In this paper, we characterize the relationship between the initial distribution of human capital and physical inheritances among individuals and the long-run distribution of these two variables. In a model with indivisible investment in education, we analyze how the initial distribution of...

In this paper, we characterize the relationship between the initial distribution of human capital and physical inheritances among individuals and the long-run distri- bution of these two variables. In a model with indivisible investment in education, we analyze how the initial distribution of...

In this paper, we characterize the relationship between the initial distribution of human capital and physical inheritances among individuals and the long-run distribution of these two variables. In a model with indivisible investment in education, we analyze how the initial distribution of...

We analyze how the presence of endogenous preferences affects the altruistic bequest motive from parents to children. We will show that the existence of habits raises the threshold value of the intergenerational discount factor above which altruistic bequests are positive, while aspiration...

We study how the introduction of consumption externalities affects the efficiency of the dynamic equilibrium in an economy displaying dynastic altruism. When the bequest motive is inoperative consumption externalities affect the intertemporal margin between young and old consumption and thus...

Robert Solow has criticized our 2006 Journal of Economic Perspectives essay describing "Modern Macroeconomics in Practice." Solow eloquently voices the commonly heard complaint that too much macroeconomic work today starts with a model with a single type of agent. We argue that modern...

Financial crisis brought to the fore the fierce confrontation between Keynes disciples and Friedman disciples, between demand siders and supply siders, between Obama’s policies focused on economic growrh and EU austerity policies focused on deficit and debts reduction. Monetary policy...

When governments levy taxes on labor income on the basis of a balanced budget rule, two steady states in an economy exist, which can cause two movement patterns, namely, indeterminacy paths and a saddle path. Many economists deal with this issue based on indivisiblelabor. On an general...

The Mirrlees Review is an ambitious and comprehensive analysis of the British tax system with detailed recommendations for reform. This review essay focuses on those issues that are also likely to be of interest to an American reader. The Review has the technical sophistication that readers...

This paper investigates the effect of altruism on the pattern of labour migration in a two-country overlapping generations model. We show that differences in degrees of altruism across countries lead to bilateral migration flows. Starting from the autarkic steady-state equilibrium, restrictions...