Formal Education and Public Knowledge

In this paper, I examine the transitional dynamics of an economy populated by individuals who split their time between acquiring a formal education, producing final goods, and innovating. The paper has two objectives: (i) uncovering the macroeconomic circumstances that favored the rise of formal education; (ii) to reconcile the remarkable growth of the education sector with the constancy of other key macroeconomic variables, such as the interest rate, the consumption-output ratio, and the growth rate of per capita income (Kaldor facts). The transitional dynamics of human capital growth models, such as Lucas (1988), would attribute the arrival of education to the diminishing marginal productivity of physical capital. Conversely, the model proposed here suggests that it is the rate of learning that catches up with the rate of return on physical capital. As technical knowledge expands, the rate of return on education increases, and this induces individuals to stay longer in school. The model's transitional paths are matched with long run U.S. educational and economic data.Public Knowledge, Learning Rate, Transitional Dynamics, Calibration.

Human Capital Dispersion and Incentives to Innovate

Do policies that alter the allocation of human capital across individuals affect the innovation capacity of an economy? To answer this question I extend Romer’s growth model to allow for individual heterogeneity. I find that the value of an invention rises with equality. If skills and talents are evenly distributed, inventions are more widely adopted in production and users are willing to bid a higher price. Therefore more inequality is associated with a larger share of the population employed in the business of invention. But, somehow surprisingly, the analysis suggests that although an equal society values inventions more than an unequal one, it may produce fewer of them, or, equivalently, generates inventions of a lower quality. A calibration of the model suggests a weak, but positive, relationship between the rate of innovation and inequality. Finally, in a two-country world, in which ideas, individuals, and capital circulate without restrictions, I find that the unequal economy tends to specialize into the business of innovation. The main implication of the analysis is that an observed difference in the innovation rate between two countries with similar levels of education can hardly be attributed to variations in domestic human capital policies.human capital, inequality, innovation

Human Capital Dispersion and Incentives to Innovate

Do policies that alter the allocation of human capital across individuals affect the innovation capacity of an economy? To answer this question, I extend Romer's (1990) growth model to allow for individual heterogeneity. I find that the value of an invention rises with equality. If skills and talents are evenly distributed, inventions are more widely adopted in production and users are willing to bid a higher price. Therefore, more equality is associated with a larger share of the population employed in the business of invention. However, inventors of an equal society are not as creative as those of an unequal one. As a result an inverted-U curve relating inequality and the innovation rate emerges, indicating that departures from extreme forms of equality or inequality are growth-enhancing. I discuss evidence that agrees with the main implications of the analysis, namely that the market size and the number of inventors are negatively affected by inequality. Finally, a calibration exercise suggests that in recent decades the U.S. has been in the ascending portion of the inequality-growth curve.human capital, inequality, innovation

Dynamic Programming, Maximum Principle and Vintage Capital

We present an application of the Dynamic Programming (DP) and of the Maximum Principle (MP) to solve an optimization over time when the production function is linear in the stock of capital (Ak model). Two views of capital are considered. In one, which is embraced by the great majority of macroeconomic models, capital is homogeneous and depreciates at a constant exogenous rate. In the other view each piece of capital has its own finite productive life cycle (vintage capital). The interpretation of the time patterns of macroaggregates is quite different between the two cases. A technological shock generates an oscillatory movement in the time pattern of per capita output when capital has a vintage structure; conversely an instantaneous adjustment with no transitional dynamics occurs when capital is homogeneous. From a methodological point of view it emerges that the DP approach delivers sharper results than the MP approach (for instance it delivers a closed form solution for the optimal investment strategy) under slacker parameter restrictions. Cross-time and cross-country data on investments, income, and consumption drawn from the Penn World Table version 6.2 are used to evaluate the vintage and standard Ak model.Vintage Capital; Penn World Table; Maximum Principle; Hilbert Space

A dynamic analysis of nash equilibria in search models with fiat money

We analyze the rise in the acceptability fiat money in a Kiyotaki–Wright economy by developing a method that can determine dynamic Nash equilibria for a class of search models with genuine heterogeneous agents. We also address open issues regarding the stability properties of pure strategy equilibria and the presence of multiple equilibria, numerical experiments illustrate the liquidity conditions that favor the transition from partial to full acceptance of fiat money, and the effects of inflationary shocks on production, liquidity, and trade

« Retrouver l’esprit industriel du capitalisme » : de la recherche d’actionnaires patients à celle d’une gouvernance partagée

Le gouvernement, fort de la loi visant à reconquérir l’économie réelle, dite loi Florange, qui institue la possibilité de votes doubles pour les actionnaires patients (conservant leurs actions au moins deux ans), vient de prendre deux décisions significatives en augmentant temporairement sa participation au capital de Renault et d’Air France afin d’éviter qu’en assemblée générale cette possibilité de votes doubles soit rejetée par la majorité qualifiée retenue dans la loi. L’objectif affiché par le Ministre de l’Economie dans une tribune du journal Le Monde est d’aider à « retrouver l’esprit industriel du capitalisme » en privilégiant les engagements à long terme de manière à promouvoir des investissements porteurs d’une croissance solide. Cette initiative conduit à reprendre la discussion sur les conditions de gouvernance des sociétés par actions (‘corporations’) (Pollin, 2004, 2006), à examiner les dérives dont elle a pu être l’objet et les remèdes qui ont pu et pourraient dans l’avenir y être apportés, impliquant de savoir ce que peut en attendre le gouvernement. [Premiers paragraphes

Dynamic Programming, Maximum Principle and Vintage Capital

We present an application of the Dynamic Programming (DP) and of the Maximum Principle (MP) to solve an optimization over time when the production function is linear in the stock of capital (Ak model). Two views of capital are considered. In one, which is embraced by the great majority of macroeconomic models, capital is homogeneous and depreciates at a constant exogenous rate. In the other view each piece of capital has its own finite productive life cycle (vintage capital). The interpretation of the time patterns of macroaggregates is quite different between the two cases. A technological shock generates an oscillatory movement in the time pattern of per capita output when capital has a vintage structure; conversely an instantaneous adjustment with no transitional dynamics occurs when capital is homogeneous. From a methodological point of view it emerges that the DP approach delivers sharper results than the MP approach (for instance it delivers a closed form solution for the optimal investment strategy) under slacker parameter restrictions. Cross-time and cross-country data on investments, income, and consumption drawn from the Penn World Table version 6.2 are used to evaluate the vintage and standard Ak model

Asset dynamics, liquidity and inequality in decentralized markets

The Kiyotakiand Wright model has exerted a considerable influence on the monetary search literature. We argue that the model also delivers important insights into abroader range of macroeconomic and development issues. The analysis studies howmarket frictions and the liquidity of assets affect the distribution of income. Experimentsillustrate how the economy adjusts to shocks to asset returns and to the matchingtechnology. They also deal with long-run transition. An experiment interprets thereversal of fortune hypothesis as a situation in which an economy with a low-returnasset takes over a similar economy with a high-return asset