IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mnh/spaper/2852.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Endogenous technical change in a competitive economy

Author

Listed:
  • Hellwig, Martin
  • Irmen, Andreas

Abstract

We develop a model of endogenous growth in an economy with competitive markets. Technical change arises from the intentional actions of entrepreneurs looking for profits. Opportunities for such profits stem from inframarginal rents. This provides a counterexample to the widespread view that endogenous technical change is possible only if innovating firms can expect to reap monopoly or oligopoly rents. The model has a unique equilibrium, which involves steady growth at a positive rate. Equilibrium growth is inefficiently low because knowledge spillover effects are neglected. The inefficiency can be eliminated by an interest rate subsidy.

Suggested Citation

  • Hellwig, Martin & Irmen, Andreas, 1999. "Endogenous technical change in a competitive economy," Papers 99-53, Sonderforschungsbreich 504.
    • Handle: RePEc:mnh:spaper:2852
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://madoc.bib.uni-mannheim.de/2852/1/dp99_53.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David Cass, 1965. "Optimum Growth in an Aggregative Model of Capital Accumulation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 32(3), pages 233-240.
    2. Romer, Paul M, 1990. "Endogenous Technological Change," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 71-102, October.
    3. Peretto, Pietro F, 1996. "Sunk Costs, Market Structure, and Growth," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(4), pages 895-923, November.
    4. F. A. Lutz, 1961. "The Theory of Capital," International Economic Association Series, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-08452-4 edited by D. C. Hague.
    5. Radner, Roy, 1972. "Existence of Equilibrium of Plans, Prices, and Price Expectations in a Sequence of Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 40(2), pages 289-303, March.
    6. Karl Shell, 2010. "Inventive Activity, Industrial Organization and Economic Growth," Levine's Working Paper Archive 1408, David K. Levine.
    7. Nicholas Kaldor, 1961. "Capital Accumulation and Economic Growth," International Economic Association Series, in: D. C. Hague (ed.), The Theory of Capital, chapter 0, pages 177-222, Palgrave Macmillan.
    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. Paul Lau, Sau-Him, 1999. "I(0) In, integration and cointegration out:: Time series properties of endogenous growth models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 1-24, November.
    2. Irmen, Andreas & Tabaković, Amer, 2017. "Endogenous capital- and labor-augmenting technical change in the neoclassical growth model," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 346-384.
    3. Roberto Veneziani & Luca Zamparelli & Daniele Tavani & Luca Zamparelli, 2017. "Endogenous Technical Change In Alternative Theories Of Growth And Distribution," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1272-1303, December.
    4. Gries, Thomas, 2018. "A New Theory of Demand-Restricted Growth," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181515, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    5. Keshab Raj Bhattarai, 2007. "Capital Accumulation, Growth and Redistribution: General Equilibrium Impacts of Energy and Pollution Taxes in UK," Energy and Environmental Modeling 2007 24000005, EcoMod.
    6. Jordan Rappaport, 2000. "How does openness to capital flows affect growth?," Research Working Paper RWP 00-11, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    7. repec:ebl:ecbull:v:2:y:2002:i:1:p:1-15 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman & Ezra Oberfield & Thomas Sampson, 2017. "The productivity slowdown and the declining labor share: a neoclassical exploration," CEP Discussion Papers dp1504, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    9. Jens J. Krüger, 2008. "Productivity And Structural Change: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 330-363, April.
    10. Lin, Justin Yifu & Monga, Celestin, 2010. "The growth report and new structural economics," Policy Research Working Paper Series 5336, The World Bank.
    11. Barro, Robert J & Mankiw, N Gregory & Sala-i-Martin, Xavier, 1995. "Capital Mobility in Neoclassical Models of Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 85(1), pages 103-115, March.
    12. Aykut Kibritçioglu, 2002. "On the Smithian origins of "new" trade and growth theories," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 2(1), pages 1-15.
    13. Foellmi, Reto & Zweimüller, Josef, 2008. "Structural change, Engel's consumption cycles and Kaldor's facts of economic growth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(7), pages 1317-1328, October.
    14. Lau, Sau-Him Paul & Sin, Chor-Yiu, 1997. "Observational equivalence and a stochastic cointegration test of the neoclassical and Romer's increasing returns models," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 39-60, January.
    15. Growiec, Jakub, 2013. "Factor-augmenting technology choice and monopolistic competition," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 38(PA), pages 86-94.
    16. Ortíz Quevedo, Carlos Humberto & Salazar Juan David, 2014. "Brasil como horizonte: mayor ingreso y mayor crecimiento económico para Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo 11033, Universidad del Valle, CIDSE.
    17. Ortiz Quevedo Carlos Humberto & Jiménez Restrepo Diana Marcela, 2015. "El Crecimiento Económico Y El Poder Adquisitivo En Colombia," Documentos de Trabajo 12887, Universidad del Valle, CIDSE.
    18. Bertola, Giuseppe, 2000. "Macroeconomics of distribution and growth," Handbook of Income Distribution, in: A.B. Atkinson & F. Bourguignon (ed.), Handbook of Income Distribution, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 9, pages 477-540, Elsevier.
    19. Carlos Humberto Ortiz, 2009. "La desaceleración económica colombiana: se cosecha lo que se siembra," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 11(21), pages 107-137, July-Dece.
    20. Growiec, Jakub & McAdam, Peter & Mućk, Jakub, 2018. "Endogenous labor share cycles: Theory and evidence," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 74-93.
    21. Thomas Gries, 2020. "A New Theory of Demand-Restricted Growth: The Basic Idea," The American Economist, Sage Publications, vol. 65(1), pages 11-27, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    endegenous technical change ; perfect competition ; productivity growth ; wages ; employment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D41 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Perfect Competition
    • D92 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice, Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • O4 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity
    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J30 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - General
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity

    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:mnh:spaper:2852. 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: Katharina Rautenberg (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sfmande.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.