The OLG model of Allais and Samuelson retains the methodological assumptions of agent optimization and market clearing from the Arrow-Debreu model, yet its equilibrium set has different properties: Pareto inefficiency, indeterminacy, positive valuation of money, and a golden rule equilibrium in which the rate of interest is equal to population growth (independent of impatience). These properties are shown to derive not from market incompleteness, but from lack of market clearing "at infinity;" they can be eliminated with land or uniform impatience. The OLG model is used to analyze bubbles, social security, demographic effects on stock returns, the foundations of monetary theory, Keynesian vs. real business cycle macromodels, and classical vs. neoclassical disputes.
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Length: 40 pages Date of creation: May 2008 Date of revision: Publication status: Published in Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume, eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2d ed., 2008 Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:1663
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James Feigenbaum & Frank N. Caliendo & Emin Gahramanov, 2009.
"Optimal Irrational Behavior,"
Working Papers
200901, Utah State University, Department of Economics and Finance.
[Downloadable!]
Other versions:
James Feigenbaum & Frank Caliendo & Emin Gahramanov, 2008.
"Optimal Irrational Behavior,"
Working Papers
368, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Economics, revised Sep 2008.
[Downloadable!]
James Feigenbaum & Frank N. Caliendo & Emin Gahramanov, 2009.
"Optimal Irrational Behavior,"
Economics Series
2009_01, Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.
[Downloadable!]