The Human Capital Constraint: Of Increasing Returns, Education Choice and Coordination Failure
Abstract
If technological innovations in the North can be costlessly imitated by educated workers in the South, and if education decisions are endogenous, why aren't all countries well-educated and rich? This paper explores a possible answer: if technologically advanced sectors, operating under increasing returns to scale, need a minimum pool of educated workers to commence production, then coordination failure can arise in the choice of education. A simple two-sector model is shown to yield multiple equilibria: countries that perform well educationally and adopt technology successfully can co-exist with countries that fail in both endeavors.Download Info
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Bibliographic Info
Article provided by De Gruyter in its journal The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics.
Volume (Year): topics.3 (2003)
Issue (Month): 1 ()
Pages: 2
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Web page: http://www.degruyter.com
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Web: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/bejm
Related research
Keywords: Increasing Returns; Education Choice; Coordination Failure;Find related papers by JEL classification:
- I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
- I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy
- J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
- O10 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - General
- O30 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change; Research and Development; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
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