Financial intermediation in an overlapping generations model with transaction costs

We analyze an overlapping generations economy where agents interact to share liquidity risk. We show that a pure exchange economy has excessive trade in equilibrium because agents interact to rebalance their portfolios. Intergenerational financial intermediaries reduce the number of interactions because agents only transact when they face liquidity needs. In the absence of asset risk, intermediaries match redemptions with deposits and dividends, and never sell assets. If the economy is subject to transaction costs, the intermediated economy can sustain higher stationary investment and welfare. We also find that dead weight transaction costs can increase welfare because it protects banks from interbank arbitrage and dampens the inherent cyclicality of market economies.     

人口结构、经济增长与中国居民储蓄率:基于迭代模型(OLG)和省级面板数据的实证研究

本文认为次贷危机的根本原因在于全球储蓄率的失衡。为此,本文建立了一个三期迭代模型,解释了人口结构因素和收入增长因素对中国居民储蓄率的影响,并基于实证研究,对中国居民储蓄率在未来中期波动状况进行了预测分析。     

Inter-regional endogenous growth under the impacts of demographic changes

This article attempts to project the economic paths for the individual Midwest states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, as well as the rest of the US) in the near future when the population ageing becomes more pronounced. To accomplish this task, a dynamic general equilibrium model is developed so that it could incorporate the inter-regional transactions and endogenous growth mechanisms within the framework of an Overlapping Generations (OLG) model. Key parameter values associated with the regional interconnections were assigned using a multi-regional Social Accounting Matrix (SAM) of the Midwest states. Two different steady-state results were presented with two different age-cohort population structures corresponding to year 2007 and 2030. These steady-state results imply that the rate of declining of per-capita output is projected to be heterogeneous across the regions due to different developments of age-cohort population structures and consequently different levels of endogenously determined educational investment of workers. Also, two steady-state simulation results revealed that the development of output price in a certain region reflects the dynamics of demographics of every region. Meanwhile, the dynamic simulation results reveal that the per-capita output of every region is projected to grow positively in the near future when the population ageing will be pronounced. However, the growth rate of the per-capita output is projected to be heterogeneous across the regions: the regions with high-skilled workers hold the potential threat that population ageing could give more negative impacts on the economy due to the relatively sluggish growth of human capital stock. Also, the dynamic simulation results show that certain regions in the Midwest will experience their terms of trade deterioration in the near future, implying that careful attention should be given to their future trade conditions.     

Customers’ migration paths decided by relative advantage: longitudinal and comparative case study of successive generations of logic semiconductor technology

ABSTRACT

Understanding customers and their behaviour has become important for success in a market. When successive generations of technology are available in a market, customers will decide their migration paths based on certain factors. This study focused on the relative advantage of successive generations positioned at different levels. Based on a longitudinal and comparative research design, the migration paths of customers are identified by understanding how their behaviours are affected by this relative advantage. The preferred relative advantage is positioned differently at early and majority markets. According to observations of the actual migration paths of 14 semiconductor customers, early and majority market players exhibit different migration paths (switching, new entrance, leapfrogging, or diffusion paths) depending on the relative advantage of the migrating generation. This study has theoretical implications by understanding the mechanism of customers’ migration based on the relative advantage, as well as practical implications for suppliers and customers to sustain their competitive advantage in a market.     

Cyclical equilibria in multi-sector productive economies: The role of substitution and factor intensity

The paper examines the existence of cyclical perfect foresight equilibria in a two-sector overlapping generations economy with production in which both goods enter consumption. Conditions for the existence of two types of cyclical equilibra are obtained in terms of elasticities of substitution in production and consumption, factor shares in production, and expenditure shares in consumption. The role of substitution possibilities and factor intensities is highlighted. It is shown that factor intensity assumptions are not enough to rule out cyclical equilibria and that limit cycles may exist for substantial amounts of substitution possibilities in production; what matters is the relative sizes of the consumption and production elasticities. The results are illustrated using CES functions. A dynamical simulation of an economy which exhibits a Hopf cycle is presented.     

Vested interests, population ageing and technology adoption

Technologies that are used differ vastly across and within countries. It is commonly observed that technologies that would improve productivity are not adopted. This paper explains the failure to adopt new technologies through costs of adoption for people of different age. We set out an overlapping generations model with majority voting that predicts a relationship between the age composition of an economy and economic growth. We also consider the effects of more intense competition on technology adoption.     

Tax Policy and Human Capital Formation with Public Investment in Education

This paper studies the effects of distortionary taxes and public investment in an endogenous growth OLG model with knowledge transmission. Fiscal policy affects growth in two respects: first, work time reacts to variations of prospective tax rates and modifies knowledge formation; second, public spending enhances labour efficiency but also stimulates physical capital through increased savings. It is shown that Ramsey-optimal policies reduce savings due to high tax rates on young generations, and are not necessarily growth-improving with respect to a pure private system. Non-Ramsey policies that shift the burden on adults are always growth-improving due to crowding-in effects: the welfare of all generations is unambiguously higher with respect to a private system, and there generally exists a continuum of non-optimal tax rates under which long-run growth and welfare are higher than with the Ramsey-optimal policy.     

Optimality of Stationary Asset Equilibria Under A Stochastic Inflation Tax

In this paper we characterize the set of Pareto optimal asset equilibria in an incomplete market OLG framework when inflation-tax-financed monetary shocks impinge on the economy. We show that it is the strength rather than the mere presence of monetary disturbances that accounts for, if the market mechanism fails to achieve allocating efficiency.     

Wealth Distribution and Optimal Inheritance Taxation in Life-cycle Economies with Intergenerational Transfers

Intergenerational transfers are introduced into a general equilibrium life-cycle model in order to explain observed levels of wealth heterogeneity. In our overlapping generations model, heterogenous agents face uncertain lifetime and leave both accidental and voluntary bequests to their children. Furthermore, agents face stochastic employment opportunities. The model is calibrated with regard to the characteristics of the US economy. Our results indicate that bequests only account for a small proportion of observed wealth heterogeneity. The introduction of an inheritance tax increases both welfare, as measured by the average lifetime utility of a newborn, and equality of the wealth distribution.
JEL classification : D 31; D 91; H 21; C 68; E 21     

Seniority bias in a tournament

The paper presents a model where the probability of promotion tends to increase with seniority (overall labor market experience) without relying on the accumulation of general human capital. To this end, we consider the optimal design of a tournament (a relative compensation scheme) between two agents with different time horizon, the young and the old, in an overlapping generations framework. When the principal can only imperfectly monitor each agent’s effort level, the difference in time horizon leads to the ex post difference in the marginal value of effort between the two agents. In this case, the optimal tournament necessarily involves a bias towards the old agent. Within this framework, we also examine the relationship between: (1) the monitoring accuracy and the optimal bias; and (2) the value of outside options and the optimal bias.