Endogenous time preference and optimal growth

We adapt the classic one-sector optimal growth model to include an endogenous rate of time preference along the lines of Becker and Mulligan (1997). The resulting model is both time-consistent and analytically tractable. Capital sequences are shown to be globally monotone and stable under very general circumstances using lattice programming techniques and value orders. We analyze a series of examples that exhibit a variety of behaviors, including closed-form solutions, unique steady-states, multiple steady-states, and conditionally sustained growth. The endogenous rate of discount preserves monotonicity and stability while allowing for the possibility of non-global convergence.I would like to thank Robert Becker, Leonard Mirman, Michael Kaganovich, Itzhak Zilcha, and an anonymous referee for helpful comments and discussions.     

Efficient provision of public goods with endogenous redistribution

We study a balanced mechanism that is capable of implementing in Nash equilibrium all the Pareto-efficient individually rational allocations for an economy with public goods. The Government chooses a set of weights directly related to the Lindahl prices corresponding to the Pareto-efficient allocation to be implemented. The mechanism then guarantees that initial endowments are re-allocated so that the chosen vector of Lindahl prices is indeed a Lindahl equilibrium, and implements the corresponding Lindahl allocation. Finally, besides being balanced, our mechanism is simple. Each agent has to declare a desired increase in the amount of public good, and a vector of redistributive transfers of initial endowments (across other agents).Received: 9 May 2003, Accepted: 22 October 2003, JEL Classification: C79, H21, H30, H41We wish to thank Jeremy Edwards, Andrew Postlewaite and Emanuela Sciubba for helpful comments. Of course, any remaining errors are our own.     

外资并购后增资的生产力效应:物化技术与激励约束

外资并购后增资目标企业不仅仅增加资本数量从而缓解资金短缺矛盾,而且因为物化技术的存在更能便利中方提高技术水平;不仅如此,并购后增加费本还能在一定程度上提高中方企业经理和员工的激励水平.当然,外资方增加资本过多将导致独资化出现.     

Optimal ordering policies in response to a discount offer

Sometimes supplier offers a temporary price discount to increase cash flow or decrease the inventory level of certain items. Thus, the manufacturer may be able to improve the effectiveness of his inventory system by ordering a special quantity at this sale period. In this paper, economic order quantity (EOQ) models with a discounted price are developed to obtain the optimal ordering policy during the sale period for five different cases: (a) coincidence of sale period with replenishment time, (b) non-coincidence of sale period with replenishment time, (c) sale period is longer than a cycle, (d) discounted price as a function of the special ordering quantity, and (e) incremental discount. Each case has its own characteristics of the sale period and the discounted price. The objective is to take the maximum possible advantage from the discounted price by ordering a special quantity during the sale period. The optimal ordering policy is obtained by maximizing the difference between the two costs: Regular EOQ cost and special quantity cost during the sale period. Moreover, a comparison of different discount scenarios is developed to sense the effect of different parameters on the ordering policies. The annual gain obtained is linearly related to the discount and the on-hand remnant inventory. Numerical analyses are provided to illustrate and testify the values of the optimal special quantity. The analysis showed an impressive improvement in the effectiveness of the inventory system when a special order is placed during the sale period. The optimal special quantity is driven for each case to visualize real-life problems. Sensitivity analysis is also initiated to study the change in the total savings with respect to the variation of the special optimal quantity.     

The Optimality of Single-group Designs for Certain Mixed Models

In this paper optimal designs for the estimation of the fixed effects (population parameters) in a certain class of mixed models are investigated. Two classes of designs are compared: the class of single-group designs, where all individuals are observed under the same approximate design, and the class of more-group designs with the same mean number of observations per individual as before, where each individual can be observed under a different approximate design. It is shown that any design that is Φ-optimal in the class of single-group designs is also Φ-optimal in the larger class of more-group designs. The considered optimality criteria only have to satisfy mild assumptions, which is eg the case for the D-criterion and all linear criteria.     

Price and quality decisions under network effects

I analyse monopoly pricing and quality decisions under network effects. High quality premium and low quality punishment are found to depend on how the impact of marginal costs on quality relates to the intensity of the network effect and the optimism of the producer about final demand. More precisely, marginal costs have to be low enough (but not too low) with respect to the intensity of the network effects and/or the optimism about final demand so that higher prices reflect higher quality. A similar conclusion can be drawn about incentives for quality provision, whenever quality is considered endogenous together with price.     

中国模式的市场经济体制改革进程与市场经济发育水平

在改革新时期,中国党和政府对社会主义市场经济的探讨和实践经历了四个阶段,1992年后,正式确立了建立社会主义市场经济体制的经济体制改革目标.这是一条邓小平理论指引下的中国模式发展之路.本文还就1992～2001年的中国市场经济发展水平试做估价.     

Optimal human capital policies

We analyze optimal income taxes and optimal schooling subsidies in a dynamic private information economy with observable human capital accumulation. We show that under plausible conditions the marginal schooling subsidies are positive and that they are zero at both endpoints of the skill distribution.We compute the optimal policies and evaluate their impact over the transition and at the steady state. We find that the optimal schooling policies are significantly smaller than the optimal marginal income taxes. If optimal schooling policies are introduced jointly with optimal income taxes then their welfare and aggregate effects are small. However, if income taxes are not set optimally then the optimal schooling policies have significant welfare and aggregate effects.     

Strategic nonlinear income tax competition with perfect labor mobility

Tax competition between two governments who choose nonlinear income tax schedules to maximize the average utility of their residents when skills are unobservable and labor is perfectly mobile is examined. We show that there are no equilibria in which there is a skill type that pays positive taxes to one country and whose utility is larger than the average utility in the other country or in which the lowest skilled are subsidized. We also show that it is possible for the most highly skilled to receive a net transfer funded by taxes on lower skilled individuals in equilibrium. These findings confirm the race-to-the-bottom thesis in this setting.     

Non‐linear Dynamics in the Infinite Time Horizon Model

Using results from the theory of non‐linear dynamical systems, it has been shown that optimal growth theory can provide new explanations for business cycles and for international differences in growth and development. The present survey concentrates on this aspect of optimal growth theory, that is on the possibility of fluctuations and non‐uniqueness in models of optimal capital accumulation. It is a selective survey on non‐linear dynamics in infinite time horizon models of optimal growth.