Emmanuel Thibault

Capital Accumulation and Fiscal Policy in an OLG Model with Family Altruism

The idea of family altruism is that parents care only about their childrens income and not about the use of this income made by the children. First, we establish dynamical properties which place the OLG model with family altruism halfway between the model with pure life-cyclers (Diamond (1965)) and the one with dynastic altruism (Barro (1974)). Then, we show that this concept leads to interesting fiscal policy conclusions less clear-cut and more realistic than those obtained with the two previous standard OLG models: a pay as you go social security is neutral but not a public debt.

Chapter 15 Intergenerational altruism and neoclassical growth models

Abstract This chapter surveys intergenerational altruism in neoclassical growth models. It first examines Barros approach to intergenerational altruism, whereby successive generations are linked by recursive altruistic preferences. Individuals have an altruistic concern only for their children, who in turn also have altruistic feelings for their own children. Through such a recursive relation all generations of a single family (a dynasty) are linked together by a chain of private intergenerational transfers, countervailing any attempt by the government to redistribute resources across generations. This offsetting of public by private transfers operates only if bequests are positive. This is an important qualification to Barros debt neutrality result. The conditions under which the Ricardian equivalence (debt neutrality) theorem applies are specified. The effectiveness of fiscal policy is further analysed in the context of an economy populated by heterogeneous families differing with respect to their degree of intergenerational altruism. We also examine other forms of dynastic altruism consistent with Barros recursive definition of altruism, ascending altruism and two-sided altruism. These forms could be expected to deliver debt neutrality unconditionally, as families leaving zero bequests could be families characterised by child-to-parent gift under ascending altruism. We find that this is not the case and no form of dynastic altruism therefore ensures debt neutrality without condition. Even under two-sided altruism there are cases, in which both bequests and gifts are constrained and fiscal policy remains effective. We then review ad hoc forms of altruism and their implications for the debt neutrality results. Only one specific form of ad hoc altruism always guarantees debt neutrality; this form departs from the recursive approach underpinning dynastic altruism, with its objective function being formally equivalent to that of the social planner. Extensions to the fields of education and environmental are presented in a final section.

The Spenders-Hoarders Theory of Capital Accumulation, Wealth Distribution and Fiscal Policy

This paper proposes a simple OLG model which is consistent with the essential facts about consumer behavior, capital accumulation and wealth distribution, and yields some new and surprising conclusions about fiscal policy. By considering a society in which individuals are distinguished according to two characteristics, altruism and wealth preference, we show that those who in the long run hold the bulk of private capital are not so much motivated by dynastic altruism as by preference for wealth. Two types of social segmentation can result with different wealth distribution. To a large extent our results seem to fit reality better than those obtained with standard optimal growth models in which dynastic altruism (or rate of impatience) is the only source of heterogeneity: overaccumulation can appear, public debt and unfunded pensions are not neutral, estate taxation can improve the welfare of the top wealthy.

Dynastic Accumulation of Wealth

Why do some dynasties maintain the fortune of their founders while others completely squander it in few generations? To address this question, we propose a simple deterministic model combining bequests motives and labor supply. We show that the interaction of the two key parameters in the model, the “hunger for accumulation” and the “willingness to exert effort”, can produce a surprisingly rich set of long-run process of wealth accumulation within a family lineage.

Is GDP a Relevant Social Welfare Indicator? A Savers-Spenders Theory Approach

The use of GDP as the main index of progress and welfare of a country has been the subject of a long debate amongst economists. Using and extending the saversspenders theory recently popularized by Mankiw (2000, AER), we analyze the theoretical relationships between GDP and the welfare of a society. This analysis is undertaken using several different overlapping generations models which all take into account the great heterogeneity of consumer behavior observed in the data (different labor supply choices, different degrees of altruism and/or different degrees of impatience to consume). The results indicate that GDP (per capita) is often a relevant index and is always a decent social welfare indicator.

Physical Activity and Policy Recommendations: A Social Multiplier Approach

Abstract We look at the effects of physical activity (PA) recommendation policies by considering a social multiplier model in which individuals differ in their concern for PA. The government can either observe this concern (and implement the First Best) or not (and implement a uniform policy). Whichever the type of policy implemented, while the welfare of individuals the most concerned with PA increases in the social multiplier, the welfare of those the least concerned may decrease in it. For a sufficiently high social multiplier, both government interventions improve the welfare of those most concerned with PA but worsen the welfare of the least concerned individuals if they are not too many. However, compared to the First Best, a uniform recommendation improves the welfare of those most concerned with PA more than it reduces the welfare of those least concerned.