IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/dyncon/v34y2010i9p1550-1571.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How misleading is linearization? Evaluating the dynamics of the neoclassical growth model

Author

Listed:
  • Atolia, Manoj
  • Chatterjee, Santanu
  • Turnovsky, Stephen J.

Abstract

This paper investigates the reliability of employing linearization to evaluate the dynamic adjustments to changes in productive government spending in a Ramsey growth model. If government expenditure is introduced as a flow and the dynamic adjustment is fast, linearization may yield a reasonably good approximation to the true dynamics, even for fairly large policy shocks. If government expenditure assumes the form of a stock, leading to more sluggish adjustment, linearization may yield misleading predictions. These errors occur at the beginning of the transition and weigh heavily in welfare calculations. The implications for temporary shocks and the speed of convergence are also considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Atolia, Manoj & Chatterjee, Santanu & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2010. "How misleading is linearization? Evaluating the dynamics of the neoclassical growth model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(9), pages 1550-1571, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:34:y:2010:i:9:p:1550-1571
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165-1889(10)00143-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kim, Jinill & Kim, Sunghyun Henry, 2003. "Spurious welfare reversals in international business cycle models," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 471-500, August.
    2. Chris Papageorgiou & Fidel Perez‐Sebastian, 2007. "Is the Asymptotic Speed of Convergence a Good Proxy for the Transitional Growth Path?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(1), pages 1-24, February.
    3. Barro, Robert J & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 223-251, April.
      • Barro, R.J. & Sala-I-Martin, X., 1991. "Convergence," Papers 645, Yale - Economic Growth Center.
      • Barro, Robert J. & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Scholarly Articles 3451299, Harvard University Department of Economics.
    4. Gramlich, Edward M, 1994. "Infrastructure Investment: A Review Essay," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 1176-1196, September.
    5. Fisher, Walter H & Turnovsky, Stephen J, 1998. "Public Investment, Congestion, and Private Capital Accumulation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(447), pages 399-413, March.
    6. Turnovsky, Stephen J, 2004. "The Transitional Dynamics of Fiscal Policy: Long-Run Capital Accumulation and Growth," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(5), pages 883-910, October.
    7. Barro, Robert J, 1990. "Government Spending in a Simple Model of Endogenous Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 103-126, October.
    8. N. Gregory Mankiw & David Romer & David N. Weil, 1992. "A Contribution to the Empirics of Economic Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(2), pages 407-437.
    9. Manoj Atolia & Edward F. Buffie, 2004. "Reverse Shooting Made Easy: Solving for the Global Nonlinear Saddle Path," Working Papers wp2009_01_01, Department of Economics, Florida State University, revised Jan 2009.
    10. Dani Rodrik, 1996. "Understanding Economic Policy Reform," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 9-41, March.
    11. Ortigueira, Salvador & Santos, Manuel S, 1997. "On the Speed of Convergence in Endogenous Growth Models," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(3), pages 383-399, June.
    12. Rainer Klump & Peter McAdam & Alpo Willman, 2007. "Factor Substitution and Factor-Augmenting Technical Progress in the United States: A Normalized Supply-Side System Approach," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 183-192, February.
    13. Wouter J. Den Haan & Albert Marcet, 1994. "Accuracy in Simulations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(1), pages 3-17.
    14. Jonathan R. W. Temple, 1998. "Robustness tests of the augmented Solow model," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(4), pages 361-375.
    15. Aruoba, S. Boragan & Fernandez-Villaverde, Jesus & Rubio-Ramirez, Juan F., 2006. "Comparing solution methods for dynamic equilibrium economies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 30(12), pages 2477-2508, December.
    16. Baxter, Marianne & King, Robert G, 1993. "Fiscal Policy in General Equilibrium," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 315-334, June.
    17. Berndt, Ernst R, 1976. "Reconciling Alternative Estimates of the Elasticity of Substitution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 58(1), pages 59-68, February.
    18. Chatterjee, Santanu, 2005. "Capital utilization, economic growth and convergence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2093-2124, December.
    19. Brunner, Martin & Strulik, Holger, 2002. "Solution of perfect foresight saddlepoint problems: a simple method and applications," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 737-753, May.
    20. Stephanie Becker & Lars Grüne & Willi Semmler, 2007. "Comparing accuracy of second-order approximation and dynamic programming," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 30(1), pages 65-91, August.
    21. Manoj Atolia & Edward Buffie, 2009. "Smart Forward Shooting," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 33(1), pages 1-30, February.
    22. Caselli, Francesco & Esquivel, Gerardo & Lefort, Fernando, 1996. "Reopening the Convergence Debate: A New Look at Cross-Country Growth Empirics," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(3), pages 363-389, September.
    23. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2002. "Intertemporal and intratemporal substitution, and the speed of convergence in the neoclassical growth model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(9-10), pages 1765-1785, August.
    24. Eicher, Theo S & Turnovsky, Stephen J, 1999. "Non-scale Models of Economic Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 109(457), pages 394-415, July.
    25. Manuel S. Santos, 2000. "Accuracy of Numerical Solutions using the Euler Equation Residuals," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(6), pages 1377-1402, November.
    26. Judd, Kenneth L., 1992. "Projection methods for solving aggregate growth models," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 410-452, December.
    27. Nazrul Islam, 1995. "Growth Empirics: A Panel Data Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 110(4), pages 1127-1170.
    28. Barro, Robert J & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1992. "Convergence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 100(2), pages 223-251, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Matthias S. Hertweck & Vivien Lewis & Stefania Villa, 2021. "Going the Extra Mile: Effort by Workers and Job‐Seekers," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 53(8), pages 2099-2127, December.
    2. Cecilia Garc√Ça-Pe√Ëalosa & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2011. "Taxation and Income Distribution Dynamics in a Neoclassical Growth Model," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(8), pages 1543-1577, December.
    3. Mário Amorim Lopes & Fernando A. C. C. Fontes & Dalila A. C. C. Fontes, 2013. "Optimal Control of Infinite-Horizon Growth Models — A direct approach," FEP Working Papers 506, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    4. Junying Zhao & William Scarth & Jeremiah Hurley, 2018. "Investing in Health: A Macroeconomic Exploration of Short-Run and Long-Run Trade-Offs," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 46(1), pages 121-133, March.
    5. Atolia, Manoj & Chatterjee, Santanu & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2012. "Growth and inequality: Dependence on the time path of productivity increases (and other structural changes)," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 331-348.
    6. Dieppe, Alistair & González Pandiella, Alberto & Willman, Alpo, 2012. "The ECB's New Multi-Country Model for the euro area: NMCM — Simulated with rational expectations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 2597-2614.
    7. Fabio Monteforte & Mathan Satchi & Jonathan R. W. Temple, 2021. "Development priorities: the relative benefits of agricultural growth," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 73(3), pages 1122-1152.
    8. Kirkby, Robert, 2017. "Transition paths for Bewley-Huggett-Aiyagari models: Comparison of some solution algorithms," Working Paper Series 5642, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. Manoj Atolia, 2010. "Public Investment, Tax Evasion, And The Welfare Effects Of A Tariff Reform," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(2), pages 219-239, April.
    10. Mahbub Morshed, A.K.M. & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2011. "Real exchange rate dynamics: The role of elastic labor supply," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(7), pages 1303-1322.
    11. Groneck, Max, 2010. "A golden rule of public finance or a fixed deficit regime?: Growth and welfare effects of budget rules," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 523-534, March.
    12. Giulia FELICE, 2009. "Size and composition of public investment, structural change and growth," Departmental Working Papers 2009-28, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano, revised 27 Dec 2011.
    13. Michael Curry & Alexander Trott & Soham Phade & Yu Bai & Stephan Zheng, 2022. "Analyzing Micro-Founded General Equilibrium Models with Many Agents using Deep Reinforcement Learning," Papers 2201.01163, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2022.
    14. Kirkby, Robert, 2017. "Transition paths for Bewley-Huggett-Aiyagari models: Comparison of some solution algorithms," Working Paper Series 19669, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    15. Lim, Sokchea & Khun, Channary, 2023. "Migrant network effect and economic development," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 225(C).
    16. Max Groneck, 2011. "The golden rule of public finance and the composition of government expenditures: a growth and welfare analysis," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(4), pages 273-294, December.
    17. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Canuto, Otaviano & da Silva, Luiz Pereira, 2014. "On gender and growth: The role of intergenerational health externalities and women's occupational constraints," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 132-147.
    18. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2011. "On the role of small models in macrodynamics," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1605-1613, September.
    19. Jonathan Temple & Huikang Ying & Patrick Carter, 2014. "Transfers and Transformations: Remittances, Foreign Aid, and Growth," Bristol Economics Discussion Papers 14/649, School of Economics, University of Bristol, UK, revised 02 Dec 2014.
    20. OA Carboni & G Medda, 2010. "A Neoclassical Growth Model with Public Spending," Working Paper CRENoS 201033, Centre for North South Economic Research, University of Cagliari and Sassari, Sardinia.
    21. Groneck, Max, 2008. "A Golden Rule of Public Finance or a Fixed Deficit Regime? Growth and Welfare Effects of Budget Rules," FiFo Discussion Papers - Finanzwissenschaftliche Diskussionsbeiträge 08-7, University of Cologne, FiFo Institute for Public Economics.
    22. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo B. Vasconcelos, 2015. "Skill-Structure Shocks, the Share of the High-Tech Sector and Economic Growth Dynamics," FEP Working Papers 554, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    23. Klarl, Torben, 2016. "Pollution externalities, endogenous health and the speed of convergence in an endogenous growth model," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 98-113.
    24. Junying Zhao & William Scarth & Jeremiah Hurley, 2015. "Investing in Health: A Macroeconomic Exploration of Short-Run and Long-Run Trade-Offs," Department of Economics Working Papers 2015-15, McMaster University.
    25. Pedro Mazeda Gil & Oscar Afonso & Paulo B. Vasconcelos, 2013. "Industry Dynamics and Aggregate Stability over Transition," FEP Working Papers 484, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chatterjee, Santanu, 2005. "Capital utilization, economic growth and convergence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 29(12), pages 2093-2124, December.
    2. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2002. "Intertemporal and intratemporal substitution, and the speed of convergence in the neoclassical growth model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(9-10), pages 1765-1785, August.
    3. Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2008. "The role of factor substitution in the theory of economic growth and income distribution: Two examples," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 604-629, June.
    4. Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2000. "Growth in an open economy: some recent developments," Working Paper Research 05, National Bank of Belgium.
    5. Chatterjee, Santanu & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2007. "Foreign aid and economic growth: The role of flexible labor supply," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 507-533, September.
    6. Turnovsky, Stephen J, 2004. "The Transitional Dynamics of Fiscal Policy: Long-Run Capital Accumulation and Growth," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(5), pages 883-910, October.
    7. Groth, Christian & Wendner, Ronald, 2014. "Embodied learning by investing and speed of convergence," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 245-269.
    8. Minea, Alexandru, 2008. "The Role of Public Spending in the Growth Theory Evolution," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 5(2), pages 99-120, June.
    9. Aiello, Francesco & Pupo, Valeria, 2009. "Capacità di gestione, efficienza istituzionale e impatto dei Fondi Strutturali in Italia [The Impact of Structural Funds in Italy]," MPRA Paper 14429, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Mari-Carmen Puigcerver-PeUNICODE{0xf1}alver, 2004. "The Impact of Structural Funds Policy on European Regions Growth. A Theoretical and Empirical Approach," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 141, Econometric Society.
    11. Turnovsky, Stephen J. & Pintea, Mihaela, 2006. "Public and private production in a two-sector economy," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 273-302, June.
    12. Francesco Aiello & Valeria Pupo, 2009. "L’Impatto Dei Fondi Strutturali In Italia," Working Papers 200901, Università della Calabria, Dipartimento di Economia, Statistica e Finanza "Giovanni Anania" - DESF.
    13. Matthew Higgins & Daniel Levy & Andrew T. Young, 2003. "Growth and Convergence across the US: Evidence from County-Level Data," Working Papers 2003-03, Bar-Ilan University, Department of Economics.
    14. Chris Papageorgiou & Fidel Perez‐Sebastian, 2007. "Is the Asymptotic Speed of Convergence a Good Proxy for the Transitional Growth Path?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 39(1), pages 1-24, February.
    15. Celine Bonnefond, 2014. "Growth Dynamics And Conditional Convergence Among Chinese Provinces: A Panel Data Investigation Using System Gmm Estimator," Journal of Economic Development, Chung-Ang Unviersity, Department of Economics, vol. 39(4), pages 1-25, December.
    16. Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco, 2008. "Growth outside the stable path: Lessons from the European reconstruction," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 568-588, April.
    17. José Manuel González-Páramo & Diego Martínez López, "undated". "Public Investment and Convergence in the Spanish Regions," Studies on the Spanish Economy 112, FEDEA.
    18. Penna, Christiano Modesto & Linhares, Fabricio Carneiro, 2013. "Há controvérsia entre análises de beta e sigma-convergência no Brasil?," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 67(1), April.
    19. Mihaela Pintea & Stephen Turnovsky, 2006. "Congestion and Fiscal Policy in a Two-Sector Economy with Public Capital: A Quantitative Assessment," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 28(2), pages 177-209, September.
    20. Simon Wiederhold, 2012. "The Role of Public Procurement in Innovation: Theory and Empirical Evidence," ifo Beiträge zur Wirtschaftsforschung, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, number 43.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Public expenditure Growth Nonlinearities Welfare analysis;

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:dyncon:v:34:y:2010:i:9:p:1550-1571. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jedc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.