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Increasing Returns to Education and the Skills Under-Investment Trap

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Author Info
Alison Booth () (RSSS, Australian National University and IZA Bonn)
Melvyn Coles (ICREA, IAE and IZA Bonn)

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Abstract

We model educational investment and labor supply in a competitive economy with home and market production. Heterogeneous workers are assumed to have different productivities both at home and in the workplace. We investigate the degree to which there is under-investment in human capital, and examine the deadweight losses that accrue via distortionary taxes. We show that there are increasing returns to education at the participation margin, and that deadweight losses are most severe for workers located here. Although the social planner’s optimum implies the worker should choose a high level of education and participate in the market sector, instead the worker chooses not to invest in human capital and either nonparticipation or partial participation in market-sector work. A severe deadweight loss is generated by this substitution effect. Those individuals most likely to be in this trap are those types with large enough home productivity, who are likely either to be involved in home production or to be characterized by a strong preference for other non-market sector activities.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in its series IZA Discussion Papers with number 1657.

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Length: 32 pages
Date of creation: Jul 2005
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Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1657

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Related research
Keywords: home production labor supply returns to education income tax

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
J42 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Particular Labor Markets - - - Monopsony; Segmented Labor Markets

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Pietro Garibaldi & Etienne Wasmer, 2004. "Raising Female Employment: Reflections and Policy Tools," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 2(2-3), pages 320-330, 04/05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Acemoglu, Daron, 1996. "A Microfoundation for Social Increasing Returns in Human Capital Accumulation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 111(3), pages 779-804, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Vella, F, 1992. "Simple Tests for Sample Selection Bias in Censored and Discrete Choice Models," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 7(4), pages 413-21, Oct.-Dec.. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Antonio Merlo, 2004. "Introduction To Economic Models Of Crime," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 45(3), pages 677-679, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Sandmo, Agnar, 1990. "Tax Distortions and Household Production," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 42(1), pages 78-90, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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