Date of Submission

Spring 2012

Academic Program

Mathematics; Economics

Project Advisor 1

Maria Belk

Project Advisor 2

Dimitri Papadimitriou

Abstract/Artist's Statement

The paper focuses on Minsky's financial fragility hypothesis incorporated in a growth model and investigates whether an inherently unstable economy can be stabilized by a big and proactive government. Using dynamical systems theory and expanding a supply-driven growth model developed by Lin, Day and Tse (1992), the paper explores how different government spending programs and financing paths can affect the growth, as well as the stability of a capitalist economy. The results and implications of the new frameworks are analyzed, using analytical and numerical methods of bifurcation, to examine the dependence of optimal government intervention on the economic environment. The paper concludes that there is no universal doctrine for the maximization of society's welfare, if the stability of the economy is taken into consideration. The selection of any policy framework should be based on the economic environment and the trajectory of the economy.

Distribution Options

Restricted for one year; then Open Access

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

This work is protected by a Creative Commons license. Any use not permitted under that license is prohibited.

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