0000000000185426
AUTHOR
J. R. Ruiz Tamarit
Special Functions for the Study of Economic Dynamics: The Case of the Lucas-Uzawa Model
The special functions are intensively used in mathematical physics to solve differential systems. We argue that they should be most useful in economic dynamics, notably in the assessment of the transition dynamics of endogenous growth models. We illustrate our argument on the Lucas-Uzawa model, which we solve by the means of Gaussian hypergeometric functions. We show how the use of Gaussian hypergeometric functions allows for an explicit representation of the equilibrium dynamics of the variables in level. In contrast to the preexisting approaches, our method is global and does not rely on dimension reduction.
The Reduction of Dimension in the Study of Economic Growth Models
We examine the dimension reduction method and prove that it could be misleading if we try to get some insight into the dynamics of the original system from the dynamics of the transformed system alone. The reduced system seemingly may give rise to a continuum multiplicity of steady states when, actually, it does exist a unique and isolated steady state or even it does not exist a steady state at all. We show how the dynamics for the primary variables that is recovered from the solution to the reduced system may be refuted by solving the original one. In our opinion there is no alternative because nothing can be regarded as a close substitute for the study of the original system. Although th…
Growth vs. Level Effect of Population Change on Economic Development: An Inspection into Human-Capital-Related Mechanisms
This paper studies the different mechanisms and the dynamics through which demography is channeled to the economy. We analyze the role of demographic changes in the economic development process by studying the transitional and the long-run impact of both the rate of population growth and the initial population size on the levels of per capita human capital and income. We do that in an enlarged Lucas-Uzawa model with intergenerational altruism. In contrast to the existing theoretical literature, the long-run level effects of demographic changes, i.e. their impact on the levels of the variables along the balanced growth path, are deeply characterized in addition to the more standard long-run …