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Public Education, Occupational Choice, and the Growth-Inequality Relationship

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  • Lloyd-Ellis, Huw

Abstract

This article develops a dynamic general equilibrium model in which the occupational structure of the economy drives a wedge between the social and private returns to schooling for some workers. I study the impacts of alternative allocations of public resources between basic and higher levels of education on enrollments, income distribution, and growth. In particular, I illustrate how the growth-inequality relationship depends on the tension between two forces: (1) the "trickle-down" effects of expenditures on higher education and (2) the positive impacts on secondary enrollments generated by high-quality basic education and reduced parental inequality. Copyright 2000 by Economics Department of the University of Pennsylvania and the Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association.

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  • Lloyd-Ellis, Huw, 2000. "Public Education, Occupational Choice, and the Growth-Inequality Relationship," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 41(1), pages 171-201, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:ier:iecrev:v:41:y:2000:i:1:p:171-201
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. George Psacharopoulos, 1985. "Returns to Education: A Further International Update and Implications," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 20(4), pages 583-604.
    2. Huw Lloyd-Ellis & Dan Bernhardt, 2000. "Enterprise, Inequality and Economic Development," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 67(1), pages 147-168.
    3. Alain Mingat & Jee-Peng Tan, 1985. "On Equity in Education Again: An International Comparison," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 20(2), pages 298-308.
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    6. Banerjee, Abhijit V & Newman, Andrew F, 1993. "Occupational Choice and the Process of Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 101(2), pages 274-298, April.
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    8. Philippe Aghion & Patrick Bolton, 1997. "A Theory of Trickle-Down Growth and Development," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 64(2), pages 151-172.
    9. Oded Galor & Joseph Zeira, 1993. "Income Distribution and Macroeconomics," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(1), pages 35-52.
    10. Boissiere, M & Knight, J B & Sabot, R H, 1985. "Earnings, Schooling, Ability, and Cognitive Skills," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(5), pages 1016-1030, December.
    11. Birdsall, Nancy & Ross, David & Sabot, Richard, 1995. "Inequality and Growth Reconsidered: Lessons from East Asia," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank Group, vol. 9(3), pages 477-508, September.
    12. Hopenhayn, Hugo A & Prescott, Edward C, 1992. "Stochastic Monotonicity and Stationary Distributions for Dynamic Economies," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(6), pages 1387-1406, November.
    13. Ross, D. & Sabot, R. & Birdsall, N., 1995. "Inequality and Growth Reconsidered," Center for Development Economics 142, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    14. Robert E. Lucas Jr., 1978. "On the Size Distribution of Business Firms," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 9(2), pages 508-523, Autumn.
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    16. Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1986. "The Public Subsidization of Education and Health in Developing Countries: A Review of Equity and Efficiency," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 1(1), pages 111-129, January.
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    Cited by:

    1. Roy van der Weide & Branko Milanovic, 2018. "Inequality is Bad for Growth of the Poor (but Not for That of the Rich)," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 32(3), pages 507-530.
    2. Arcalean, Calin & Schiopu, Ioana, 2010. "Public versus private investment and growth in a hierarchical education system," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 604-622, April.
    3. Takashi Kamihigashi & John Stachurski, 2011. "Existence, Stability and Computation of Stationary Distributions: An Extension of the Hopenhayn-Prescott Theorem," Discussion Paper Series DP2011-32, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    4. Dwayne Benjamin & Loren Brandt & John Giles, 2006. "Inequality and Growth in Rural China: Does Higher Inequality Impede Growth?," Working Papers tecipa-237, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    5. Concetta Mendolicchio & Dimitri Paolini & Tito Pietra, 2014. "Income Taxes, Subsidies to Education, and Investments in Human Capital," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(1), pages 24-47, February.
    6. Desdoigts, Alain & Moizeau, Fabien, 2001. "Multiple politico-economic regimes, inequality and growth," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2001,65, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    7. Romero J. Gabriel, 2012. "Determining Public Provision of Education Services in a Sequential Education Process," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-42, December.
    8. John Fender & Ping Wang, 2003. "Educational Policy in a Credit Constrained Economy with Skill Heterogeneity," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(3), pages 939-964, August.
    9. Brotherhood, Luiz & Delalibera, Bruno R., 2020. "Minding the gap between schools and universities," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    10. Jiang, Neville & Wang, Ping & Wu, Haibin, 2010. "Ability-heterogeneity, entrepreneurship, and economic growth," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 522-541, March.
    11. Zhang, Lei, 2008. "Political economy of income distribution dynamics," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(1), pages 119-139, August.
    12. Ranjan, Priya, 2001. "Dynamic evolution of income distribution and credit-constrained human capital investment in open economies," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 329-358, December.
    13. Momota, Akira, 2009. "A population-macroeconomic growth model for currently developing countries," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 431-453, February.
    14. Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe, 2012. "Should we transfer resources from college to basic education?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 105(1), pages 1-27, January.
    15. Marisa Hidalgo-Hidalgo & Iñigo Iturbe-Ormaetxe, 2008. "Should we raise public expenditure on basic education and reduce expenditure at college?," Working Papers 08.11, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Economics.
    16. Tao Zhu & Xingmin Zhang & Xiaoqian Liu, 2022. "Can University Scientific Research Activities Promote High-Quality Economic Development? Empirical evidence from provincial panel data," Review of Economic Assessment, Anser Press, vol. 1(1), pages 34-50, December.
    17. Sano, Koichiro & Tomoda, Yasunobu, 2010. "Optimal public education policy in a two sector model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 991-995, September.

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