Endogenous Human Capital Accumulation Research Articles

Endogenous growth and human capital accumulation in a data economy

We build an endogenous growth model featuring a new mode of human capital accumulation in a data economy. Data are generated as the byproducts of economic activities and then used by consumers for human capital accumulation apart from education. Although we find similar growth patterns compared with those in the related literature, economic growth is further accelerated by the new use of data factor. Quantitative analyses suggest that although the accumulation of human capital is promoted by the increasing importance of data, this promotion is not unlimited since data may over-absorb resources and crowd out education. In the transition dynamics, we see that consumers suffer temporary welfare loss. However, as data become a key factor in human capital accumulation, welfare ultimately increases. Our paper provides a first view of the effect of the data factor in the process of human capital accumulation.

Monetary policy in a Schumpeterian economy with endogenous fertility and human capital accumulation

This study investigates the growth and welfare effects of monetary policy in a Schumpeterian economy featuring cash-in-advance (CIA) constraints and two engines of growth: innovation from R&D and human capital accumulation from endogenous fertility. Our theoretical analysis considers the cases of various CIA constraints. When the CIA constraint is only on consumption, higher inflation retards economic growth by weakening human capital accumulation. When the CIA constraint is only on R&D, higher inflation would generate a negative or U-shaped effect on economic growth, depending on the interplay between inflationary effects on innovation and human capital accumulation. When the CIA constraint is only on manufacturing, the growth effect of inflation could be positive (negative) if the positive growth effect from technological progress dominates (is dominated by) the negative effect from human capital accumulation. Our quantitative analysis finds a generally negative inflation-growth relationship in the calibrated economy. Moreover, the welfare effect of inflation is also negative, implying that the Friedman rule is optimal.

Childcare Support Policies, Endogenous Fertility, Human Capital Accumulation, and Dynamics of National Debt

This paper analyzes the interaction among childcare support policies, endogenous fertility, and human capital accumulation using an overlapping-generations model, which is mainly based on Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) and Cardak (2004). Although Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) consider endogenous fertility and child allowances financed by tax or foreign debt in a model of a small open economy, they ignore educational expenditures and do not analyze human capital accumulation and national debt. Although Cardak (2004) considers human capital accumulation and assumes it is determined by governmental or parental expenditures on education and by parent’s human capital endowments, he ignores child allowances and assumes population size is constant in each period. This study considers human capital accumulation in a model introduced childcare time with endogenous fertility and assumes that child allowances and childcare services are financed by income tax and national debt. We then consider two childcare support policies―raise child allowances or expand childcare services―and compare the effects of both policies on endogenous fertility and human capital accumulation. Moreover, we analyze dynamics of national debt.

Monetary Policy in a Schumpeterian Economy with Endogenous Fertility and Human Capital Accumulation

Monetary Policy in a Schumpeterian Economy with Endogenous Fertility and Human Capital Accumulation

Childcare Support Policies, Endogenous Fertility, and Human Capital Accumulation

This paper analyzes the interaction among childcare support policies, endogenous fertility, and human capital accumulation using an overlapping-generations model, which is mainly based on Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) and Cardak (2004). Although Groezen, Leers and Mejidam (2003) consider endogenous fertility and child allowances in a model of a small open economy, they ignore educational expenditures and do not analyze human capital accumulation. Although Cardak (2004) considers human capital accumulation and assumes it is determined by governmental or parental expenditures on education and by parent’s human capital endowments, he ignores child allowances and assumes population size is constant in each period. This study considers human capital accumulation in a model introduced childcare time with endogenous fertility and assumes that child allowances and childcare facilities are financed by income tax and childcare fee. We then consider two childcare support policies―raise child allowances or expand childcare facilities―and compare the effects of both policies on endogenous fertility and human capital accumulation.

Intertemporal and cross-sectional contrasts in effects of trade: Significance of the technology content of exports

This study identifies cross-country and intertemporal differences in the effects of trade exposure on per capita national income. We develop a small open economy endogenous growth model with high- and low-technology sectors and endogenous human capital accumulation. We then test the predictions of our model on a sample of 70 countries over the period 1980–2017. Our main assertion is that gains from trade are not only disproportionate across countries but also contrasting over time, depending on the technology intensity of exports. Countries with lower initial experience in the production of technology-intensive goods and services tend to specialize in sectors with lower demand for better-educated and high-skilled workforce, which lowers the return to and individual incentives for education. Consequently, trade-induced specialization patterns, due to their implications about technological progress, appear to be an important factor causing cross-national divergence in welfare. Our theoretical model implies that, in an unskilled labor-abundant country, higher exposure to international trade can decrease the long-run growth rate, even though it increases short-run per capita income. In a skilled-labor abundant country, both short-run and long-run effects are positive. Our empirical findings, which identify short-run and long-run effects separately, strongly support these predictions.

Endogenous Growth and Human Capital Accumulation in a Data Economy

Endogenous Growth and Human Capital Accumulation in a Data Economy

SEARCH AND THE SOURCES OF LIFE‐CYCLE INEQUALITY

AbstractI study how initial wealth affects lifetime earnings inequality when labor markets are frictional. To do this, I construct a model life‐cycle model with search frictions, incomplete markets, and endogenous human capital accumulation. In the model, incomplete markets prevent low‐wealth workers from smoothing consumption, causing them to accept low pay jobs while unemployed. In anticipation, they build savings instead of human capital while employed. This amplifies the importance of initial wealth for life‐cycle inequality. Using this model, I find that differences in initial wealth cause larger differences in lifetime earnings than either initial human capital or ability.

Influence of Endogenous Human Capital on China’s Economic Growth

Based on the framework of endogenous economic growth, this paper took the education sector as a separate human capital production sector, and then an economic growth model with endogenous human capital accumulation is constructed, and a combination of theoretical derivation and simulation is used for the education investment behavior of the Chinese household sector, as well as the analysis of the efficiency of human capital accumulation. Based on above theoretical analysis, then to study the impact of educational investment on economic growth. The study found that the more the elasticity of education investment, the higher the efficiency of human capital accumulation, and the greater willingness of families to increase investment on education. Human capital accumulation is a key factor in determining the economic growth potential of a country or region, and education is the most important way for the accumulation of human capital. The investment in education is necessary for China under the condition of the economic growth rate slowing down.

Carbon pricing and endogenous human capital accumulation

Carbon pricing and endogenous human capital accumulation

Education, Income, Wealth Inequality and Business Cycles in a General Equilibrium Growth Model

The paper is concerned with the dynamic interactions between physical capital, human capital, income and wealth inequalities between different households with government subsidy to education. It generalizes the endogenous growth model of a small-open economy proposed by Zhang (2016). Zhang’s paper deals with income and wealth inequalities between heterogeneous households with government subsidy to education. The paper makes a contribution to the literature of economic growth with endogenous education by integrating Solow-Uzawa’s neoclassical growth theory, Uzawa-Lucas model, Arrow’s learning by doing, Zhang’s creative leisure, and Walrasian general equilibrium theory. The model treats endogenous capital and human capital accumulation as the main engines of economic growth. This study generalizes Zhang’s model by allowing constant coefficients to be time-dependent. We simulate the generalized model to demonstrate existence of business cycles due to various exogenous periodic shocks.

Education, saving, tourism, imported energy, foreign good, and trade balance of a small open economy

This paper builds an economic growth model with endogenous wealth and human capital accumulation. It analyzes interactions between domestic economic structure, foreign goods, foreign tourism, and imported energy. Education, foreign goods, foreign tourism, and imported energy are integrated into small-open growth models with wealth accumulation in a comprehensive framework. The economic structure is a synthesis of Uzawa’s two-sector growth model and Uzawa-Lucas’ two-sector growth model. The economy is composed of one capital goods sector, services sector, and education sector. The capital goods sector, service sector and households need energies, which foreign economies supply. The capital goods sector, services sector, and households use up the land. The general equilibrium model determines consumption, production, saving, education and resource distribution under given rate of interest and prices of imported energy and goods fixed in international markets. We build the model and simulates its behavior. We conduct comparative dynamic analysis to demonstrate how different exogenous changes change transitory processes and long-run structures of economic growth.

How do tax progressivity and household heterogeneity affect Laffer curves?

How much additional tax revenue can the government generate by increasing the level of labor income taxes? In this paper, we argue that the degree of tax progressivity is a quantitatively important determinant of the answer to this question. To make this point, we develop a large scale overlapping generations model with single and married households facing idiosyncratic income risk, extensive and intensive margins of labor supply, as well as endogenous accumulation of human capital through labor market experience. We calibrate the model to U.S. macro, micro, and tax data and characterize the labor income tax Laffer curve for various degrees of tax progressivity. We find that the peak of the U.S. Laffer curve is attained at an average labor income tax rate of 58 % . This peak (the maximal tax revenues the government can raise) increases by 7 % if the current progressive tax code is replaced with a flat labor income tax. Replacing the current U.S. tax system with one that has Denmark' s progressivity would lower the peak by 8 % . We show that modeling the extensive margin of labor supply and endogenous human capital accumulation is crucial for these findings. With joint taxation of married couples (as in the U.S.), higher tax progressivity leads to significantly lower labor force participation of married women and substantially higher labor force participation of single women, an effect that is especially pronounced when future wages of females depend positively on past labor market experience.

On the Optimal Progressivity of Higher Education Subsidies: The Role of Endogenous Fertility

I develop a simple dynastic model in the style of Barro and Becker, with endogenous fertility and human capital accumulation, to quantify the optimal progressivity of higher education subsidies. I find that the optimal policy is characterised by a higher degree of progressivity than current U.S. education subsidies. Additionally, the relation between progressivity of education policy and welfare/population growth is hump-/U-shaped respectively. While an assumption of endogenous fertility is quantitatively important, heterogeneity in fertilities is sufficient to generate these results. This is because welfare gains from more progressive subsidies are driven not only by decreases in fertility rates of low income individuals, but also by the fact that their children transit to states associated with higher incomes and, consequently, relatively low fertilities.

UNDERSTANDING THE SUPPLY AND DEMAND FORCES BEHIND THE FALL AND RISE IN THE US SKILL PREMIUM

I develop an assignment model to quantify, in a unified framework, the causal effects of supply and demand forces on the evolution of the college wage premium in the US economy. Specifically, I quantify the relative contributions of four different forces: (i) a within-sector non-neutral technological change, (ii) the creation of new high-skill services/sectors, (iii) polarizing product demand shifts, and (iv) shifts in the relative supply of skilled labor. The model considers endogenous human capital accumulation. I find that positive supply shifts completely explain the fall of the skill premium during the period 1970–1980. Demand forces play a major role in the post-1980 period, when the skill premium rises. Among the demand forces, the results show an increasing contribution of polarizing product demand shifts over the decades. On the other hand, the effect of the within-sector non-neutral technological change is more important in the earlier decades of the post-1980 period.

HUMAN CAPITAL AND INNOVATION IN A MONETARY SCHUMPETERIAN GROWTH MODEL

This study explores the growth and welfare effects of monetary policy in a scale-invariant Schumpeterian growth model with endogenous human capital accumulation. We model money demand via a cash-in-advance (CIA) constraint on research and development (R&D) investment. Our results can be summarized as follows. We find that an increase in the nominal interest rate leads to a decrease in R&D and human capital investment, which, in turn, reduces the long-run growth rates of technology and output. This result stands in stark contrast to the case of exogenous human capital accumulation in which the long-run growth rates of technology and output are independent of the nominal interest rate. Simulating the transitional dynamics, we find that the additional long-run growth effect under endogenous human capital accumulation amplifies the welfare effect of monetary policy. Decreasing the nominal interest rate from 10% to 0% leads to a welfare gain that is equivalent to a permanent increase in consumption of 2.82% (2.38%) under endogenous (exogenous) human capital accumulation.

Borrowing Constraints, Search, and Life-Cycle Inequality

This paper quantifies the impact of borrowing constraints on consumption and earnings inequality in a life-cycle model with labor market search and endogenous human capital accumulation. I first show that following an unemployment spell, likely-constrained workers in the Survey of Income and Program Participation match to jobs that pay more per quarter when they receive an increase in their unemployment insurance. I then construct a life-cycle model with risk averse workers who face borrowing constraints, accumulate human capital endogenously, and search both on and off the job. I use indirect inference to estimate the model parameters, and show that wealth inequality causes both placement into lower-paying jobs as well as slower human capital accumulation when workers face borrowing constraints. A standard deviation decrease in initial wealth causes a larger decline in life-cycle consumption than a standard deviation decrease in initial human capital.

How Do the Richest 1% Owns 50% of Wealth in a Small-Open Growth Model with Endogenous Wealth and Human Capital

This paper extends the growth model for a closed national economy by Zhang (2015) to a small-open economy. We attempt to explain some economic mechanisms of how the richest one per cent of the population own 50% of national wealth. We consider endogenous wealth and human capital accumulation by heterogeneous households with different preferences and learning abilities as the main determinants of growth and inequality. We describe the production technologies and economic structure on the basis of the Uzawa two-sector model. By applying Zhang’s concept of disposable income and approach to household behavior, we describe consumers’ wealth accumulation and consumption behavior. We model human capital accumulation on the basis of Arrow’s learning by doing and Zhang’s creativity with leisure. We simulate the model with three groups of the population, the rich 1 %, the middle 69%, and the poor 20%. We demonstrate the existence of an equilibrium point at which the rich 1% own more than half of the national wealth and the poor 20% less than 10% of the national wealth. We show how the system moves to the equilibrium from an initial state and confirm that the equilibrium point is stable. We also conduct comparative dynamic analysis.

The Productivity Slowdown and the Declining Labor Share: A Neoclassical Exploration

We explore the possibility that a global productivity slowdown is responsible for the widespread decline in the labor share of national income. In a neoclassical growth model with endogenous human capital accumulation a la Ben Porath (1967) and capital-skill complementarity a la Grossman et al. (2017), the steady-state labor share is positively correlated with the rates of capital-augmenting and labor-augmenting technological progress. We calibrate the key parameters describing the balanced growth path to U.S. data for the early postwar period and find that a one percentage point slowdown in the growth rate of per capita income can account for between one half and all of the observed decline in the U.S. labor share.

Labor supply of elderly people, fertility, and economic development

Increases in life expectancy and the fertility rate have been observed as per-capita income increases in economically developed countries with high per-capita income. We explain these observations using a synthetic economic model with endogenous lifetime, retirement, and human capital accumulation. In contrast to the result obtained by assuming an institutionally fixed and compulsory retirement, a longer life expectancy attributable to rises in per-capita income can induce elderly people to leave the labor market later, thereby enabling them to increase consumption of goods as well as “children” when young. Consequently, higher per-capita income can be associated with higher fertility.