Capital Theory, Equilibrium Analysis and Recursive Utility
Robert A. Becker and John H. Boyd III
Published by Blackwell in 1997,
ISBN: 1-557-86413-6, $89.95. It's available from
amazon.com.
The errata sheet was last updated June 30, 1998.
Capital Theory, Equilibrium Analysis, and Recursive Utility presents a unified and systematic account of economic dynamics based on neoclassical growth theory. It emphasizes the rigorous construction of dynamic economic models, showing solutions exist and characterizing those solutions and their properties. It also examines the relationship between optimal growth and dynamic competitive equilibria. The book focuses on time consistent decision-making by using a general type of intertemporal objective, recursive utility. This allows an integrated treatment that develops the subject from its theoretical foundations to its applications in dynamic economic models. Numerous solved examples illustrate both the theory and its applications.
Robert A. Becker and John H. Boyd III have synthesized their own published and unpublished work on recursive models with that of their students and numerous others. They provide extensive coverage of optimal growth (including endogenous growth), general equilibrium with infinitely many commodities, nonlinear dynamics for both optimal growth models and their equilibrium counterparts, and monotone comparative dynamics.
Capital Theory, Equilibrium Analysis, and Recursive Utility is addressed to growth theorists, macroeconomic dynamicists, resource economists, general equilibrium theorists, and graduate students in economic theory. As a thorough presentation of basic research on the foundations of intertemporal decision-making, it provides advanced students and experts alike with the techniques of equilibrium analysis and recursive utility needed in the rapidly evolving field of economic dynamics.