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Skill-specific rather then General Education: A Reason for US-Europe Growth Differences?

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Author Info
Dirk Krueger
Krishna B. Kumar

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Abstract

In this paper, we develop a model of technology adoption and economic growth in which households optimally obtain either a concept-based, general' education or a skill-specific, vocational' education. General education is more costly to obtain, but enables workers to operate new technologies incorporated into production. Firms weigh the cost of adopting and operating new technologies against increased revenues and optimally choose the level of adoption. We show that an economy whose policies favor vocational education will grow slower in equilibrium than one that favors general education. Moreover, the gap between their growth rates will increase with the growth rate of available technology. By characterizing the optimal Ramsey education subsidy policy we demonstrate that the optimal subsidy for general education increases with the growth rate of available technology. Our theory suggests that European education policies that favored specialized, vocational education might have worked well, both in terms of growth rates and welfare, during the 60s and 70s when available technologies changed slowly. In the information age of the 80s and 90s when new technologies emerged at a more rapid pace, however, it may have suboptimally contributed to slow growth and may have increased the growth gap relative to the US.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 9408.

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Date of creation: Jan 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9408

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O40 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
O30 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Technological Change - - - General

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  1. Piva, Mariacristina & Santarelli, Enrico & Vivarelli, Marco, 2003. "The Skill Bias Effect of Technological and Organisational Change: Evidence and Policy Implications," IZA Discussion Papers 934, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Simon Kirby & Rebecca Riley, 2006. "The Returns to General versus Job-Specific Skills: the Role of Information and Communication Technology," NIESR Discussion Papers 274, National Institute of Economic and Social Research. [Downloadable!]
  3. Felix Reichling, 2005. "Retraining the Unemployed in a Matching Model with Turbulence," Macroeconomics 0506012, EconWPA. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Dirk Krueger & Krishna B. Kumar, 2003. "US-Europe Differences in Technology-Driven Growth: Quantifying the Role of Education," NBER Working Papers 10001, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Zon,Adriaan ,van & Antonietti,Roberto, 2005. "Education and Training in a Model of Endogenous Growth with Creative Destruction," Research Memoranda 010, Maastricht : MERIT, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology. [Downloadable!]
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  17. R. Antonietti, 2005. "The role of general and firm-specific training for new technology adoption and economic growth: a critical review," Working Papers 538, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Università di Bologna. [Downloadable!]
  18. Ludwig, Volker & Pfeiffer, Friedhelm, 2005. "Abschreibungsraten allgemeiner und beruflicher Ausbildungsinhalte," ZEW Discussion Papers 05-36, ZEW - Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung / Center for European Economic Research. [Downloadable!]
  19. Winfried Koeniger & Marco Leonardi, 2006. "Capital Deepening and Wage Differentials: Germany vs. US," IZA Discussion Papers 2065, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  20. Wolfgang Franz & Friedhelm Pfeiffer, 2006. "Reasons for Wage Rigidity in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 2017, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
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