Altruisme et hétérogénéité

This article examines the long-run equilibrium of an overlapping- generations economy with a population consisting of altruistic agents whose degree of altruism toward their offspring is heterogeneous. It shows that the steady state capital labor ratio only depends on the degree of altruism of the most altruistic agents. In the long run the society is divided in two classes: those who are linked with their offspring through bequests and those who behave as if they were egoistic. When bequests are operative, the introduction of public debt or unfunded social security has no effect on the long-run capital labor ratio, but makes the most altruistic agents better off while making the other ones worse off.