Longevity and Economic Growth : three Essays.

Summary This thesis focuses on the long-term relationship between longevity and economic development. In the first chapter, I analyze the impact of health spending on growth and welfare. To do so, I study the influence of the tax rate in an economy with endogenous lifetimes (Chakraborty (2004)). I determine the tax rate that maximizes the growth rate. Then I look at the changes in the level of output in the steady state with respect to the tax rate. Finally, I study the tax rate that maximizes welfare in the steady state. In the second chapter, I analyze the impact on growth of agent-chosen health expenditures. In effet, I develop an endogenous growth model in which individuals can spend resources to live longer in their retirement period. I give a full characterization of the dynamic general equilibrium and then determine the impact on health care spending growth. Enfin, the third chapter studies the theoretical impact of aging on the sectoral allocation of workers. I develop a multi-sector model in which I examine the consequences on income per worker and the sectoral allocation of workers of a longevity and fertility shock. I show that, unlike uni-sectoral models, income is not necessarily monotonic with respect to demographic variables. Realistic demographic shocks produce non-negligible movements of workers.