Recursive preferences and balanced growth

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Farmer, REA; Lahiri, A
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; Federal Reserve System - USA; Federal Reserve Bank - New York
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC THEORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0531
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2004.08.002
• 发表日期: 2005
• 页码: 61-77
• 关键词: Recursive preferences; balanced growth; general equilibrium

摘要

We study a class of utility functions that are defined recursively by an aggregator W (x, y) where u(t) = W (c(t), u(t+1)). In single-agent economies it is known that a sufficient condition for the existence of a balanced growth path is that utility should be homogenous of degree y. In the context of a multi-agent economy we show that this restriction implies that either a balanced growth equilibrium fails to exist or all agents have the same constant discount factor. We suggest a generalization of recursive preferences wherein the intertemporal utility function is time dependent. Within this class we establish that there may exist a balanced growth equilibrium even if agents are different. (c) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.