Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/21135 
Year of Publication: 
2001
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 283
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
In this note we compare the laissez-faire steady-state solution in the Howitt and Aghion (1998) model to the social optimum. The analysis offers several new insights in comparison to the welfare analysis in Aghion and Howitt (1992). We find various new distortions between private and optimal solution. First, a monopoly distortion effect generates too little capital accumulation in the private solution because households? gross return per unit of capital will be lower than in the social optimum due to monopoly power. Second, a cost-benefit gap effect leads to excessive research in the private solution because the planner is interested in the average technology whereas the private researcher is interested in the leading edge technology. Third, we decompose the well-known intertemporal spillover effect into three subeffects and clarify why the planner uses the interest rate as discount rate.
Subjects: 
Endogenous Growth Model
Fiscal Policy
Technological Change
JEL: 
E22
O32
O41
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
263.42 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.