Economic Growth with Bubbles

Abstract

This paper presents a stylized model of economic growth with bubbles. This model views asset price bubbles as a market-generated device to moderate the effects of frictions in financial markets, improving the allocation of investments and raising the capital stock and welfare. The model illustrates various channels through which asset price bubbles affect the incentives for innovation and economic reforms, and therefore, the rate of economic growth. The model also offers a new perspective on the effects of financial development on asset price bubbles and economic growth.

Published as: Economic Growth with Bubbles in American Economic Review , Vol. 102, No. 6, 3033--3058, January, 2012