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Catching-up and Falling-behind in Economic Development: A Human Capital Approach

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  • Jinyoung Kim

    (Department of Economics, Korea University)

Abstract

This paper proposes an endogenous growth model where human capital is the engine of growth and can be transferred across countries via costly foreign education. Importing advanced knowledge by students abroad can improve a developing country¡¯s chance of catching up with a developed host country. An excessively wide difference in knowledge level between the two countries, however, can hamper the chance of catching-up because few students can afford foreign education. Taking these two counteracting forces into account, our model predicts that the relationship between income growth in a developing country and income gap will assume the form of an inverted-U schedule. The model also produces an endogenous threshold level of income gap which separates catching-up and falling-behind. We test the model¡¯s propositions and estimate the threshold using international panel data, which lends support to our theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Jinyoung Kim, 2007. "Catching-up and Falling-behind in Economic Development: A Human Capital Approach," Discussion Paper Series 0707, Institute of Economic Research, Korea University.
  • Handle: RePEc:iek:wpaper:0707
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    File URL: http://econ.korea.ac.kr/~ri/WorkingPapers/w0707.pdf
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Catch-up; Convergence; Divergence; Human capital; Foreign education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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