Social Status, the Spirit of Capitalism, and the Term Structure of Interest Rates in Stochastic Production Economies

Abstract

This paper studies capital accumulation and equilibrium interest rates in stochastic production economies with the concern of social status. Given a specific utility function and production function, explicit solutions for capital accumulation and equilibrium interest rates have been derived. With the aid of steady-state distributions for capital stock, the effects of fiscal policies, social-status concern, and stochastic shocks on capital accumulation and equilibrium interest rates have been investigated. A significant finding of this paper is the demonstration of multiple stationary distributions for capital stocks and interest rates with the concern of social status.Stochastic growth, Social status, Fiscal policies, Interest rates