We study international trade in a model where consumers have non-homothetic preferences and where household income restricts the extensive margin of consumption. In equilibrium, monopolistic producers set high (low) prices in rich (poor) countries but a threat of parallel trade restricts the...

We analyze a macroeconomic model of monopolistic competition in which consumers earn unequal incomes. When preferences are non-homothetic, the distribution of income affects equilibrium mark-ups and equilibrium product diversity.

We study a model of growth and mass production. Firms undertake either product innovations that introduce new luxury goods for the rich; or process innovations that transform existing luxuries into mass products for the poor. A prototypical example for such a product cycle is the automobile....

We utilize Schmookler’s (1966) concept of demand-induced invention to study the role of income inequality in an endogenous growth model. As rich consumers can satisfy more wants than poor consumers, both prices and market sizes for new products, as well as their evolution over time, are...

We present a model in which two of the most important features of the long-run growth process are reconciled: the massive changes in the structure of production and employment; and the Kaldor facts of economic growth. We assume that households expand their consumption along a hierarchy of needs...

We utilize Schmookler’s (1966) concept of demand-induced invention to study the role of income inequality in an endogenous growth model. As rich consumers can satisfy more wants than poor consumers, both prices and market sizes for new products, as well as their evolution over time, are...

We introduce non-homothetic preferences into a general equilibrium model of monopolistic competition and explore the impact of income inequality on the medium-run macroeconomic equilibrium. We find that (i) a sufficiently high extent of inequality divides the economy into mass consumption...

We present a model in which two of the most important features of the long-run growth process are reconciled: the massive changes in the structure of production and employment; and the Kaldor facts of economic growth. We assume that households expand their consumption along a hierarchy of needs...

We study a model of endogenous growth where firms invest both in product and process innovations. Product innovations (that open up completely new product lines) satisfy the advanced wants of the rich. Subsequent process innovations (that decrease costs per unit of quality) transform the...

Non-linear Engel-curves for consumer goods cause continuous structural change. Goods are sequentially introduced starting out as a luxury with high income elasticity and ending up as a necessity with low income elasticity. Although this leads to rising and falling sectoral employment shares, the...