Knightian Uncertainty and Poverty Trap in a Model of Economic Growth

Shin-ichi Fukuda ()

Review of Economic Dynamics, 2008, vol. 11, issue 3, pages 652-663

Abstract: This paper explores how Knightian uncertainty affects dynamic properties in an economic growth model. The decision-making theory employed in the analysis is the theory of expected utility under a non-additive probability measure, i.e., the Choquet expected utility model of preference. We apply this decision-making theory to an overlapping generations model where producers face "uncertainty" in their technologies. When the producer is averse to uncertainty, the firm's profit function may not be differentiable. Therefore, the firm's decision to invest and hire labor becomes rigid for a certain measurable range of real interest rates. In dynamic equilibrium, the existence of firm-level rigidity causes discontinuity in the wage function; this makes multiple equilibria the more likely outcomes under the log utility and Cobb-Douglass production functions. In this paper, we show that even if aversion to uncertainty is small, the "poverty trap" can arise for a wide range of parameter values. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Keywords: Knightian uncertainty; Poverty trap; Multiple equilibria (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D81 D92 E22 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
View list of references

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2007.11.001
Access to full texts is restricted to ScienceDirect subscribers and institutional members. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/ for details.

Related works:
Working Paper: Knightian Uncertainty and Poverty Trap in a Model of Economic Growth (2007)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:issued:04-95

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.EconomicDynamics.org/RED17.htm

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economic Dynamics is edited by Gianluca Violante

More articles in Review of Economic Dynamics from Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics
Address: Review of Economic Dynamics Academic Press Editorial Office 525 "B" Street, Suite 1900 San Diego, CA 92101
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Christian Zimmermann ().