Hicks meets Hotelling: the direction of technical change in capital–resource economies

Di Maria, Corrado ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3048-0506 and Valente, Simone (2008) Hicks meets Hotelling: the direction of technical change in capital–resource economies. Environment and Development Economics, 13 (6). pp. 691-717. ISSN 1469-4395

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Abstract

We analyze a two-sector growth model with directed technical change where man-made capital and exhaustible resources are essential for production. The relative profitability of factor-specific innovations endogenously determines whether technical progress will be capital- or resource-augmenting. We show that any balanced growth equilibrium features purely resource-augmenting technical change. This result is compatible with alternative specifications of preferences and innovation technologies, as it hinges on the interplay between productive efficiency in the final sector, and the Hotelling rule characterizing the efficient depletion path for the exhaustible resource. Our result provides sound micro-foundations for the broad class of models of exogenous/endogenous growth where resource-augmenting progress is required to sustain consumption in the long run, contradicting the view that these models are conceptually biased in favor of sustainability.

Item Type: Article
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Social Sciences > School of Economics
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Environment, Resources and Conflict
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Economic Theory
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Applied Econometrics And Finance
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Social and Economic Research on the Global Environment (CSERGE)
University of East Anglia Schools > Faculty of Science > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 21 Jan 2014 13:54
Last Modified: 13 Jun 2023 08:10
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/47124
DOI: 10.1017/S1355770X08004567

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