Overlapping Generations Model

An overlapping generations model, abbreviated to OLG model, is a type of economic model in which agents live a finite length of time long enough to overlap with at least one period of another agent's life.

All OLG models share several key elements:

  • Individuals receive an endowment of goods at birth.
  • Goods cannot endure for more than one period.
  • Money endures for multiple periods.
  • Individual's lifetime utility is a function of consumption in all periods.

The concept of an OLG model was inspired by Irving Fisher's monograph The Theory of Interest. Notable improvements were published by Maurice Allais in 1947, Paul Samuelson in 1958, and Peter Diamond in 1965.

Read more about Overlapping Generations Model:  Basic OLG Model, Attributes of The OLG Model, OLG Models With Production

Famous quotes containing the words overlapping, generations and/or model:

    The absolute things, the last things, the overlapping things, are the truly philosophic concerns; all superior minds feel seriously about them, and the mind with the shortest views is simply the mind of the more shallow man.
    William James (1842–1910)

    Everywhere we are told that our human resources are all to be used, that our civilization itself means the uses of everything it has—the inventions, the histories, every scrap of fact. But there is one kind of knowledge—infinitely precious, time- resistant more than monuments, here to be passed between the generations in any way it may be: never to be used. And that is poetry.
    Muriel Rukeyser (1913–1980)

    I had a wonderful job. I worked for a big model agency in Manhattan.... When I got on the subway to go to work, it was like traveling into another world. Oh, the shops were beautiful, we had Bergdorf’s, Bendel’s, Bonwit’s, DePinna. The women wore hats and gloves. Another world. At home, it was cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids, going to PTA, Girl Scouts. But when I got into the office, everything was different, I was different.
    Estelle Shuster (b. c. 1923)