Description
This book looks at the distribution of income and wealth and the effects that this has on the macroeconomy, and vice versa. Is a more equal distribution of income beneficial or harmful for macroeconomic growth, and how does the distribution of wealth evolve in a market economy? Taking stock of results and methods developed in the context of the 1990s revival of growth theory, the authors focus on capital accumulation and long-run growth. They show how rigorous, optimization-based technical tools can be applied, beyond the representative-agent framework of analysis, to account for realistic market imperfections and for political-economic interactions.
The treatment is thorough, yet accessible to students and nonspecialist economists, and it offers specialist readers a wide-ranging and innovative treatment of an increasingly important research field. The book follows a single analytical thread through a series of different growth models, allowing readers to appreciate their structure and crucial assumptions. This is particularly useful at a time when the literature on income distribution and growth has developed quickly and in several different directions, becoming difficult to overview.
Chapter
CHAPTER FOUR: Factor Income Distribution
4.1 Factor Shares and Savings in Early Growth Models
4.2 Factor Shares in the Neoclassical Growth Model
4.3 Optimal Savings and Sustained Growth
4.4 Policy and Political Economy
4.5 References and Further Issues
4.6 Appendix: Factor Shares in a Two-Sector Growth Model
CHAPTER FIVE: Savings and Distribution with Finite Horizons
5.1 Distribution and Growth in the Two-Period OLG Model
5.2 Inequality in a Perpetual Youth Model
5.3 One-Period Lifetimes and Bequests
5.4 References and Further Issues
5.5 Appendix: Consumption in the Perpetual Youth Model
CHAPTER SIX: Factor Shares and Taxation in the OLG Model
6.1 Factor Shares in the Two-Period Model
6.2 Factor Shares and Growth in the Perpetual Youth Model
6.3 References and Further Issues
PART TWO Financial Market Imperfections
CHAPTER SEVEN: Investment Opportunities and the Allocation of Savings
7.1 Decreasing Returns to Individual Investment
7.2 Increasing Returns and Indivisibilities
7.3 Endogenous Factor Prices and “Trickle-Down” Growth
7.4 References and Further Issues
CHAPTER EIGHT: Risk and Financial Markets
8.1 Optimization under Uncertainty
8.3 Portfolio Choice and Risk Pooling
8.4 References and Further Issues
CHAPTER NINE: Uninsurable Income Shocks
9.1 A Two-Period Characterization
9.2 General Equilibrium: The CARA Case
9.3 General Equilibrium: The CRRA Case
9.4 Application: Uninsurable Risk in the Labor Markets
9.5 References and Further Issues
CHAPTER TEN: Distribution and Market Power
10.1 Growth through Expanding Product Variety
10.2 Variable Elasticities of Substitution
10.3 Factor Shares, Taxation, and Political Economy
10.4 References and Further Issues
CHAPTER ELEVEN: Indivisible Goods and the Composition of Demand
11.1 Income Distribution and Product Diversity
11.2 The Introduction of New Products
11.3 Inequality and Vertical Product Differentiation
11.4 References and Further Issues
CHAPTER TWELVE: Hierarchic Preferences
12.2 Growth, Distribution, and Structural Change
12.3 References and Further Issues
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Dynamic Interactions of Demand and Supply
13.1 Learning by Doing and Trickle-Down
13.2 Demand Composition and Factor Rewards
13.3 References and Further Issues