The paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding the mechanism through which foreign aid affects macroeconomic performance. The authors find that the long-run impact of an aid program and the nature of the transitional dynamics it generates depend crucially on (i) the elasticity of...

This paper reviews some recent research analyzing the growth-inequality relationship among heterogeneous agents. The primary source of heterogeneity is due to the initial endowments of physical capital, although extensions to include human capital and ability are also briefly considered. The...

We develop a model in which public capital is both an engine of growth and a determinant of the distributions of wealth, income, and welfare. Government investment increases wealth inequality over time, regardless of its financing. The time path of income inequality is, however, highly sensitive...

We examine the impact of a stylized pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) Social Security program in an economy of overlapping generations with equilibrium growth. We adopt realistic mortality and other demographic assumptions and allow for the presence or absence of life annuities. In all cases steady-state...

This paper employs a dynamic two-sector dependent-economy model to study the impact of foreign transfers on a country's aggregate economic performance, as well as its distributions of wealth, income, and welfare. The transfers may be allocated to debt reduction, or to the productivity...

An optimizing growth model for a highly indebted small open economy is constructed and analyzed. An important innovation in the model is the incorporation of sovereign risk through the specification of an upward-sloping foreign debt supply function. The model is used to examine the interaction...

This paper examines linkages between international trade, environmental degradation, and economic growth in a dynamic North-South trade game. Using a neoclassical production function subject to an endogenously improving technology, North produces manufactured goods by employing labor, capital,...

This paper examines the issue of speculative attacks on the exchange rate in an economy in which. following the attack the government allows the exchange rate to float for a limited period, before repegging it at a higher, sustainable, level. We highlight the tradeoffs between the length of the...

This paper investigates the reliability of employing linearization to evaluate the dynamic adjustments to changes in productive government spending in a Ramsey growth model. If government expenditure is introduced as a flow and the dynamic adjustment is fast, linearization may yield a reasonably...