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Solow growth model: capital convergence

A quick visual walkthrough of how capital per worker converges toward steady state under the Solow model, with adjustable savings and depreciation.

  • economics
  • macro

Setup

The Solow model describes how an economy's capital stock evolves over time under a fixed savings rate s and depreciation rate δ. Capital per worker k follows:

Δk = s · f(k) − δ · k

When s · f(k) > δ · k, capital accumulates; when the inequality flips, it depreciates faster than it's replaced. The economy settles at the steady-state k* where the two terms cancel.

Convergence under different savings rates

The chart below traces k(t) over 50 periods for three savings rates, holding δ = 0.05 and a Cobb–Douglas production function f(k) = k^0.3.

Takeaway

Higher savings rates push the steady state higher, but the rate of convergence is governed by δ and the curvature of f. Two economies with identical fundamentals but different starting capital both converge to the same k* — the textbook conditional convergence result.

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