Ricardian equivalence: long-run Leviathan

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Smetters, K
• 署名单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(99)00011-0
• 发表日期: 1999
• 页码: 395-421
• 关键词: Ricardian equivalence; the Blanchard-Buiter-Weil model; altruism uncertainty

摘要

This paper presents a heterogenous overlapping-generations with-altruism model in which intergenerational discounting is stochastic. The model nests three popular macro-economics models: those of Ramsey (Economic Journal, 38 (152) (1928) 543-559), Diamond (American Economic Review, 55 (1965) 1126-1150) and a variant of the Blanchard (Journal of Political Economy 93 (2) (1985) 223-247), Buiter (The Economic Journal 98 (391) (1988) 279-293), Weil (Journalk of Public Economics 38 (2) (1989) 183-198) model. It is shown that, under a mild condition originally derived by Weil (Journal of Monetary Economics 19 (3) (1987) 377-391), the long-run capital intensity is robust to practically every popular theoretical criticism of the standard Ricardian model. These criticisms include the imperfect inheritability of time preference parameters (and hence finite horizons on the part of all households), myopia in the form of overly discounting the future, borrowing constraints, distortionary labor taxation, exchange/strategic bequest motives, common cultural constraints (egalitarian bequests and primogeniture). endogenous fertility and 'joy of giving'. While precautionary saving can theoretically violate long-run neutrality, the asymptotic capital intensity is still bounded below by preference parameters. The overall conclusions are sharply at odds with those found in most articles dealing with the theoretical foundations of Ricardian equivalence. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.