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This study examines the effects of tax policies in a dynamic model of a polluted small open economy with two sources of flow pollution—consumption and production—controlled by consumption and income taxes. In this setting, accumulated pollution negatively impacts households’ utility. We show that in a decentralized dynamic competitive equilibrium under exogenous tax rates, whereas a permanent increase in consumption and income taxes unambiguously reduces the steady-state pollution stock, a temporary increase in these taxes may lead to more pollution in the long run. This outcome suggests that more stringent environmental policies might be ineffective if the regulation is only temporary. We also derive the socially optimal solution and examine the optimal tax paths to achieve the social optimum. If distaste and leisure effects are sufficiently strong, tax rates decrease along the optimal path as pollution increases over time, and vice versa.

Considering that people can invest in their health-related quality of life (HRQOL), we investigate the effects of public health policies (i.e., a health investment subsidy policy and the direct distribution of health-related goods) on HRQOL in a small open economy. We find that when the government makes public investment in HRQOL temporarily, HRQOL deteriorates or does not improve at least. On the contrary, when public investment is enforced permanently, it improves in the long run.

Using original internet-based survey data which was collected in Japan, the authors estimate the parameters of the utility functions with a social comparison using the random utility model framework. In line with classical income comparison literature, this article observes a negative effect of others' saving on their own utility along with a positive effect of one's own saving. However, this article finds that an increase in consumption decreases one's own utility while an increase in other's consumption has no significant effect on one's own utility. Regarding potential mechanisms behind the puzzling result of own consumption, the authors may be able to explain it with psychological effects coming from Japanese social norms, in which the term “own consumption” can be negatively perceived.

In this paper, we investigated the relationship between social loss aversion and the competitive sports performance. We found that social loss aversion significantly affected the competitive sports performance in a homogeneous group of male students, but not female students, and that these effects were consistent across various sports drills. In particular, the gender of a reference person was pivotal to determining the effects of social loss aversion. We also showed that social risk aversion did not significantly affect performance in competitive sports drills.

We examine the effects of environmental policies such as a subsidy for reforestation and an export-income tax in a small open economy with a renewable resource. In the small economy, the harvested renewable resources are exported to acquire foreign assets and consumers can invest in the natural resource to preserve it. In the setup, we show how the environmental policies affect the natural resource and the domestic economy.

In this paper, we investigated the relationship between social loss aversion and the competitive sports performance. We found that social loss aversion significantly affected the competitive sports performance in a homogeneous group of male students, but not female students, and that these effects were consistent across various sports drills. In particular, the gender of a reference person was pivotal to determining the effects of social loss aversion. We also showed that social risk aversion did not significantly affect performance in competitive sports drills.

This paper explores the effect of consumption externalities on equilibrium dynamics of a standard neoclassical growth model in which there are two types of agents. To emphasize the presence of heterogeneous agents, we distinguish intergroup consumption externalities from intragroup consumption externalities. We show that if there are intragroup consumption externalities alone, then the steady state equilibrium satisfies saddle-point stability and the equilibrium path of the economy is uniquely determined. In contrast, even if the intragroup consumption externalities do not exist, the intergroup external effects of consumption may yield either instability or local indeterminacy of the steady-state equilibrium. In addition to analytical considerations, we show the relationship between the stability and the consumption externalities in numerical examples.

The present paper examines the effects of consumption externalities on economic performance in a one-sector model with wealth preference. The presence of the wealth preference generates a wealth effect in consumption growth, which plays a crucial role for consumption externalities to have impacts on the economy. Our main findings are: (i) regardless of the assumption of inelastic labor supply, the distortionary effect of consumption externalities stays in the long run; (ii) the income tax as well as the consumption tax can modify the efficiency; and (iii) the numerical simulations supplement theoretical findings.

In a one-sector model with elastic labor supply where consumption and leisure externalities are incorporated, we examine the impact of preference externalities on convergence speed.

This paper shows that in a model with inelastic labor supply, consumption externalities have impacts on stationary consumption and capital. The key element in observing the effects of consumption externalities on stationary consumption and capital is the endogeneity of the time preference rate, which depends on future-oriented resources rather than on private consumption. We conclude that when individuals experience jealousy, they become more impatient, leading to a lower level of capital stock and a higher level of consumption relative to those of the social optimum, while when they experience admiration, these relationships are reversed. We examine an optimal tax policy that replicates the socially optimal path in the centrally planned economy. Finally, using numerical analysis we explore how this economy evolves through time.

This paper explores the role of consumption externalities in a neoclassical growth model in which households have heterogeneous preferences. We fi nd that a higher degree of average conformism accelerates the convergence speed of the economy towards the steady state as in the case of homogeneous conformism. Furthermore, we reveal that the wealth inequality expands or shrinks in the case of heterogeneous conformism, while it does not expand but shrinks in the case of homogeneous conformism.

This paper explores the role of consumption externalities in a neoclassical growth model in which households have heterogeneous preferences. We fi?nd that the degree of conformism in consumption held by each household signifi?cantly affects the speed of convergence of the aggregate economy as well as the patterns of wealth distribution in the steady state equilibrium. In particular, a higher degree of consumption conformism accelerates the convergence speed of the economy towards the steady state. We also reveal that in an economy with a high degree of conformism, the pattern of initial distribution of wealth tends not to be sustained in the long run.

We investigate people's different conceptions of the economic term "consumption" when comparing with others. An Internet-based hypothetical discrete choice experiment was conducted with Japanese participants. As in other relative income comparison studies, we found that own consumption and own saving had a positive impact on utility, whereas the consumption and saving of a reference person had a negative impact on utility. However, the results show that the magnitudes of consumption and saving differ in size; saving could affect utility much more than consumption for the Japanese subjects. By using scope tests, we found that the impact of own consumption is not monotonic and so does not necessarily increase utility. This calls into question the conventional assumption of the monotonicity of "the utility of consumption"; consumption could be perceived as a negative good. Our results, therefore, provide some evidence that, in reality, people understand and perceive the economic terms differently from what economists would expect. Furthermore, when considering the consumption of others as well as their own, the size of the discrepancy is even bigger.

Nowadays, broadband services using smart phones and tablet terminals become popular and their users increase. Accordingly, the traffic volume through networks becomes tremendously large and heavily unbalanced. In large networks, a network is usually divided into small subnetworks for its efficient management. However, traffic elevation often occurs to specific divided subnetworks, the throughput suddenly decreases and in the worst case communication is not assured. In order to cope with the congestion problem, this paper proposes a dynamic hierarchization method for traffic variation in wireless mesh networks. In the proposed method, the subnetworks are divided and integrated adaptively to rapid traffic variation in wireless mesh networks. Simulation experimental results show that timely division of the proposed method reduces packets loss due to buffer overflow and a high throughput is maintained.

We construct a small open economy model with a renewable resource. Households have an endogenous time preference rate that depends on the level of the renewable resource in the domestic economy. Although households know that the degree of own patience depends on its resource, we assume that households believe that they cannot control the motion of the aggregate renewable resource. This is because they think that their impact is negligible so that there exists an externality in the form of the patience of the households. Based on this framework, we analyze the dynamic character of the steady state and show that the equilibrium path may be indeterminate. We next examine the welfare effects of tax policies. Finally, we investigate socially optimal tax policies.

This paper explores the distributional effect of consumption externalities in a neoclassical growth model with heterogeneous agents. The economy consists of two types of agents each of which perceives different degrees of intergroup as well as intragroup consumption external effects. It is shown that the stationary distribution and transitional dynamics are highly sensitive to the specification of preference structures of each type of agents.

Ever since the classical works of Smith and Veblen, economists have recognized that individuals care about their relative positions and status in addition to their own consumption. This paper addresses a new framework of choice experiments in order to specify the shape of utility function with preference externalities. Theoretical studies on social preference, which are conducted without estimating or calibrating important parameters of social preference and put forward various propositions in accordance with the parameters assumed, can refer to the parameters estimated in this paper. Our findings complement those of happiness studies which support the view of social preference. We show that preference externality is, on average, characterized by jealousy among Japanese respondents, and also that heterogeneity in social preference parameters is driven by differences in income levels, age, and gender.

This paper explores the effect of consumption externalities on equilibrium dynamics of a standard neoclassical growth model in which there are two types of agents. To emphasize the presence of heterogenous agents, we distinguish intergroup consumption externalities from intragroup consumption externalities. We show that if there are intragroup consumption externalities alone, then the steady state equilibrium satisfies saddle-point stability and the equilibrium path of the economy is uniquely determined. In contrast, even if the intragroup consumption externalities do not exist, the intergroup external effects of consumption may yield either unstability or local indeterminacy of the steady-state equilibrium. In addition to analytical considerations, we show the relationship between the stability and the consumption externalities in numerical examples.

Using the standard neoclassical growth model with two types of agents, we examine how the presence of heterogenous agents affects the stabilization role of progressive income taxation. We first show that if the marginal tax payment of each agent increases with her relative income, the steady state satisfies local saddlepoint stability so that the equilibrium is determinate. However, unlike the representative agent models with progressive taxation, our model with heterogeneous agents may have the possibility of equilibrium indeterminacy. The indeterminacy conditions depend not only on the property of tax functions but also on production and preference structures.