The Long-Run Impact on Population and Income of Open Access to Land in a Model with Parental Altruism

Jon Harford
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Jon Harford: Cleveland State University

Eastern Economic Journal, 2000, vol. 26, issue 4, 419-429

Abstract: Steady state levels of population and per capita income are examined using a Becker-Barro (1988) style of model of an economy with identical altruistic parents bearing costly children who receive bequests of capital and land. Inspired by the work of North (1981) and others, the problem of open access land with ancillary negative effects on private (but not public) productivity of capital is examined. It is seen that open access to land can lead to overpopulation in a ceteris paribus sense, and yet yield a steady-state population below that which would exist in a regime of complete private property rights, a situation with higher stead-state utility. A specific example is explored to illustrate the relationships between the steady-state levels of endogenous variables and parameter values.

Keywords: Altruism; Bequests; Population (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D62 D64 J11 O41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2000
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eej:eeconj:v:26:y:2000:i:4:p:419-429

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