This paper constructs a quantitative general equilibrium life-cycle model with uninsurable labor income to account for the differences in wealth accumulation and homeownership between Korea and the United States. The model incorporates different structures in the housing market in the two countries, namely, the mortgage market and the rental arrangements. The results from the calibrated model quantitatively explain some empirical findings in the aggregate and life-cycle profiles of wealth and homeownership. Quantitative policy experiments show that the mortgage market alone can account for more than 40% of the differences in the aggregate homeownership ratios. When coupled with the rental arrangements, both institutions can account for approximately 52% of the differences in the cross-country homeownership ratios.

We discuss the problem known in economics as backward dynamics occurring in models of perfect foresight, intertemporal equilibrium described mathematically by implicit difference equations. In a previously published paper [Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 31 (2007), 1633–1671], we showed that by means of certain mathematical methods and results known as inverse limits theory it is possible to establish a correspondence between the backward dynamics of a noninvertible map and the forward dynamics of a related invertible map acting on an appropriately defined space of sequences, each of whose elements corresponds to an intertemporal equilibrium. We also proved the existence of different types of topological attractors for one-dimensional models of overlapping generations. In this paper, we provide an extension of those results, constructing a Lebesgue-like probability measure on spaces of infinite sequences that allows us to distinguish typical from exceptional dynamical behaviors in a measure–theoretical sense, thus proving that all the topological attractors considered in MR07 are also metric attractors. We incidentally also prove that the existence of chaos (in the Devaney–Touhey sense) backward in time implies (and is implied by) chaos forward in time.

Inspired by the theoretically oriented dynamic analysis of moving average rules in the model of Chiarella, He, and Hommes (CHH) [Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 30 (2006), 1729—1753], this paper conducts a dynamic analysis of a more realistic microstructure model of continuous double auctions in which the probability of heterogeneous agents trading is determined by the rules of either fundamentalists mean-reverting to the fundamental or chartists choosing moving average rules based on their relative performance. With such a realistic market microstructure, the model is able not only to obtain the results of the CHH model but also to characterize most of the stylized facts including volatility clustering, insignificant autocorrelations (ACs) of returns, and significant slowly decaying ACs of the absolute returns. The results seem to suggest that a comprehensive explanation of several statistical properties of returns is possible in a framework where both behavioral traits and realistic microstructure have a role.

The paper proposes a New Keynesian monetary model where firms' pricing policies feature a forward-looking optimal choice of the rate of price growth. The model can be thought of as a reduced form model of rational inattention that has only one additional state variable relative to the Calvo model [Journal of Monetary Economics 12 (1983), 383–398]. Like the model of backward-looking automatic indexation to past aggregate inflation, it generates a gradual and persistent reaction of the inflation rate, and output losses, following highly persistent monetary shocks. But unlike that model, its price setters behave very similarly to Calvo price setters when shocks are transitory.

Can a transfer of wealth from the United States to the least developed countries be Pareto improving? We analyze this question in an open-economy R&D-based growth model, in which the high-income (low-income) country produces innovative (homogeneous) goods. We find that wealth redistribution to the low-income country simultaneously reduces global inequality and increases economic growth through an increase in labor supply in the high-income country. Given that the market equilibrium of R&D-based growth models is usually inefficient due to R&D externalities, the wealth redistribution may lead to a Pareto improvement, which occurs if the discount rate is sufficiently low or R&D productivity is sufficiently high.

This paper provides a unified approach to characterizing the relation between factor substitution and economic growth in different one-sector growth models (namely, the Solow, Ramsey, and Diamond models). Our main finding is that if better factor substitution raises savings in the steady state, then a higher per capita income results. There are two channels by which factor substitution affects savings: the positive efficiency effect via income and the ambiguous distribution effect via factor income shares. If the efficiency effect dominates, then a higher elasticity of substitution leads to a higher level of per capita steady-state income. In transition, factor substitution affects the rate of convergence both directly and through the equilibrium profit share. The former arises from diminishing marginal productivity of capital whereas the latter reflects its relative scarcity. Depending on the interaction of these effects, the net outcomes are characterized.

This note shows that Lemma 3 in the paper by Tiago N. Sequeira [R&D spillovers in an endogenous growth model with physical capital, human capital and varieties, Macroeconomic Dynamics (2011)] is insufficient to guarantee stability and provides an alternative sufficient condition for stability.