Comparison Utility in a Growth Model

作者：Christopher D. Carroll, Jody Overland, David Nathan Weil · 发表于：Journal of Economic Growth · 年份：1997 · DOI：10.1023/a:1009740920294 · 被引用次数：240 · 研究领域：Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth、Economic theories and models、Economic Growth and Productivity

We examine the dynamics of two endogenous-growth modelsin which agents have comparison utility. In the inward-lookingeconomy, individuals care about how their current consumptioncompares with their own past consumption. In the outward-lookingeconomy, they care about how their own consumption compares withother people‘s consumption. In response to a negative shock tocapital, saving and growth will temporarily fall in both of themodels that we consider but will remain constant in a model withstandard preferences. The decline will be smaller in the outward-than in the inward-looking case, but utility will be lower inthe former case because of a negative externality.