Robustness of Multiple Equilibria in OLG Economies

Guido Cazzavillan and Patrick Pintus

Review of Economic Dynamics, 2004, vol. 7, issue 2, 456-475

Abstract: This paper extends the standard Diamond's two-period OLG model of capital accumulation by introducing labor-leisure choice into the first-period of agents' life. Under the assumption of gross substitutability, we show that multiple intertemporal equilibria require both highly complementary inputs and a low fraction of consumption out of wage income by the young generation. On the contrary, if capital and labor are sufficiently substitutable, or if young agents consume a realistically large proportion of their wage income, multiple intertemporal equilibria and, therefore, endogenous fluctuations driven by self-fulfilling beliefs, are ruled out. We further illustrate, in contrast with the related literature, that intertemporal substitution in consumption across periods is a critical mechanism which enables short-lived agents to arbitrage away expectationally driven fluctuations when the ratio between saving and wage is reasonably low. As a result, the OLG model's predictions are substantially similar to the usual optimal growth model. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Keywords: overlapping generations; endogenous labor supply; gross substitutability; multiple equilibria; endogenous fluctuations. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C62 E32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (37)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2003.10.001 Full text (application/pdf)
Access to full texts is restricted to ScienceDirect subscribers and ScienceDirect institutional members. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/ for details.

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:red:issued:v:7:y:2004:i:2:p:456-475

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.economic ... ription-information/

DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2003.10.001

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Economic Dynamics is currently edited by Loukas Karabarbounis

More articles in Review of Economic Dynamics from Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christian Zimmermann ().