IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cie/wpaper/0212.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Evolution of the Distribution of Assets in the Neoclassical Growth Model

Author

Listed:
  • Francesc Obiols-Homs

    (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM))

  • Carlos Urrutia

    (Centro de Investigacion Economica (CIE), Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico (ITAM))

Abstract

We study the evolution of the distribution of assets in a deterministic version of the Neoclassical Growth Model with log-utility, a minimum consumption requirement, and Cobb-Douglas technology. Agents are heterogeneous in their initial endowment of assets only. The dynamics of the aggregate variables behaves as in a standard representative agent model. We prove that the disparity in assets decreases monotonically in a transition to the steady state from below, as long as (i) the minimum consumption requirement is zero or negative, or (ii) the consumption requirement is positive but not too large and the initial capital stock is large enough. This result is not based on a local approximation of the model around the steady state, nor on numerical computations, as it has been the case in previous literature. We also show how a positive minimum consumption requirement or a small elasticity of substitution between capital and labor can generate non-monotonic paths for the disparity in assets along a transition. Our work extends the result in Chatterjee (1994) on the evolution of the distribution of lifetime wealth (or consumption) to the evolution of the distribution of assets (or capital).

Suggested Citation

  • Francesc Obiols-Homs & Carlos Urrutia, 2002. "Evolution of the Distribution of Assets in the Neoclassical Growth Model," Working Papers 0212, Centro de Investigacion Economica, ITAM.
    • Handle: RePEc:cie:wpaper:0212
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ftp.itam.mx/pub/academico/inves/obiols/02-12.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2002
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stiglitz, Joseph E, 1969. "Distribution of Income and Wealth among Individuals," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 37(3), pages 382-397, July.
    2. Alvarez-Pelaez, Maria J. & Diaz, Antonia, 2005. "Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 633-667, April.
    3. Jaume Ventura & Francesco Caselli, 2000. "A Representative Consumer Theory of Distribution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(4), pages 909-926, September.
    4. Hernandez D, Alejandro, 1991. "The dynamics of competitive equilibrium allocations with borrowing constraints," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 180-191, October.
    5. Chatterjee, Satyajit, 1994. "Transitional dynamics and the distribution of wealth in a neoclassical growth model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 97-119, May.
    6. 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)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Alvarez-Pelaez, Maria J. & Diaz, Antonia, 2005. "Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 633-667, April.
    2. Alvarez-Pelaez, Maria J. & Diaz, Antonia, 2005. "Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 633-667, April.

    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. Francesc Obiols-Homs & Carlos Urrutia, 2005. "Transitional dynamics and the distribution of assets," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 25(2), pages 381-400, February.
    2. Marcel Aloy & Gilles de Truchis, 2012. "Estimation and Testing for Fractional Cointegration," AMSE Working Papers 1215, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    3. Alvarez-Cuadrado, Francisco & Van Long, Ngo, 2011. "The relative income hypothesis," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 1489-1501, September.
    4. Cecilia García-Peñalosa & Stephen J. Turnovsky, 2012. "Income Inequality, Mobility, and the Accumulation of Capital. The role of Heterogeneous Labor Productivity," AMSE Working Papers 1216, Aix-Marseille School of Economics, France.
    5. Turnovsky, Stephen J. & Garci­a-Peñalosa, Cecilia, 2008. "Distributional dynamics in a neoclassical growth model: The role of elastic labor supply," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 1399-1431, May.
    6. Francisco Alvarez-Cuadrado & Ngo Van Long, 2008. "A Permanent Income Version of the Relative Income Hypothesis," CESifo Working Paper Series 2361, CESifo.
    7. Grossmann, Volker & Larin, Benjamin & Löfflad, Hans Torben & Steger, Thomas, 2021. "Distributional consequences of surging housing rents," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    8. Subrata Guha, 2009. "Neoclassical Growth And The Distribution Of Consumption," Pacific Economic Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 24-45, February.
    9. 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.
    10. Mengus, Eric & Roberto Pancrazi, 2015. "The Inequality Accelerator," Economic Research Papers 270216, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    11. Alvarez-Pelaez, Maria J. & Diaz, Antonia, 2005. "Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 633-667, April.
    12. Hongyi Li & Danyang Xie & Heng‐Fu Zou, 2000. "Dynamics of income distribution," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(4), pages 937-961, November.
    13. Koulovatianos, Christos & Schröder, Carsten & Schmidt, Ulrich, 2010. "Confronting the representative consumer with household-size heterogeneity," Kiel Working Papers 1663, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    14. José Victor Rios-Rull, 2002. "Desigualdad, ¿qué sabemos?," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 26(2), pages 221-254, May.
    15. Lilia Maliar & Serguei Maliar, 2003. "The Representative Consumer in the Neoclassical Growth Model with Idiosyncratic Shocks," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 6(2), pages 368-380, April.
    16. Reto Foellmi, 2008. "Inequality and aggregate savings in the neoclassical growth model," IEW - Working Papers 395, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    17. Jose-Victor Rios-Rull & Per Krusell, 1999. "On the Size of U.S. Government: Political Economy in the Neoclassical Growth Model," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(5), pages 1156-1181, December.
    18. Alvarez-Pelaez, Maria J. & Diaz, Antonia, 2005. "Minimum consumption and transitional dynamics in wealth distribution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(3), pages 633-667, April.
    19. 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.
    20. Joseph W. Gruber & Robert F. Martin, 2003. "Precautionary savings and the wealth distribution with illiquid durables," International Finance Discussion Papers 773, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).

    More about this item

    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:cie:wpaper:0212. 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: Diego Dominguez (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ciitamx.html .

    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.