We incorporate keeping-up-with-the-Joneses (KUJ) preferences into the Blanchard–Yaari framework and develop a model of balanced growth. In this context we investigate status preference, demographic shocks, and pension policy. We find that a higher degree of KUJ lowers economic growth, whereas,...

In this paper we consider the implications of relative consumption externalities in the Blanchard-Yaari overlapping generations framework. Unlike most of the macroeconomic literature that studies this question, the differences between agents, and, thus, in their relative position, persist in...

We construct an overlapping generations model for the small open economy incorporating a realistic description of the mortality process. With age-dependent mortality, the typical life-cycle pattern of consumption and saving results from the maximizing behaviour of individual households. Our...

This paper develops an economic explanation of the Dutch colonization of southern Africa. The changing attitudes of the Dutch to colonial growth are seen as a rational response to shifting economic constraints rather than as a function of changing tastes. The model emphasizes the importance of...

In this paper we consider the implications of relative consumption externalities in the Blanchard-Yaari overlapping generations framework. Unlike most of the macroeconomic literature that studies this question, the differences between agents, and, thus, in their relative position, persist in...