How is the replacement of durable goods affected by the existence of a secondhand market? To answer this question, a vintage model of durable goods replacement is specified where efficient trade in used goods arises by assuming the existence of two types of consumers differentiated by income. The resulting steady state optimal replacement decision and secondhand market price are characterized, stressing the influence of economic depreciation. Compared to autarky, the consideration of an efficient secondhand market between high and low income people modifies the age profile of prices, increasing and decreasing for durable goods owned by high and low income people, respectively. Moreover, at the age at which used durable goods are traded, not only ask and bid prices are equal but also their age derivatives.economic obsolescence, heterogeneous consumers, optimal consumption, replacement, secondhand markets, vintage capital,

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In a general equilibrium model where firms are heterogeneous in terms of productivity, we introduce differentiated goods in production that are not perfect substitutes, as well as intermediate inputs needed to produce those goods. We show that an increase in either the complementarity of differentiated goods or the share of intermediate inputs in gross output, significantly increases the negative effect of entry costs on total factor productivity (TFP) and output per worker. We also find that the effect of complementarity is quantitatively stronger. If we assume an empirically plausible value for the elasticity of substitution between differentiated goods, then the model considerably improves its ability to reproduce the observed negative relationship between entry costs and TFP or output per worker.

The increase in the obsolescence of intangible capital caused by the adoption of new information technologies can play an important role in accounting for the productivity slowdown undergone by the US economy since 1974. To explore this hypothesis, we have developed a standard growth model with physical and intangible capital in which technical progress is equipment-specific. We assume that the obsolescence of intangible capital increases when the equipment-specific technical progress accelerates. The model is calibrated for the period 1957-1973 and the response of the economy to an increase in the rate of equipment-specific technical progressas observed since 1974is simulated. We show that this setup can account for a large part of the post-1974 slowdown observed in productivity and in the Solow residual.