期刊名称：Discussion Paper / Département des Sciences Économiques de l'Université Catholique de Louvain
印刷版ISSN：1379-244X
出版年度：2003
卷号：1
出版社：Université catholique de Louvain
摘要：In a two- region model, we formalize Kindleberger’s idea that wealth breeds first more wealth, and then decline : when one region leads, its inhabitants develop consumption habits incompatible with the necessary investment in knowledge to remain the leader. This gives the other region a window of opportunity to gain economic primacy. We learn from the theoretical model that differences across regions that have similar characteristics may persist even if physical capital flows from rich to poor regions. By exploiting the economics of the Hopf bifurcation we study patterns of alternating privacy, irreversible decline and monotonic convergence, according to the initial dispersion of knowledge and the strength of consumption habits. Even though exogenous factors may matter on some occasions, we show that they are not necessary to reverse economic leadership.
关键词：consumption habits; over-taking;regional primacy; capital mobility
