IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jopoec/v10y1997i3p317-334.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Altruism and the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes

Author

Listed:
  • Erik Canton

    (Center for Economic Research and Department of Economics, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands)

  • Lex Meijdam

    (Center for Economic Research and Department of Economics, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands)

Abstract

In this paper we show that the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes strongly depend on the degree of altruism and on the specification of the intertemporal utility function. We allow for agents either to be altruistic in the sense of Barro (1974) or non-altruistic. In the latter case, generations are heterogeneous like in the "unloved children" model of Weil (1989). In the former case, where the model is a standard Ramsey model with identical agents, we distinguish a Millian and a Benthamite intertemporal utility function. For each of these models, we study the effects of an anticipated and unanticipated permanent decline in population growth as well as the consequences of a baby-boom/baby-bust scenario.

Suggested Citation

  • Erik Canton & Lex Meijdam, 1997. "Altruism and the macroeconomic effects of demographic changes," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 10(3), pages 317-334.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jopoec:v:10:y:1997:i:3:p:317-334
    Note: Received April 17, 1996/Accepted December 10, 1996
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00148/papers/7010003/70100317.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted
    File URL: http://link.springer.de/link/service/journals/00148/papers/7010003/70100317.ps.gz
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted
    ---><---

    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:

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Kuhn, Michael & Wrzaczek, Stefan & Oeppen, Jim, 2010. "Recognizing progeny in the value of life," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 107(1), pages 17-21, April.
    2. Gerlagh, Reyer & Jaimes, Richard & Motavasseli, Ali, 2017. "Global Demographic Change and Climate Policies," Other publications TiSEM 7a4ee2a9-e025-4ec0-8bc8-f, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    3. Dr. Lucas Marc Fuhrer & Nils Herger, 2021. "Real interest rates and demographic developments across generations: A panel-data analysis over two centuries," Working Papers 2021-07, Swiss National Bank.
    4. Raouf Boucekkine & Blanca Martínez & J. Ramon Ruiz-Tamarit, 2018. "Optimal Population Growth as an Endogenous Discounting Problem: The Ramsey Case," Lecture Notes in Economics and Mathematical Systems, in: Gustav Feichtinger & Raimund M. Kovacevic & Gernot Tragler (ed.), Control Systems and Mathematical Methods in Economics, pages 321-347, Springer.
    5. Westerhout, Ed & Meijdam, Lex & Ponds, Eduard & Bonenkamp, Jan, 2022. "Should we revive PAYG? On the optimal pension system in view of current economic trends," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    6. Boucekkine, R. & Martínez, B. & Ruiz-Tamarit, J.R., 2013. "Growth vs. level effect of population change on economic development: An inspection into human-capital-related mechanisms," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 312-334.
    7. Luca Gori & Piero Manfredi & Simone Marsiglio & Mauro Sodini, 2022. "COVID‐19 epidemic and mitigation policies: Positive and normative analyses in a neoclassical growth model," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(5), pages 968-992, October.
    8. Weiske, Sebastian, 2019. "Population growth, the natural rate of interest, and inflation," Working Papers 03/2019, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung.
    9. Dafeng Xu, 2014. "Rural-Urban Migration with Behavioral Preferences," ERSA conference papers ersa14p536, European Regional Science Association.
    10. Stiller, Silvia, 2000. "Welfare effects of demographic changes in a Ramsey growth model," HWWA Discussion Papers 107, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    11. Casper van Ewijk & Erik Canton & Paul Tang, 2004. "Ageing and international capital flows," CPB Document 43.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    12. Casper van Ewijk & Erik Canton & Paul Tang, 2004. "Ageing and international capital flows," CPB Document 43, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    13. Stiller, Silvia, 2000. "Welfare Effects of Demographic Changes in a Ramsey Growth Model," Discussion Paper Series 26285, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Demographic changes · altruistic and non-altruistic agents;

    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • J10 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - General

    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:spr:jopoec:v:10:y:1997:i:3:p:317-334. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.