I study an overlapping generations model where physical and human capitals are used in production and can be accumulated by withholding resources from current consumption. Human capital is accumulated through a schooling system which can be finance either by private expenditures or by taxes on current income or by a combination of both. IN a political equilibrium with majority voting, the median voter may approve of public school financing as an instrument to solve a "free rider problem". It improves the skills of next period's workers which in turn increases the expected return on capital, something which could not be achieved by means of private school financing. Public schools, moreover, turns out to be an instrument for intergenerational income distribution so that they may be preferred to private schools for this motive as well. The model is shown to display a poverty trap (poor societies vote to invest too little in education) as well as persistent growth. I am able to fully characterize the global dynamics of the model, which delivers a number of interesting and potentially testable hypotheses on the relation between income growth , capital accumulation and the development of public education I also endogenize the dynamic behavior of school attendance rates, as well as the choice between public and private financing of schools in the presence of parental altruism. A particular attention is paid to the different performances of a publicly provided school system vis-a-vis a publicly financed school system. It is shown that, under very general conditions, the latter tends to create a better environment for the accumulation of human capital as it fosters support for public education trough the voting mechanism. All through the paper I concentrate on specific functional forms that allow for a closed form solution of the equilibrium dynamics, but all the important results can be shown to apply for a general class of utility and produciton functions.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
file. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science in its series Discussion Papers with number
1017.
Length: Date of creation: Nov 1992 Date of revision: Handle: RePEc:nwu:cmsems:1017
Contact details of provider: Postal: Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science, Northwestern University, 580 Jacobs Center, 2001 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL 60208-2014 Phone: 847/491-3527 Fax: 847/491-2530 Email: Web page: http://www.kellogg.northwestern.edu/research/math/ More information through EDIRC
Order Information: Email:
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its listing, contact: (Fran Walker).
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.:
Chari, V V & Kehoe, Patrick J, 1990.
"Sustainable Plans,"
Journal of Political Economy,
University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(4), pages 783-802, August.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
V.V. Chari & Patrick J. Kehoe, 1989.
"Sustainable plans,"
Staff Report
122, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
[Downloadable!]
Cited by: (explanations, 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.)