Does observational equivalence always hold in hyperbolic discounting models?

Observation equivalence holds in the hyperbolic discounting models such as Laibson (1996), Barro (1999), and Krusell et al (2002). We study a hyperbolic discounting model where the policy function cannot be replicated by a geometric discounting model. Under the logarithmic utility and Cobb-Douglas production, we obtain the explicit solution for consumer's consumption-saving decision. Different from the literatures of exponential discounting, our model shows that the habit persistence affects consumer''s consumption-saving decision. Therefore, observational equivalence does not hold in our hyperbolic discounting model.Consumption function

Foreign Aid Reduces Labor Supply and Capital Accumulation

In an optimal growth model with foreign aid, foreign borrowing, and endogenous leisure-and-consumption choices, it is shown that a permanent rise in foreign aid reduces long-run capital accumulation and labor supply, increases long-run consumption, and has no effect on long-run foreign borrowing.

Fiscal Federalism, Public Capital Formation, and Endogenous Growth

This paper extends the Barro (1990) growth model with one aggregate government spending and one flat income tax to include federal and local public consumption, federal and local public capital formation, federal and local taxes, and federal transfers to locality. It derives the rate of endogenous growth and examines how the growth rate and welfare respond to changes in federal taxes, local taxes, and federal transfers.Fiscal federalism, Public expenditures, Public capital, Taxes, Federal transfers, Endogenous growth

Money, social status, and capital accumulation in a cash-in-advance model

This paper presents an infinite-horizon model of optimal capital accumulation with the social-status concern and the cash-in-advance constraint. When the cash-in-advance constraint applies to both consumption and investment, money is not supemeutral. If only consumption is subject to the cash-in-advance constraint, inflation increases capital accumulation.

Foreign Aid Reduces Domestic Capital Accumulation and Increases Foreign Borrowing: A Theoretical Analysis

In an infinite-horizon model with endogenous time preferences, foreign aid, foreign borrowing, and domestic capital accumulation, a permanent increase in foreign aid leads to a reduction in long-run capital accumulation, a rise in domestic consumption, and an increase in foreign borrowing. Short-run analysis shows that an initial increase in foreign aid leads to a rise in investment, and a reduction in consumption and external borrowing. On the other hand, a temporal increase in foreign aid results in an increase in consumption and foreign borrowing, and a reduction in investment.Foreign aid, Foreign borrowing, Capital accumulation

Direct preferences for wealth, the risk premium puzzle, growth, and policy effectiveness

In this paper, we consider social status, the spirit of capitalism, fiscal policies, and asset pricing in a stochastic model of growth. With specific assumptions on the production technology, preferences, and stochastic shocks, we derive the explicit solutions to the growth rates of consumption and savings and equilibrium returns on all assets. We further demonstrate how fiscal policies, the spirit of capitalism, and stochastic shocks affect growth, asset pricing, and welfare.Social status, The spirit of capitalism, Fiscal policies, Asset pricing, Stochastic growth

Optimal taxation and intergovernmental transfer in a dynamic model with multiple levels of government

In this paper, we study the optimal choices of the federal income tax, federal transfers, and local taxes in a dynamic model of capital accumulation and with explicit gamestructure s among multipleprivateage nts, multiplelocal governments, and the federal government. In general, the optimal local property tax is zero if the local property tax is constrained to be nonnegative, whereas the optimal local consumption tax is always positive. When the local consumption tax is chosen optimally, the federal income tax can be either positive or negative. For most reasonable parameter values, our numerical calculations have shown that with a positive local consumption tax there exists a reverse transfer from local governments to the federal government.Income tax, Property tax, Consumption tax, Intergovernmental transfers, Capital accumulation, Fiscal federalism

Public Expenditures, Taxes, Federal Transfers, and Endogenous Growth

This paper extends the Barro (1990) model with single aggregate government spending and one flat income tax to include public expenditures and taxes by multiple levels of government. It derives the rate of endogenous growth and, with both simulations and special examples, examines how that rate changes with respect to federal income tax, local taxes, and federal transfers. It also discusses the growth and welfare-maximizing choices of taxes and federal transfers.Public expenditures, Taxes, Federal transfers, Endogenous growth

A Note on Entrepreneurial Risk, Capital Market Imperfections, and Heterogeneity

Empirical evidence shows that entrepreneurs hold a large fraction of wealth, have higher saving rates than workers, and face substantial uninsurable entrepreneurial and investment risks. This paper constructs a heterogeneous-agent general equilibrium model with uninsurable entrepreneurial risk and capital market imperfections to explore the implications of uninsurable entrepreneurial risk for wealth distribution and aggregate activity in an incomplete market economy. It is shown that entrepreurial risk can substantially affect both the wealth distribution and the macroeconomy.Wealth Distribution, Idiosyncratic Entrepreneurial Risk, Incomplete Capital Markets

Stochastic Growth with the Social-Status Concern: The Existence of a Unique Stable Distribution

This paper extends Kurz¡¯s (1968) growth model to a stochastic growth framework with the social-status concern and production shocks. Using the stochastic monotonicity of stochastic dynamic system and methods using in Zhang (2007), the existence and stability of invariant distribution has been investigated. Different from the existence of multiple steady states under certainty, it is shown that there exists a unique stable invariant distribution under uncertainty.Stochastic growth, the Spirit of capitalism, Stochastic dominance, Multiple equilibria