A two-sector model of endogenous growth with leisure externalities

This paper considers the impact of leisure preference and leisure externalities on growth and labor supply in a Lucas (1988) [12] type model, as in Gómez (2008) [7], with a separable non-homothetic utility and the assumption that physical and human capital are both necessary inputs in both the goods and the education sectors. In spite of the non-concavities due to the leisure externality, the balanced growth path is always unique, which guarantees global stability for comparative-static exercises. We find that small differences in preferences toward leisure or in leisure externalities can generate substantial differences in hours worked and growth, which may play a significant role in explaining differences in growth paths between the US and Europe, in addition to the mechanisms uncovered in Prescott (2004) [15] relying on differing marginal tax rates on labor income. Our model indicates, however, that a higher preference for leisure or leisure externality implies less growth but also less education attainment, which seems counterfactual.