This paper studies the possibilities of technical progress to deal with the growth limit problem imposed by the usage of non-renewable energy resources, when physical capital production is relatively more energy-intensive than consumption. In particular, this work presents the conditions under...

We bridge the gap between the standard theory of growth and the mostly static theory of corruption. Some public investment can be diverted from its purpose by corrupt individuals. Voters determine the level of public investment subject to an incentive constraint equalizing the returns from...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical evaluation of theoretical modelshowing that shifting from pay-as-you-go to funded social security schemes can be made Pareto-improving. Further, it argues that what often makes a reform toward funded schemes attractive is a number of additional...

We consider a two-period overlapping generations model in which individual voters differ not only according to age but also productivity. In such a setting, a (redistributive) Pay-As-You-Go system is politically sustainable, even when the interest rate is larger than the rate of population growth .

It is generally accepted that moving from an unfunded to a funded social security system implies a welfare loss for the trasition generation, that is the generation that has to pay twice: first, saving for this own retirement and second, contributing to the pensions of the then retired...

This paper analyzes and compares the macroeconomic performance of defined-benefit and defined-contribution pay-as-you-go pension systems when population ages. When the fertility rate decreases or longevity rises, it is shown that a shift from defined benefit (defined total benefit or defined...

We explore the optimal fertility age-pattern in a four-period OLG economy with physical capital accumulation. For that purpose, we firstly compare the dynamics of two closed economies, Early and Late Islands, which differ only in the timing of births. On Early Island, children are born from...

We analyze a Ramsey economy when net investment is constrained to be non negative. We prove existence of a competitive equilibrium when utility need not be bounded from below and the Inada-type conditions need not hold. The analysis is carried out by means of a direct and technically standard...

Introduced by Samuelson (1975), the Serendipity Theorem states that the competitive economy will converge towards the optimum steady-state provided the optimum population growth rate is imposed. This paper aims at exploring whether the Serendipity Theorem still holds in an economy with risky...

We analyse a Ramsey economy when net investment is constrained to be non negative. We prove existence of a competitive equilibrium when utility need not hold. The analysis is carried out by means of direct and technically standard strategy.