Non-Catastrophic Endogenous Growth with Pollution and Abatement

When there are pollution externalities the competitive equilibrium is not Pareto-optimal nor environmentally sustainable even if abatement activities are endogenously decided. In this paper we introduce the possibility of an ecological catastrophe like the one predicted by the global climate change, imposing the constraint of an upper-limit to the pollutants stock. We characterize the socially optimal solution and study conditions for the sustainability of the balanced growth path. We find a trade-off between environmental quality and growth. The rate of growth depends negatively on the weight of environmental care in the utility function and positively on the population growth rate. We show that the emissions reduction recommended in the Kioto protocol is an appropriate policy to avoid the ecological catastrophe and ensure global efficiency and positive long-run growth.Environment, Externalities, Optimal Growth, Ecological Catastrophe, Sustainability.

Closed-Form Solution for a Two-Sector Endogenous Growth Model with two Controls

In this paper we show a method for solving in closed form a particular family of four-dimension non-linear modified Hamiltonian dynamic systems, with two states and two co-states and two co-states, which arises from a two-sector endogenous growth model where the physical capital stock is combined with a renewable natural capital stock as essential inputs for productionNon-Linear Dynamic System, Analytical Solution, Endogenous Growth, Transitional Dynamics

Endogenous Growth, Capital Utilization and Depreciation

We study the one sector model of growth when a linear production technology is combined with adjustment costs and a technology for capital maintenance. Agents are allowed to under-use the installed capital and to vary the depreciation rate. This economy decides endogenously how much resources devotes to the accumulation of new capital and how much to maintenance and repair activities. We find as striking results that the long-run depreciation and capital utilization rates are positively related to the population growth rate, and that both depend negatively on the initial conditions. The long-run growth rate appears positively correlated with the depreciation rate.Maintenance; Depreciation; Capital Utilization; Endogenous Growth

Renewable Natural Resources and Endogenous Growth

We study a two-sector endogenous growth model where a single consumption good is obtained using a renewable resource in combination with physical capital. Both inputs are essential for production and technical substitutes. In this context we analyze the issues of sustainability, long-run and short-run growth as well as convergence, associated with the competitive equilibrium solution trajectories. We show that efficiency, long-run growth and sustainability are both compatible in a natural resource based production economy.Natural Capital, Endogenous Growth, Sustainability, Convergence

Black hole thermodynamical entropy

As early as 1902, Gibbs pointed out that systems whose partition function diverges, e.g. gravitation, lie outside the validity of the Boltzmann-Gibbs (BG) theory. Consistently, since the pioneering Bekenstein-Hawking results, physically meaningful evidence (e.g., the holographic principle) has accumulated that the BG entropy $S_{BG}$ of a $(3+1)$ black hole is proportional to its area $L^2$ ($L$ being a characteristic linear length), and not to its volume $L^3$. Similarly it exists the \emph{area law}, so named because, for a wide class of strongly quantum-entangled $d$-dimensional systems, $S_{BG}$ is proportional to $\ln L$ if $d=1$, and to $L^{d-1}$ if $d>1$, instead of being proportional to $L^d$ ($d \ge 1$). These results violate the extensivity of the thermodynamical entropy of a $d$-dimensional system. This thermodynamical inconsistency disappears if we realize that the thermodynamical entropy of such nonstandard systems is \emph{not} to be identified with the BG {\it additive} entropy but with appropriately generalized {\it nonadditive} entropies. Indeed, the celebrated usefulness of the BG entropy is founded on hypothesis such as relatively weak probabilistic correlations (and their connections to ergodicity, which by no means can be assumed as a general rule of nature). Here we introduce a generalized entropy which, for the Schwarzschild black hole and the area law, can solve the thermodynamic puzzle.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in EPJ

Solution to nonlinear MHDS arising from optimal growth problems

In this paper we propose a method for solving in closed form a general class of nonlinear modified Hamiltonian dynamic systems (MHDS). This method is used to analyze the intertemporal optimization problem from endogenous growth theory, especially the cases with two controls and one state variable. We use the exact solutions to study both uniqueness and indeterminacy of the optimal path when the dynamic system has not a well-defined isolated steady state. With this approach we avoid the linearization process, as well as the reduction of dimension technique usually applied when the dynamic system offers a continuum of steady states or no steady state at all.Nonlinearity Hamiltonian Closed form Growth Transitional dynamics

RENEWABLE NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENDOGENOUS GROWTH

We study the sustainability of long-run growth in a two-sector economy where a renewable natural resource is exploited under private property rights. We obtain short- and long-run growth trajectories in closed form, examine transitional dynamics, and characterize convergence properties. We find conditions for sustainable long-run growth, which depend on the harvesting rate, and show that the speed of convergence decreases during transition. We identify a stronger version of Hartwick s rule and analyze parameter dependences for endogenous variables. Economic growth relies less on abundance or scarcity of natural resources than on the way they are managed.

Economic and statistical measurement of physical capital: From theory to practice

The standard measurements of capital and depreciation are statistical measures based on assumptions about the average service life of capital goods, which are accumulated according to the perpetual inventory method. The purpose of this paper is to obtain a true economic measure of capital stock according to the prescriptions of the neoclassical theory. In this way, we develop an alternative method based on the equations that solve the dynamic optimization problem of the firm, yielding an economic estimation based on indicators of profitability, such as the distributed profits and the Tobin's q ratio. Thus, this method enables us to endogenously calculate the variables' rate of depreciation and capital stock. We apply this procedure to the Spanish economy, getting the series of an economic measure of depreciation and the economic value of capital stock. Our results show an economic depreciation rate that fluctuates around the statistical rate. Moreover, we get two time profiles for the economic and statistical capital stocks that differ significantly from each other

Multiplicity, overtaking and convergence in the lucas two-sector growth model

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