IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jetheo/v173y2018icp18-55.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the existence and uniqueness of stationary equilibrium in Bewley economies with production

Author

Listed:
  • Açıkgöz, Ömer T.

Abstract

I prove existence of stationary recursive competitive equilibrium in Bewley economies with production under specifications in which (i) the utility function is allowed to be unbounded, and (ii) the underlying discrete idiosyncratic productivity process can take any form, aside from mild restrictions. Some of the intermediate results provide theoretical basis for assumptions often made in the quantitative macroeconomics literature. By providing an example, I illustrate that the equilibrium is not necessarily unique, even under typical specifications of the model, and discuss the underlying reasons for multiplicity.

Suggested Citation

  • Açıkgöz, Ömer T., 2018. "On the existence and uniqueness of stationary equilibrium in Bewley economies with production," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 18-55.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jetheo:v:173:y:2018:i:c:p:18-55
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jet.2017.10.006
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022053117301084
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jet.2017.10.006?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marcet, Albert & Obiols-Homs, Francesc & Weil, Philippe, 2007. "Incomplete markets, labor supply and capital accumulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2621-2635, November.
    2. Martin Kaae Jensen, 2018. "Distributional Comparative Statics," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 85(1), pages 581-610.
    3. John Stachurski, 2009. "Economic Dynamics: Theory and Computation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262012774, December.
    4. Kimball, Miles S, 1990. "Precautionary Saving in the Small and in the Large," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(1), pages 53-73, January.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Deaton, Angus, 1991. "Saving and Liquidity Constraints," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(5), pages 1221-1248, September.
    7. Miao, Jianjun, 2006. "Competitive equilibria of economies with a continuum of consumers and aggregate shocks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 128(1), pages 274-298, May.
    8. Gary Chamberlain & Charles A. Wilson, 2000. "Optimal Intertemporal Consumption Under Uncertainty," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 3(3), pages 365-395, July.
    9. Huggett, Mark & Ospina, Sandra, 2001. "Aggregate precautionary savings: when is the third derivative irrelevant?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 373-396, October.
    10. Stephen P. Zeldes, 1989. "Optimal Consumption with Stochastic Income: Deviations from Certainty Equivalence," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 104(2), pages 275-298.
    11. Daron Acemoglu & Martin Kaae Jensen, 2015. "Robust Comparative Statics in Large Dynamic Economies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 123(3), pages 587-640.
    12. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
    13. Brock, William A. & Gale, David, 1969. "Optimal growth under factor augmenting progress," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 229-243, October.
    14. Cuong Van & John Stachurski, 2007. "Parametric continuity of stationary distributions," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 33(2), pages 333-348, November.
    15. Christopher D. Carroll, 1992. "The Buffer-Stock Theory of Saving: Some Macroeconomic Evidence," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 23(2), pages 61-156.
    16. Clarida, Richard H, 1987. "Consumption, Liquidity Constraints and Asset Accumulation in the Presence of Random Income Fluctuations," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 28(2), pages 339-351, June.
    17. Li, Huiyu & Stachurski, John, 2014. "Solving the income fluctuation problem with unbounded rewards," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 353-365.
    18. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Zhu, Shenghao, 2015. "The wealth distribution in Bewley economies with capital income risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 489-515.
    19. Cuong Le Van & John Stachurski, 2007. "Parametric continuity of stationary distributions," Post-Print halshs-00101157, HAL.
    20. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Laitner, John, 1992. "Random earnings differences, lifetime liquidity constraints, and altruistic intergenerational transfers," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 135-170, December.
    22. Krebs, Tom, 2004. "Non-existence of recursive equilibria on compact state spaces when markets are incomplete," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 134-150, March.
    23. Per Krusell & Anthony A. Smith & Jr., 1998. "Income and Wealth Heterogeneity in the Macroeconomy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(5), pages 867-896, October.
    24. Schechtman, Jack & Escudero, Vera L. S., 1977. "Some results on "an income fluctuation problem"," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 151-166, December.
    25. John Laitner, 1979. "Household Bequest Behaviour and the National Distribution of Wealth," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(3), pages 467-483.
    26. de Oliveira Sotomayor, Marilda A., 1984. "On income fluctuations and capital gains," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 14-35, February.
    27. Rabault, Guillaume, 2002. "When do borrowing constraints bind? Some new results on the income fluctuation problem," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 217-245, February.
    28. Donald M. Topkis, 1978. "Minimizing a Submodular Function on a Lattice," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(2), pages 305-321, April.
    29. Clarida, Richard H, 1990. "International Lending and Borrowing in a Stochastic, Stationary Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 31(3), pages 543-558, August.
    30. Coleman, Wilbur John, II, 1990. "Solving the Stochastic Growth Model by Policy-Function Iteration," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 8(1), pages 27-29, January.
    31. Moritz Kuhn, 2013. "Recursive Equilibria In An Aiyagari‐Style Economy With Permanent Income Shocks," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54, pages 807-835, August.
    32. Huggett, Mark, 1993. "The risk-free rate in heterogeneous-agent incomplete-insurance economies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 17(5-6), pages 953-969.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Acikgoz, Omer, 2015. "On the Existence and Uniqueness of Stationary Equilibrium in Bewley Economies with Production," MPRA Paper 71066, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Apr 2016.
    2. Acikgoz, Omer, 2015. "On the Existence of Equilibrium in Bewley Economies with Production," MPRA Paper 69061, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Shenghao Zhu, 2020. "Existence Of Stationary Equilibrium In An Incomplete‐Market Model With Endogenous Labor Supply," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 61(3), pages 1115-1138, August.
    4. Ma, Qingyin & Stachurski, John & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2020. "The income fluctuation problem and the evolution of wealth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    5. Lehrer, Ehud & Light, Bar, 2018. "The effect of interest rates on consumption in an income fluctuation problem," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 63-71.
    6. Bar Light, 2019. "General equilibrium in a heterogeneous-agent incomplete-market economy with many consumption goods and a risk-free bond," Papers 1906.06810, arXiv.org, revised Mar 2021.
    7. Li, Huiyu & Stachurski, John, 2014. "Solving the income fluctuation problem with unbounded rewards," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 353-365.
    8. Moritz Kuhn, 2013. "Recursive Equilibria In An Aiyagari‐Style Economy With Permanent Income Shocks," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 54(3), pages 807-835, August.
    9. Ma, Qingyin & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2022. "Asymptotic linearity of consumption functions and computational efficiency," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    10. Bar Light, 2020. "Uniqueness of equilibrium in a Bewley–Aiyagari model," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 69(2), pages 435-450, March.
    11. Jonathan Heathcote & Kjetil Storesletten & Giovanni L. Violante, 2009. "Quantitative Macroeconomics with Heterogeneous Households," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 1(1), pages 319-354, May.
    12. Stachurski, John & Toda, Alexis Akira, 2019. "An impossibility theorem for wealth in heterogeneous-agent models with limited heterogeneity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 1-24.
    13. Suen, Richard M. H., 2011. "Concave consumption function and precautionary wealth accumulation," MPRA Paper 34774, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Thomas M. Eisenbach & Yuliy Sannikov, 2012. "Macroeconomics with Financial Frictions: A Survey," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000384, David K. Levine.
    15. Marcet, Albert & Obiols-Homs, Francesc & Weil, Philippe, 2007. "Incomplete markets, labor supply and capital accumulation," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(8), pages 2621-2635, November.
    16. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8713 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8713 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8713 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. repec:spo:wpecon:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Robert F. Martin Joseph W. Gruber, 2004. "Does Housing Wealth Make Us Less Equal? The Role of Durable Goods in the Distribution of Wealth," Econometric Society 2004 North American Summer Meetings 15, Econometric Society.
    22. Thomas J. Sargent & John Stachurski, 2024. "Dynamic Programming: Finite States," Papers 2401.10473, arXiv.org.
    23. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8623 is not listed on IDEAS
    24. Wang, Neng, 2007. "An equilibrium model of wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 1882-1904, October.
    25. Hubbard, R. Glenn & Skinner, Jonathan & Zeldes, Stephen P., 1994. "The importance of precautionary motives in explaining individual and aggregate saving," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 59-125, June.
    26. Benhabib, Jess & Bisin, Alberto & Zhu, Shenghao, 2015. "The wealth distribution in Bewley economies with capital income risk," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PA), pages 489-515.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bewley–Aiyagari model; Recursive competitive equilibrium;

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • C62 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Existence and Stability Conditions of Equilibrium
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    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:jetheo:v:173:y:2018:i:c:p:18-55. 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/inca/622869 .

    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.