Satiation and Underdevelopment

In this article we show how absolute poverty and per capita growth can be sustained simultaneously in a fully integrated world economy even in the absence of population growth. In contrast to the literature we use a model of endogenously sustained growth in which not only the intensity of progress is determined endogenously, but also the direction of change. The essential assumptions driving the results are that once a person has satisfied his basic needs, he prefers high-quality commodities to low-quality commodites and that innovation-possibilities within high-quality sectors are not unskilled labor-using.