IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/red/issued/13-270.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Obsolescence of Durable Goods and Optimal Purchase Timing

Author

Listed:
  • Ennio Stacchetti

    (New York University)

  • Dmitriy Stolyarov

    (University of Michigan)

Abstract

We study a model with a durable good subject to periodic obsolescence and analytically characterize the optimal purchasing policy. The key result is that consumers optimally synchronize new purchases with the innovation cycle. The model simultaneously explains coordinated adoption without invoking network effects and provides a theoretical underpinning for a diffusion curve that features a temporary adoption slowdown. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Suggested Citation

  • Ennio Stacchetti & Dmitriy Stolyarov, 2015. "Obsolescence of Durable Goods and Optimal Purchase Timing," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(4), pages 752-773, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:red:issued:13-270
    DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2015.07.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2015.07.002
    Download Restriction: Access to full texts is restricted to ScienceDirect subscribers and institutional members. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/ for details.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.red.2015.07.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jovanovic, Boyan & Lach, Saul, 1989. "Entry, Exit, and Diffusion with Learning by Doing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(4), pages 690-699, September.
    2. Cooper, Russell & Haltiwanger, John, 1993. "The Aggregate Implications of Machine Replacement: Theory and Evidence," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 360-382, June.
    3. Joseph Farrell & Garth Saloner, 1985. "Standardization, Compatibility, and Innovation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(1), pages 70-83, Spring.
    4. John V. Leahy & Joseph Zeira, 2005. "The Timing of Purchases and Aggregate Fluctuations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 72(4), pages 1127-1151.
    5. Raouf Boucekkine & David de la Croix & Omar Licandro, 2006. "Vintage Capital," Economics Working Papers ECO2006/8, European University Institute.
    6. Diego Comin & Bart Hobijn & Emilie Rovito, 2006. "Five Facts You Need to Know About Technology Diffusion," NBER Working Papers 11928, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Gene M. Grossman & Elhanan Helpman, 1991. "Quality Ladders in the Theory of Growth," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(1), pages 43-61.
    8. Jovanovic, Boyan & Rousseau, Peter L., 2005. "General Purpose Technologies," Handbook of Economic Growth, in: Philippe Aghion & Steven Durlauf (ed.), Handbook of Economic Growth, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 18, pages 1181-1224, Elsevier.
    9. Shleifer, Andrei, 1986. "Implementation Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(6), pages 1163-1190, December.
    10. Haider, Steven J, 2001. "Earnings Instability and Earnings Inequality of Males in the United States: 1967-1991," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(4), pages 799-836, October.
    11. Diego Comin & Bart Hobijn, 2010. "An Exploration of Technology Diffusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2031-2059, December.
    12. Balcer, Yves & Lippman, Steven A., 1984. "Technological expectations and adoption of improved technology," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 292-318, December.
    13. Patrick Francois & Huw Lloyd-Ellis, 2003. "Animal Spirits Through Creative Destruction," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(3), pages 530-550, June.
    14. Russell Cooper & John Haltiwanger, 1993. "Automobiles and the National Industrial Recovery Act: Evidence on Industry Complementarities," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(4), pages 1043-1071.
    15. Arthur Fishman & Rafael Rob, 2000. "Product Innovation by a Durable-Good Monpoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(2), pages 237-252, Summer.
    16. Raouf Boucekkine & David de la Croix & Omar Licandro, 2011. "Vintage capital growth theory: Three breakthroughs," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 875.11, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    17. David Dranove & Neil Gandal, 2003. "The Dvd‐vs.‐Divx Standard War: Empirical Evidence of Network Effects and Preannouncement Effects," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 363-386, September.
    18. Raouf Boucekkine & David de la Croix & Omar Licandro, 2011. "Vintage capital growth theory: Three breakthroughs," UFAE and IAE Working Papers 875.11, Unitat de Fonaments de l'Anàlisi Econòmica (UAB) and Institut d'Anàlisi Econòmica (CSIC).
    19. Swan, Peter L, 1972. "Optimum Durability, Second-Hand Markets, and Planned Obsolescence," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(3), pages 575-585, May-June.
    20. Rust, John, 1986. "When Is It Optimal to Kill Off the Market for Used Durable Goods?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(1), pages 65-86, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Casalis, André & Krustev, Georgi, 2022. "Cyclical drivers of euro area consumption: What can we learn from durable goods?," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schröder, Philipp J.H. & Sørensen, Allan, 2012. "Firm exit, technological progress and trade," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 579-591.
    2. Geroski, P. A., 2000. "Models of technology diffusion," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4-5), pages 603-625, April.
    3. Alessandro Mistretta & Francesco Zollino, 2021. "Recent Trends in Economic Activity and TFP in Italy with a Focus on Embodied Technical Progress," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 7(1), pages 79-107, March.
    4. Esteban Jaimovich, 2021. "Quality growth: from process to product innovation along the path of development," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 71(2), pages 761-793, March.
    5. Michael Grubb & Jean-Francois Mercure & Pablo Salas & Rutger-Jan Lange & Ida Sognnaes, 2018. "Systems Innovation, Inertia and Pliability: A mathematical exploration with implications for climate change abatement," Working Papers EPRG 1808, Energy Policy Research Group, Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.
    6. Fabbri, Giorgio & Faggian, Silvia & Freni, Giuseppe, 2015. "On the Mitra–Wan forest management problem in continuous time," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 1001-1040.
    7. Shinagawa, Shunsuke, 2013. "Endogenous fluctuations with procyclical R&D," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 274-280.
    8. Toshiaki Iizuka, 2007. "An Empirical Analysis of Planned Obsolescence," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(1), pages 191-226, March.
    9. Sohei Kaihatsu & Maiko Koga & Tomoya Sakata & Naoko Hara, 2019. "Interaction between Business Cycles and Economic Growth," Monetary and Economic Studies, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan, vol. 37, pages 99-126, November.
    10. Jean-François Mercure, 2015. "An age structured demographic theory of technological change," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 787-820, September.
    11. Michael Waldman, 2003. "Durable Goods Theory for Real World Markets," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(1), pages 131-154, Winter.
    12. Bambi, Mauro & Gozzi, Fausto & Licandro, Omar, 2014. "Endogenous growth and wave-like business fluctuations," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 68-111.
    13. Bitros, George C., 2009. "The Theorem of Proportionality in Mainstream Capital Theory: An Assessment of its Conceptual Foundations," MPRA Paper 17436, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Giuliana Battisti & Paul Stoneman, 2019. "Defining and Measuring the Innovativeness of Firms," Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE) Discussion Papers ESCoE DP-2019-19, Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE).
    15. Roberto M. Samaniego & Juliana Yu Sun, 2022. "The Embodiment Controversy: On the Policy Implications of Vintage Capital Models," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(5), pages 1175-1222, August.
    16. Liu, Taoxiong & Liu, Zhuohao, 2022. "A growth model with endogenous technological revolutions and cycles," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    17. Gadi Barlevy, 2004. "On the Timing of Innovation in Stochastic Schumpeterian Growth Models," NBER Working Papers 10741, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Dimitrios Koumparoulis, 2011. "The Proportionality Hypothesis in Capital Theory: an Assessment of the Literature," EuroEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 27, pages 27-39, February.
    19. Ferraro, Domenico, 2017. "Volatility and slow technology diffusion," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 18-37.
    20. Alessandro Mistretta & Francesco Zollino, 0. "Recent Trends in Economic Activity and TFP in Italy with a Focus on Embodied Technical Progress," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 0, pages 1-29.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Obsolescence; Durable goods; Technology adoption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives
    • E22 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Investment; Capital; Intangible Capital; Capacity

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:red:issued:13-270. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christian Zimmermann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sedddea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.