three) steady states, deterministic chaos and bubbling phenomena when individuals have perfect foresight. Interestingly, however, we show that periodic dynamics (cycles) or complex dynamics (chaos) and global stability of the economy can endogenously be reconciled in the model, because the rise either in public health investments or transfers from young to old people can have the potential to smooth and ultimately suppress endogenous fluctuations in the cases of existence of both a single steady state or multiple steady states

PAYG pensions, tax-cum-subsidy and A–Pareto efficiency

An overlapping generation’s small open economy with endogenous fertility and time cost of children is analysed to show that the command optimum can be decentralised in a market setting using a PAYG transfer from the young to the old and a tax-cum-subsidy policy (i.e., a linear wage tax on labour income collected and rebated in a lump-sum way within the younger working-age generation). Indeed, the latter instrument stimulates fertility and then reduces the opportunity cost of children. Moreover, by applying the generalised notion of Pareto efficiency introduced by Golosov et al. (2007) in a context of endogenous population, some normative conclusions can be drawn: since only the utilities of those who are actually born are evaluated, we apply the concept of A-efficiency and conclude that when PAYG pensions are in existence, the tax-cum-subsidy policy can effectively be used as an alternative to the child allowance to internalise the externality of children, while also representing an A-Pareto improvement

Efficient bargaining versus right to manage: a stability analysis in a Cournot duopoly with trade unions.

The present study considers a unionised (nonlinear) duopoly with two different labour market institutions, i.e. efficient bargaining (EB) and right to manage (RTM), to analyse product market stability under quantity competition with trade unions. We show that when the preference of unions towards wages is small, (i) the parametric stability region under RTM is higher than under EB, and (ii) a rise in the union power in the Nash bargaining played between firms and unions monotonically increases (resp. reduces) the parametric stability region under RTM (resp. EB). In contrast, when the preference of unions becomes larger, an increase in the union's bargaining power acts: (1) as an economic stabiliser when the union power is small; (2) as an economic de-stabiliser when the union power is high. In addition to established results with regard to equilibrium outcomes, our findings shed some light on the effects of how the labour market regulation affects out-of-equilibrium behaviours in a Cournot duopoly

Economic growth and stability with public PAYG pensions and private intra-family old-age insurance

This paper compares the steady-state and dynamic outcomes of two historical alternatives as a means of old-age insurance, namely, voluntary intra-family transfers from young to old members versus pay-as-you-go public pensions, in a general equilibrium overlapping generations model with children as a desirable good. We show that the shift from a private system of old-age support to public pensions increases the gross domestic product (GDP) per worker. Moreover, although in both cases the steady-state stock of capital, under myopic expectations, may be (globally) unstable depending on the size of the inter-generational transfer, we show that the existence of public pensions rather than private intra-family gifts considerably reduces the possibility of cyclical instability

PAYG pensions and economic cycles: exogenous versus endogenous fertility

In this article we compare the dynamics and long-run outcomes of an overlapping generations closed economy under exogenous and endogenous fertility. Individuals have myopic foresight, and pay-as-you-go (PAYG) public pensions exist. Although large PAYG transfers may cause endogenous fluctuations in both contexts, cyclical instability and deterministic chaos more likely occur when fertility is an economic decision variable. We find that the existence of endogenous fertility and PAYG pensions can explain the occurrence of demographic oscillations that mimic the baby boom and baby bust, in contrast with the unrealistic case of constant population, and also economic cycles. We also show that an increase in the social security contribution rate under endogenous fertility, often advocated as a remedy against the crisis of public pension budgets, may prolong both the phases and size of demographic (economic) cycles around a lower (higher) long-run level of population growth (income per worker) than under exogenous fertility

The codetermined firm in a Cournot duopoly: a stability analysis

This paper aims to study the stability issue in a Cournot duopoly with codetermined firms. We show that when both firms codetermine employment together with decentralised employees' representatives, a rise in wages acts as an economic (de)stabiliser when the wage is fairly (high) low, while under profit maximisation a rise in wages always acts as a stabilising device because the parametric stability region monotonically increases with the wage in such a case. Moreover, a rise in the union's bargaining power has a de-stabilising effect, except when the wage is low and the firm power is already high. Therefore, under codetermination a change either in the wage or firm power in the Nash bargaining plays an ambiguous role on stability. We also show with numerical simulations that complex dynamics can also occur

Central Sensitization in the Bladder Pain Syndrome

Introduction: Nociceptive hyper-excitability and Central Sensitization (CS), have been identified as responsible for maintaining pain in several chronic neuropathic pain conditions, among which Bladder pain syndrome (BPS). Aim of the present study was to evaluate in patients with BPS the correlation between CS and the following items pain duration, the number of other CS related diseases, the number of tried treatments for pain and of diagnostic investigations before the proper diagnosis and to identify the cut-off value of the pain delays for predicting the worsening of sensitization. Method: Fifty-eight consecutively BPS outpatients were recruited from 2014 to 2016. They were submitted to Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI), Overactive Bladder Questionnaire (OAB-8v) and visual analogic scale (VAS) for pain. We used a descriptive analysis (mean, standard deviation, range) and Spearman and Kendall test coefficient as correlation index. One-way ANOVA test was used for the comparison between groups. P-value less than 0.05 were required for statistical significance. We used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis to retrospectively analyze the association between the years of the disease and pathological values o of CSI. Results: The patients were observed after 13.1 + 11.0 years by the onset of The CSI score was 69.7+15.8. Resulting significantly lower in patients with BPS onset in the last year the correlation between CSI and the disease duration was significant. The number of previous investigations was 3.7 + 2.8while the number of previous treatments for chronic pain was 5.9 + 3.1, resulting significantly related to CSI score. The OAB-8v was 21 + 7.5 (range 2-34). The worsening of the symptoms related to the overactive bladder at OAB-8v was related to a greater CS. After 1,5 years of the onset of the pain the CS show a progressive worsening. The mean number of other diseases (fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety or depression, migraine, neck injury, Panic Disorder Attack, chronic fatigue syndrome, temporomandibular joint syndrome, restless leg syndrome, multiple chemical sensitivities) associated to CS was 2.8+1.9. The correlation between the number of diseases associated to CS and the years of disease resulted significant. Conclusion: Patients with long lasting pelvic pain show high levels of CS, and other central sensitivity syndromes (CSS) together to worsening of overactive bladder symptoms, and increasing number of used drugs. The delay of diagnosis is related to a greater sensitization process