In macroeconomic dynamic models the speed at which output converges to its steady state is of outstanding interest. Theoretical investigations usually focus on the asymptotic speed of convergence only. This procedure is, however, unnecessarily restrictive and hides important information. The...

This paper reports the results of an experiment that brings together psychological measures of competence and overconfidence with laboratory economic measures of individual valuations of uncertainty. We examine the valuations of risky and ambiguous lotteries in a financial decision context. The...

A general growth model with explicit resource reallocation costs is set up. A new feature is the property of hysteresis (i.e. a continuum of stationary equilibria) in closed-economy growth models. Employing a linear model the hysteresis range and the consequences for the long-run growth rate are...

We propose the relaxation algorithm as a simple and powerful method for simulating the transition process in growth models. This method has a number of important advantages: (1) It can easily deal with a wide range of dynamic systems including multi-dimensional systems with stable eigenvalues...

Women are commonly stereotyped as more risk averse than men in financial decision making. In this paper we examine whether this stereotype reflects actual differences in risk taking behavior by means of a laboratory experiment with monetary incentives. Gender differences in risk taking may be...

Integration affects economic growth mainly through two different channels : The scale-effect channel and the factor-reallocation channel. In order to investigate both channels within a unifying framework, we employ a simple descriptive growth model. The scale-effect channel increases either the...

Models of the Environmental Kuznets Curve, particularly those with an explicit abatement technology, often involve that pollution becomes negative in the long run. This, of course, is a highly implausible prediction. The paper at hand examines the problem of negative pollution by, first,...