GENERAL EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS OF OVERLAPPING GENERATIONS WITH HETEROGENEOUS TIME PREFERENCES

The overlapping generations model presented herein requires incorporation of exactly three periods in which one lives, but makes intertemporal decision-making twice, neither once nor three times. Single decision-making at the outset, none thereafter, ignores the fact that one makes decisions every day anew as long as tomorrow exists. Incorporating such observations most simply requires decisions to be made at the first period and the second, but not at the third or last period. Our model reveals how the Mabiki (infanticides) and the Narayama (elderlycides) can occur simultaneously. We also find conditions under which child-indulgence and parental overprotection called sunekajiri might be reckoned a virtue. Copyright 2009 The Authors. Journal compilation 2009 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd