We analyze the impact of obsolescence of economic inventions by incorporating maintenance costsin the endogenous growth model of expanding product varieties. This contrasts with the existingliterature, which ignores maintenance costs and uses the model of quality improvements todescribe...

The nature of energy and material resources in an endogenous growththeory framework isclarified. This involves three modifications of the conventionaltheory. Firstly, multiple feedbackmechanisms or “growth engines” are identified. Secondly, a productionfunction distinguishesbetween resource...

In this paper I determine the importance of adjustment costs in employers hiring decisions. Temporary work arrangements offer potential ways to avoid adjustment costs. I estimate employers willingness to pay for the characteristics of these work arrangements. I distinguish regular contracts,...

We show that in a fully integrated economy, in which there is free mobility of goods and factors, each member’s share of total output will equal its shares of total stocks of productive factors (i.e., physical and human capital). We label this result the equal-share relationship. This...

We first demonstrate that, within a fully integrated economy (FIE) in which there is free mobility of goods and factors, each FIE member's share of total FIE output will equal its shares of the total FIE stock of each productive factor. This equal-share property implies that, if economic...

This paper uses the Kaldor-Hicks compensation principle to compute the present value (PV) of a non-marginal future event. Three theoretical results stand out: First, decreasing returns to capital create a wedge between the PV of future generations' willingness to pay (WTP) and the PV of their...

This discussion paper resulted in a publication in the <A href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0095069612000927">'Journal of Environmental Economics and Management'</A>, 2012, 64(3), 342-363.<P> Optimal climate policy is studied in a Ramsey growth model with exhaustible oil reserves, an infinitelyelastic supply of renewables, stock-dependent oil extraction...</p></a>

Critics of modern macroeconomics often raise concerns about unwarranted welfare conclusions and data mining. This paper illustrates these concerns with a thought experiment, based on the debate in environmental economics about the appropriate discount rate in climate change analyses: I set up an...

This discussion paper led to a forthcoming publication in </I>Journal of Regional Science</I> entitled 'Are EU Countries less Integrated than US States? Theory and Evidence'.<P>European economic integration is commonly believed to be incomplete, and that further reforms are needed. In this context, the...</p>

In this paper we study the implications of population ageing in an economy with a sizeable non-traded goods sector. To this effect a highly stylized micro-founded macro model is constructed in which the age structure of the population plays a non-trivial role. The model distinguishes separate...