IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/tin/wpaper/20080015.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Heterogeneous Agents, Human Capital Formation and International Income Inequality

Author

Listed:
  • Haris Munandar

    (Bureau of Economic Research, Bank of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia)

Abstract

The paper examines the effect of heterogeneity in individual human capital formation on cross-country income inequality. It considers a two-country model of overlapping generation heterogeneous economies with the following features: (1) individuals are heterogeneous with respect to inborn ability and parental human capital; (2) intergenerational transfers take place via public investment in education financed by tax, and parental education; (3) due to variation in individual human capital, we have endogenous heterogeneity both in labor supply and in parents’ participation in self-educating their offspring. Besides exploring cross-country variation in public education, how its low level can lead to a poverty trap and how its high level can result in an increasing society’s effective human capital, we study the effects of capital markets integration, in equilibrium, on the intra-generational income inequality in both the investing and receiving countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Haris Munandar, 2008. "Heterogeneous Agents, Human Capital Formation and International Income Inequality," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 08-015/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20080015
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://papers.tinbergen.nl/08015.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brunello, Giorgio & Checchi, Daniele, 2005. "School quality and family background in Italy," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(5), pages 563-577, October.
    2. Daron Acemoglu, 2003. "Cross-Country Inequality Trends," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 113(485), pages 121-149, February.
    3. Leamer, Edward E. & Levinsohn, James, 1995. "International trade theory: The evidence," Handbook of International Economics, in: G. M. Grossman & K. Rogoff (ed.), Handbook of International Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 26, pages 1339-1394, Elsevier.
    4. Lee, Jong-Wha & Barro, Robert J, 2001. "Schooling Quality in a Cross-Section of Countries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 68(272), pages 465-488, November.
    5. Hanushek, Eric A., 2002. "Publicly provided education," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 30, pages 2045-2141, Elsevier.
    6. Eckstein, Zvi & Zilcha, Itzhak, 1994. "The effects of compulsory schooling on growth, income distribution and welfare," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 339-359, July.
    7. Glaeser, Edward L., 1994. "Why does schooling generate economic growth?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 333-337.
    8. Orazem, Peter & Tesfatsion, Leigh, 1997. "Macrodynamic Implications of Income-Transfer Policies for Human Capital Investment and School Effort," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 305-329, September.
    9. Hanushek, Eric A, 1986. "The Economics of Schooling: Production and Efficiency in Public Schools," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 24(3), pages 1141-1177, September.
    10. Fischer, Ronald D & Serra, Pablo J, 1996. "Income Convergence within and between Countries," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 37(3), pages 531-551, August.
    11. Giacomo Corneo & Olivier Jeanne, 2001. "Status, the Distribution of Wealth, and Growth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(2), pages 283-293, June.
    12. Spiros Bougheas & Raymond Riezman, 2013. "Trade and the distribution of human capital," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Raymond Riezman (ed.), International Trade Agreements and Political Economy, chapter 20, pages 395-407, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    13. Tamura, Robert, 1991. "Income Convergence in an Endogenous Growth Model," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(3), pages 522-540, June.
    14. Roland Bénabou, 1996. "Equity and Efficiency in Human Capital Investment: The Local Connection," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(2), pages 237-264.
    15. Corneo, Giacomo & Jeanne, Olivier, 2001. " Status, the Distribution of Wealth, and Growth," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 103(2), pages 283-293, June.
    16. Chiu, W Henry, 1998. "Income Inequality, Human Capital Accumulation and Economic Performance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 44-59, January.
    17. Fernandez, Raquel & Rogerson, Richard, 1998. "Public Education and Income Distribution: A Dynamic Quantitative Evaluation of Education-Finance Reform," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 88(4), pages 813-833, September.
    18. Barry R. Chiswick, 1971. "Earnings Inequality and Economic Development," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 85(1), pages 21-39.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jean‐Marie Viaene & Itzhak Zilcha, 2009. "Human Capital and Inequality Dynamics: The Role of Education Technology," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(304), pages 760-778, October.
    2. Viaene, J.-M. & Zilcha, I., 2001. "Human Capital Formation, Income Inequality and Growth," Papers 2001-13, Tel Aviv.
    3. Limor Hatsor, 2014. "Allocation of Resources in Educational Production: The Budget Puzzle," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(6), pages 854-883, December.
    4. Li, Bei & Zhang, Jie, 2015. "Efficient education subsidization and the pay-as-you-use principle," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 41-50.
    5. Leonid Azarnert, 2006. "Free Education: For Whom, Where and When?," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_024, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    6. Zilcha, Itzhak, 2003. "Intergenerational transfers, production and income distribution," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3-4), pages 489-513, March.
    7. Cécile Bonneau, 2020. "The Concentration of investment in education in the US (1970-2018)," Working Papers halshs-02875965, HAL.
    8. Guido Neidhöfer, 2019. "Intergenerational mobility and the rise and fall of inequality: Lessons from Latin America," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 499-520, December.
    9. Viaene, Jean-Marie & Zilcha, Itzhak, 2002. "Public education under capital mobility," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 26(12), pages 2005-2036, October.
    10. de la Croix, David & Doepke, Matthias, 2004. "Public versus private education when differential fertility matters," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2), pages 607-629, April.
    11. Ludger Wößmann, 2003. "European education production functions: what makes a difference for student achievement in Europe?," European Economy - Economic Papers 2008 - 2015 190, Directorate General Economic and Financial Affairs (DG ECFIN), European Commission.
    12. Cécile Bonneau, 2020. "The Concentration of investment in education in the US (1970-2018)," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-02875965, HAL.
    13. Ludger Woessmann, 2016. "The Importance of School Systems: Evidence from International Differences in Student Achievement," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 30(3), pages 3-32, Summer.
    14. Eicher, Theo S. & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia, 2001. "Inequality and growth: the dual role of human capital in development," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 173-197, October.
    15. Pietro Giorgio Lovaglio & Gianmarco Vacca & Stefano Verzillo, 2016. "Human capital estimation in higher education," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 10(4), pages 465-489, December.
    16. Irakli Japaridze, 2019. "Envy, inequality and fertility," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 923-945, September.
    17. Barra, Cristian & Boccia, Marinella, 2019. "“The determinants of students' achievement: a difference between OECD and not OECD countries”," MPRA Paper 92561, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Reynaldo Fernandes & Amaury Patrick Gremaud & Gabriel Ulyssea, 2004. "Sistema Brasileiro De Financiamento À Educação Básica: Principais Características, Limitações E Alternativas," Anais do XXXII Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 32nd Brazilian Economics Meeting] 132, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    19. Hatsor, Limor, 2012. "Occupational choice: Teacher quality versus teacher quantity," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(4), pages 608-623.
    20. Buly A. Cardak, 2004. "Ability, Education, and Income Inequality," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 6(2), pages 239-276, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Heterogenous Agents; Human Capital; Poverty Efrap; Income Inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • E25 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Aggregate Factor Income Distribution
    • H52 - Public Economics - - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies - - - Government Expenditures and Education

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:tin:wpaper:20080015. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Tinbergen Office +31 (0)10-4088900 (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/tinbenl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.