Boyd, John

Boyd, John
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boydj@fiu.edu

Most of my research involves economic dynamics, both in optimal growth and equilibrium settings.

I have particularly focused on models with flexible discounting, especially recursive utility, and examined how the interplay between technology and discounting affects all aspects of these models. When there is recursive utility, the discount rate changes depending on future wealth. This results in a richer set of long-run behavior than standard fixed discount rate models. Among other advantages, it allows the construction of equilibrium models where discounting differs across households without imposing a degenerate long-run income distribution. Much of my previous work is aimed at finding conditions that guarantee existence of solutions and then characterizing the solutions, both in the optimal growth and equilibrium frameworks. More recently, I've been looking into cases where sustained growth (and in particular, the rate of growth itself) can affect the long-run income distribution of an economy.

I am currently working on some problems that arise when growth is produced by a technology that is subject to network effects.