Frederic Tournemaine

Inequality, growth, and environmental quality trade‐offs in a model with human capital accumulation

This paper develops a simple endogenous growth model where pollution exposure and vulnerability are unequally spread across the population, and growth and distribution are endogenous. In this setup, we investigate whether tradeoffs between growth, distributional, and environmental concerns may emerge. We show that a tighter environmental policy reduces income inequality and can improve both growth and total welfare. Immediate welfare losses, though, do occur, and are larger for countries that start at low levels of environmental quality (e.g. developing countries).

STATUS, FERTILITY, GROWTH AND THE GREAT TRANSITION

We develop an overlapping generation model to examine how the relationship between status concerns, fertility and education affect growth performances. Results are threefold. First, we show that stronger status motives heighten the desire of parents to have fewer but better educated children, which may foster economic development. Second, the government should sometimes postpone the introduction of an economic policy in order to maintain the process of economic development, although such a policy aims to implement the social optimum. Third, status can alter the dynamic path of the economy and help to explain the facts about fertility during the great transition.

Choice of location, growth and welfare with unequal pollution exposures

AbstractWe develop an endogenous growth model with human capital accumulation in which firms are polluting and heterogeneous individuals must decide, among other things, where to live. The main idea is that pollution is unequally spread across geographical locations, inducing a trade-off for individuals between environmental quality and leisure. In such economy, we show that a better environmental quality and/or a greater degree of inequality lead individuals to favour cleaner locations which, in turn, boosts long-term growth. Welfare-wise, we find that, in general, individuals prefer a greater level of consumption and leisure but lower growth and environmental quality than those which are possible to achieve. Moreover, we show that the sign of the impact of inequality on environmental quality is likely to be negative.

SOCIAL CONFLICT, GROWTH AND FACTOR SHARES

Standard growth theory is based on atomistic agents with no strategic interactions among them. In contrast, we model growth as resulting from a one-off, strategic game between workers and owners of capital (capitalists) on factor shares, in an otherwise standard AK growth model. The resulting distribution of income between factors further determines the marginal revenue product of capital and the rate of growth. We analyse the properties of four equilibria: competitive, Stackelberg equilibrium, a hybrid non-cooperative regime, and cooperative (Nash) solution. We show that our model provides a potentially richer view of the growth process than comparable models, and endogenises a key aspect of the social contract.

THE GREAT TRANSITION

We develop an overlapping-generations model with human capital accumulation and endogenous fertility containing a pollution externality. We study the effects of an environmental policy on individuals’ quality–quantity trade-off on children. In a Malthusian poverty trap, we show that a more stringent policy induces a reduction of fertility. In a state of perpetual development, we find a similar result and show that higher environmental quality, growth and welfare are compatible goals. Moreover, we show that the policy can be used as an instrument for initiating a country’s great transition from a state of poverty to a state of development.