Empirically, growth rates are negatively correlated with birth rates; they are also correlated with production risk. We argue that these stylized facts are related, and arise jointly from the decision of how many children to have in a risky economic environment.

We consider a general control problem with two types of optimal regime switch. The first one concerns technological and/or institutional regimes indexed by a finite number of discrete parameter values, and the second features ecological-like regimes relying on given threshold values for given...

This paper solves a second-best problem where a government has in particular to choose whether to tax financial inflows (capital controls) or not, and when. A multi-stage optimal control technique is used to this end. First, it is shown that it is optimal to switch in finite time from capital...

Increasing returns in matching between skilled workers and firms create a local thick-market externality when labour markets are geographically segmented. This generates an agglomeration force that can offset the dispersion force due to local competition in a segmented product market. When this...

The aim of this paper is to discuss the process of regional convergence within the framework of an overlapping generations model in which the engine of growth is the accumulation of human capital. In particular, we consider different education funding systems and compare their performance in...

The paper presents the newly developed dynamic spatial general equilibrium model of European Commission, RHOMOLO. The model incorporates several elements from economic geography in a novel and theoretically consistent way. It describes the location choice of different types of agents and...

The paper presents the newly developed dynamic spatial general equilibrium model of European Commission - RHOMOLO, in which the interplay of agglomeration and dispersion forces can be analysed in a novel and theoretically consistent way. A particular attention is paid to flows of goods, factors...

In this paper, we analyse the geographic concentration of economic activities within the framework of a two countries and four regions model. Trade both between regions and countries entails transport costs which are differentiated according to the interregional or international nature of the...