For a durable consumption good which turns into waste after consumption, the socially optimal durability increases with an increase in the marginal environmental damage. In a laissez-faire equilibrium under perfect competition, producers fail to provide an efficient product design, i.e....

In a dynamic general equilibrium model we explictly consider the relationship between the product attributes 'durability' and 'recyclability'. Both efficiency and sustainability aspects are taken into account. It turns out (a) that durability may be inefficient even in a perfectly competitive...

In a VAR model of the US, the response of the relative price of durables to a monetary contraction is either flat or mildly positive. It significantly falls only if narrowly defined as the ratio between new house and nondurables prices. These findings survive three identification strategies and...