De l'impact du progrès technique sur la croissance dans un modèle à générations de capital

Abstract

This paper focuses on the impact of technical progress on growth in the framework of a vintage capital model. This structure of capital allows for creative destruction, in the sense that the obsolescence of capital results from embodied technical progress in new equipments. The rate of growth is endogenous in Harrod-Domar's way and depends on a rate of technical progress which remains exogenous, contrary to what happens in endogenous growth theory. The model reduces to a system of linear differential-difference equations. Under a certain level of technical progress, the rate of growth is asymptotically constant. Above it, the model oscillates around a stationary state. Even if its impact is positive in a partial equilibrium context, an increase in the rate of technical progress has a negative impact on growth in a general equilibrium framework.