In a competitive overlapping generation model, underutilization of labor and equipment can be due to the combinaison of irreversibility of human capital, physical capital and technology with idiosyncratic productivity shocks. Irreversibilities and uncertainty generate an inefficient allocation...

In an unionized OLG model, it is shown that steady-state underutilization of labour and equipment can be due to the combinaison of the following elements : (i) Irreversibility of capital, technology and skill decision, (ii) Firm specific shocks on productivity. The presence of unions is neither...

We study how economic growth is affected by demographics in an overlapping generations model with a realistic survival law. Individuals optimally chose the dates at which they leave school to enter the labor market and at which they retire. Endogenous growth arises thanks to the accumulation of...

This paper evaluates the relevance of q theories under stochastic demand and capacity constraints by estimating an investment function for the Belgian economy. Under these theoretical conditions, we find that the investment rate depends on average q and on the expectations about the degree of...

We propose a new theory of the demographic transition based on the evidence that body development during childhood is an important predictor of adult life expectancy. Fertility, childhood development, longevity, education and income growth all result from individual decisions. Parents face a...

A comprehensive study of the linkages between demographic and economic variables should not only account for vintage specificity but also incorporate the relevant economic and demographic decisions in a complete optimal control set-up. Inthis paper, a methodological set-up allowing to reach...

We explore the hypothesis that demographic changes started in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are the root of the acceleration in growth rates at the dawn of the modern age. During this period, life tables for Geneva and Venice show a decline in adult mortality; French marriage...

The effects of irreversibility and uncertainty are analyzed in a unionized economy with overlapping generations. Irreversible decisions about technology and physical and human capital are made under uncertainty and generate underutilization of labor and equipment not only over the convergence...

We propose a new theory of the demographic transition based on the evidence that body development during childhood is an important predictor of adult life expectancy. Fertility, childhood development, longevity, education and income growth all result from individual decisions. Parents face a...

We highlight the salient characteristics and implications of the seminal contributions in the field of vintage capital growth theory (proposed entry for the new Palgrave dictionary of economics, 2nd edition).