Takuma Kunieda

FINANCE AND INEQUALITY: HOW DOES GLOBALIZATION CHANGE THEIR RELATIONSHIP?

This research demonstrates that international financial integration changes the way in which financial development affects inequality within a country. Specifically, both the cross-country analysis and the dynamic panel data analysis using data collected from more than 100 countries provide evidence indicating that if the financial market of a country is highly open to the world market, financial development widens inequality within that country, whereas if the financial market of a country is highly closed to the world market, financial development narrows inequality within that country. Our theoretical framework provides a possible explanation for our empirical findings.

Asset Bubbles and Borrowing Constraints

In this paper, we study the existence of asset bubbles in an overlapping generations economy `a la Tirole (1985) with borrowing constraints. Deriving a condition for the existence of equilibrium paths with bubbles, we demonstrate that (i) a monetary steady state (a steady state with bubbles) is constrained dynamically inefficient, whereas capital in the monetary steady state is underaccumulating relative to the quasi-golden rule, (ii) there exists a government intervention which corrects the constrained dynamic inefficiency, and (iii) for some parameter values, such a government intervention reduces the utilities of many agents, while it increases per capita consumption.

Credit Market Imperfections and Macroeconomic Instability

Credit market imperfections typically characterize a low quality financial market, where the quality of information about borrowers is low and/or enforcement rules or institutions are not well developed. We consider an economy with credit market imperfections and analyse how changes in the degree of credit constraints affect economic fluctuations. The analysis demonstrates that if the degree of credit market imperfection is either severe or too soft, the economy converges to an asymptotically stable steady state, whereas if the degree of imperfection is moderate, the equilibrium involves deterministic cycles or chaos.

Finance and Economic Growth in a Dynamic Game

We investigate how the relaxation of financial constraints affects economic growth in a dynamic game of the tragedy of the commons by introducing an imperfect financial market into Tornell and Velasco’s (J Polit Econ 100(6):1208–1231, 1992) model. It is shown that whereas the relaxation of financial constraints enhances economic growth if agents have access only to a common asset whose property rights are not secure, the relaxation of financial constraints reduces economic growth if agents can have access not only to a common asset but also to a private asset whose property rights are secure.

ENTREPRENEURS, FINANCIERS, AND BOOM–BUST CYCLES

In this paper, a dynamic general equilibrium model with infinitely lived entrepreneurs and financiers is developed to investigate a possible mechanism that explains business cycles and financial crises. The highest growth rate is achievable only if financiers coexist with entrepreneurs, given a certain extent of financial market imperfections. However, if financiers coexist with entrepreneurs, the economy is highly likely to face a financial crisis at certain parameter values. These two-sided implications of the coexistence of entrepreneurs and financiers explain why both instability and high growth are frequently observed in modern economies. Furthermore, our model can obtain countercyclical movements in total factor productivity growth that cannot be explained by the standard real business cycle theory but were observed in the Great Recession of 2007–2008.

A note on the crowd-in effect of asset bubbles in the perpetual youth model

A perpetual youth overlapping generations model is presented in which the presence of financial frictions can create the crowd-in effect of asset bubbles that promotes capital accumulation. The existence of asset bubbles increases the equilibrium interest rate. Although the increased interest rate excludes less productive agents from production activity, these agents benefit from the liquidity of an intrinsically useless asset, rolling over the asset to the next period. As a result, allocative inefficiency is corrected, and capital accumulation can be promoted.

Complex behaviour in a piecewise linear dynamic macroeconomic model with endogenous discontinuity

This paper examines the dynamic property of a macroeconomic model developed by Matsuyama [Am. Econ. Rev. 97(2007), pp. 503–516] in detail. It is shown that the model can be transformed into a version of the neuron model analysed by Hata [J. Math. Kyoto Univ. 22(1982), pp. 155–173, Chaos in Neural Network Models (in Japanese), Asakura, Tokyo 1998] and that the system can exhibit either periodic fluctuations or non-periodic (chaotic) fluctuations.

A Two-Sector Growth Model with Credit Market Imperfections and Production Externalities

A two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model with financial constraints and production externalities is studied. Agents face idiosyncratic productivity shocks in each period. Agents who draw high productivity borrow resources in the financial market and become capital producers, whereas agents who draw low productivity become lenders. We analyze how the interaction between the extent of financial constraints and sector-specific production externalities affects the characterization of equilibria in a two-sector economy.

A Simple Model of Contract Enforcement Institutions

We demonstrate that in highly productive economies contract enforcement institutions are endogenously established, and partnership contracts correct inefficient land allocation. In less productive economies, however, such institutions are not established, and partnership contracts are not formed. In economies with intermediate productivity levels, multiple Nash equilibria exist; that is, contract enforcement institutions are established in the high Nash equilibrium whereas they are not formed in the low Nash equilibrium. In this case, institutional quality can be diverse across economies. We also prove that improvement in institutional quality reduces within-country inequality. All these outcomes are consistent with cross-country observations.

Consumption externalities and indeterminacy in a continuous-time two-sector growth model

A two-sector dynamic general equilibrium model is investigated in which general goods (which are used for both consumption and investment) and consumption goods are produced. Although agents extract their felicity from consuming both goods, the average consumption of general goods has externalities on both preferences for general and consumption goods. Assuming that both production functions exhibit constant returns to scale and labour supply is inelastic, we demonstrate that if the consumption externality of general goods on the preference for consumption goods is negative and sufficiently smaller than that on the preference for general goods, the steady state is totally stable and local indeterminacy of equilibrium occurs.