Comparison Utility in a Growth Model.

We examine the dynamics of two endogenous-growth models in which agents have comparison utility. In the inward-looking economy, individuals care about how their current consumption compares with their own past consumption. In the outward-looking economy, they care about how their own consumption compares with other people's consumption. In response to a negative shock to capital, saving and growth will temporarily fall in both of the models that we consider but will remain constant in a model with standard preferences. The decline will be smaller in the outward- than in the inward-looking case, but utility will be lower in the former case because of a negative externality. Copyright 1997 by Kluwer Academic Publishers