The Long Run Dynamics of Economic Growth with Environmental Catastrophe

The purpose of this paper is to consider the dynamics of growth in a two state variable and two control variable model where the environment is taken as a constraint. This captures some elements of environmental problems not covered in the cost approach. It also captures the idea that the environment may be an absolute barrier or have a catastrophe boundary. It show that, even though the environment is not a cost, it may be optimal to cut growth before the barrier is reached. It also shows that the technology of production has a strong non-linear affect on maximum attainable output.