Intertemporal Complementarity and Optimality: A Study of a Two-Dimensional Dynamical System

We study the underlying structure of the two-dimensional dynamical system generated by a class of dynamic optimization models, which allow for intertemporal complementarily between adjacent periods, but which preserve the time additively separable framework of Ramsey models. Specifically, we identify conditions under which the results of the traditional Ramsey type theory are preserved even when the intertemporal independence assumption is relaxed. Local analysis of this theme has been presented by Samuelson (1971). We establish global convergence results and relate them to the local analysis, by using the mathematical theory of two-dimensional dynamical syste