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...

This note derives the Golden Rule of capital accumulation in a Chakraborty-type economy, i.e. a two-period OLG economy where longevity is endogenous. It is shown that the capital per worker maximizing steady-state consumption per head is inferior to the Golden Rule capital level prevailing under...

Present-day macroeconomics has sometimes been dubbed ‘the new neoclassical synthesis’, suggesting that it constitutes a reincarnation of the neoclassical synthesis of the 1950s. This paper assesses this understanding. To this end, we examine the contents of the ‘old’ and the ‘new’...

This paper studies the Great Depression in Belgium within the open-economy dynamic general equilibrium approach. Results from the simulations show that a two-good model with total factor productivity shocks and nominal exchange rate shocks can account for most of the 1929-1934 output drop. The...

Cet article examine la relation entre le taux de croissance de la masse monétaire et l'accumulation du capital physique durant la dynamique transitoire d'un modèle de croissance endogène à deux secteurs (capital humain et capital physique) à la Lucas [1988]. Utilisant une fonction...

This paper presents and assesses the recent application of models in the Real Business Cycle (RBC) tradition to the analysis of the Great Depression of the 1930s. The main conclusion is that the breaking of the depression taboo has been a desirable completion of the cliometric revolution: no...

We study how mortality reductions and income growth interact, looking at their relationship prior to the Industrial Revolution, when income per capita was stagnant. We first present a model of individual medical spending giving a rationale for individual health expenditures even when medecine...

This paper casts the Belgian Great Depression of the 1930s within a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) framework. Results show that a total factor productivity shock within a standard real business cycle model is unsatisfactory. Introducing war expectations in the baseline model...

This paper examines the existence condition of a balanced growth path in an overlapping generations model in which production uses three inputs, physical capital, human capital and land, with increasing returns to scale. Human capital is the engine of economic growth. It is shown that, unlike...

In this paper we have analyzed existence, uniqueness and stability of a steady-state equilibrium in an overlapping generations model with monopolistic competition and free entry and exit of firms. We establish a strenghtened Inada condition that is sufficient to exclude global contraction for...