IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wop/cidhav/29.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Technological Change, Investment in Human Capital, and Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Yong Jin Kim
  • Jong-Wha Lee

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical model to analyze the effects of technology change on growth rates of income and human capital. We set up an overlapping generations model in which young agents invest in both width and depth of human capital in order to adopt new technologies. The model develops explicitly the micro-mechanism of the role of human capital in adopting new technologies as well as that of the process of human capital production. In our model an increase in the technology uncertainty decreases growth rates of income and human capital by lowering efficiencies both in creating new knowledge and in adopting new technologies. We also show that, depending on the initial structure of human capital and the uncertainty about the nature of new technologies, an economy can have multiple growth paths. Hence, increased inflows of new technologies with more uncertain characteristics may affect human capital accumulation and income growth adversely, leading the economy to a low growth trap. Keywords: education, endogenous growth, human capital investment, technology adoption.

Suggested Citation

  • Yong Jin Kim & Jong-Wha Lee, 1999. "Technological Change, Investment in Human Capital, and Economic Growth," CID Working Papers 29, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
  • Handle: RePEc:wop:cidhav:29
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cidwp/pdf/029.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Parente Stephen L., 1994. "Technology Adoption, Learning-by-Doing, and Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 346-369, August.
    2. Helpman, Elhanan & Rangel, Antonio, 1999. "Adjusting to a New Technology: Experience and Training," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 359-383, December.
    3. Borensztein, E. & De Gregorio, J. & Lee, J-W., 1998. "How does foreign direct investment affect economic growth?1," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 115-135, June.
    4. Flug, Karnit & Spilimbergo, Antonio & Wachtenheim, Erik, 1998. "Investment in education: do economic volatility and credit constraints matter?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 465-481, April.
    5. Eaton, Jonathan & Rosen, Harvey S, 1980. "Taxation, Human Capital, and Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 70(4), pages 705-715, September.
    6. David Autor & Lawrence Katz & Alan Krueger, 1997. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," Working Papers 756, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    7. Benhabib, Jess & Spiegel, Mark M., 1994. "The role of human capital in economic development evidence from aggregate cross-country data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 143-173, October.
    8. Nancy L. Stokey, 1991. "Human Capital, Product Quality, and Growth," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(2), pages 587-616.
    9. Richard R. Nelson & Edmond S. Phelps, 1965. "Investment in Humans, Technological Diffusion and Economic Growth," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 189, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    10. Eaton, B Curtis & Schmitt, Nicolas, 1994. "Flexible Manufacturing and Market Structure," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 84(4), pages 875-888, September.
    11. repec:umd:umdeco:rodriguez9901 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Welch, F, 1970. "Education in Production," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(1), pages 35-59, Jan.-Feb..
    13. Jeffrey D. Sachs & Andrew Warner, 1995. "Economic Reform and the Process of Global Integration," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 26(1, 25th A), pages 1-118.
    14. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1996. "Technical Change and Human-Capital Returns and Investments: Evidence from the Green Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 931-953, September.
    15. Bartel, Ann P & Sicherman, Nachum, 1998. "Technological Change and the Skill Acquisition of Young Workers," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 16(4), pages 718-755, October.
    16. Francisco Rodríguez & Dani Rodrik, 2001. "Trade Policy and Economic Growth: A Skeptic's Guide to the Cross-National Evidence," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2000, Volume 15, pages 261-338, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Claudia Goldin & Lawrence F. Katz, 1998. "The Origins of Technology-Skill Complementarity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(3), pages 693-732.
    18. Paroush, Jacob, 1976. "The risk effect and investment in human capital," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 8(4), pages 339-347, December.
    19. Parente, Stephen L & Prescott, Edward C, 1994. "Barriers to Technology Adoption and Development," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(2), pages 298-321, April.
    20. Bartel, Ann P & Lichtenberg, Frank R, 1987. "The Comparative Advantage of Educated Workers in Implementing New Technology," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 69(1), pages 1-11, February.
    21. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213.
    22. repec:fth:prinin:377 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Barro, Robert J & Lee, Jong Wha, 1996. "International Measures of Schooling Years and Schooling Quality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(2), pages 218-223, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Radim Valenčík & Petr Wawrosz, 2015. "Transferred Price And The Sector Of Productive Services As The Key Preconditions To Smart, Sustainable, And Inclusive Growth," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 9(1), pages 179-194.
    2. Wladyslaw Welfe, 2007. "Knowledge capital and total factor productivity," Working Papers 2, Department of Applied Econometrics, Warsaw School of Economics.
    3. Huang, Rui & Fulginiti, Lilyan E. & Peterson, E. Wesley F., 2003. "Investing in Hope: AIDS, Life Expectancy, and Human Capital Accumulation," 2003 Annual Meeting, August 16-22, 2003, Durban, South Africa 25808, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    4. Bildirici, M. & Orcan, M. & Sunal, S. & Aykaç, E., 2005. "Determinants of Human Capital Theory, Growth and Brain Drain: An Econometric Analysis for 77 Countries," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 5(2).
    5. Joonkyung Ha & Yong Jin Kim & Jong‐Wha Lee, 2009. "Optimal Structure of Technology Adoption and Creation: Basic versus Development Research in Relation to the Distance from the Technological Frontier," Asian Economic Journal, East Asian Economic Association, vol. 23(3), pages 373-395, September.
    6. Rui Huang & Lilyan E. Fulginiti & E. Wesley F. Peterson, 2010. "Health and growth: causality through education," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 2(3), pages 321-344, September.
    7. Marcelo P. Dabós & Ernesto Gantman, 2010. "The Fading Link? A New Empirical Analysis of the Relationship Between Financial Development and Economic Growth," Working Papers 2010-013, Becker Friedman Institute for Research In Economics.

    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. Yong Jin Kim & Jong‐Wha Lee, 2011. "Technological Change, Human Capital Structure, And Multiple Growth Paths," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 62(3), pages 305-330, September.
    2. Huw Lloyd-Ellis & Joanne Roberts, 2000. "Twin Engines of Growth," Cahiers de recherche CREFE / CREFE Working Papers 118, CREFE, Université du Québec à Montréal.
    3. Adriaan Zon & Roberto Antonietti, 2016. "Education and training in a model of endogenous growth with creative wear-and-tear," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 33(1), pages 35-62, April.
    4. Jeremy Greenwood & Boyan Jovanovic, 2001. "Accounting for Growth," NBER Chapters, in: New Developments in Productivity Analysis, pages 179-224, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Mateos-Planas, Xavier, 2000. "Schooling and distortions in a vintage capital model," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 30, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    6. Jorge Saba Arbache, 2001. "Trade Liberalisation and Labor Markets in Developing Countries: Theory and Evidence," Studies in Economics 0112, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    7. Mateos-Planas, Xavier, 2000. "Schooling and distortions in a vintage capital model," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0030, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    8. Weinberg, Bruce A., 2004. "Experience and Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 1051, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. Xavier Mateos-Planas, 2001. "Schooling and Distortions in a Vintage Capital Model," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 4(1), pages 127-158, January.
    10. Daron Acemoglu, 2002. "Technical Change, Inequality, and the Labor Market," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(1), pages 7-72, March.
    11. Lloyd-Ellis, Huw & Roberts, Joanne, 2002. "Twin Engines of Growth: Skills and Technology as Equal Partners in Balanced Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 7(2), pages 87-115, June.
    12. Peter J. Klenow & Mark Bils, 2000. "Does Schooling Cause Growth?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(5), pages 1160-1183, December.
    13. Allen, Steven G, 2001. "Technology and the Wage Structure," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 19(2), pages 440-483, April.
    14. Adrien Montalbo, 2019. "Education and economic development. The influence of primary schooling on municipalities in nineteenth-century France," Working Papers halshs-02286126, HAL.
    15. Maite Blázquez & José Ramos, 2008. "Disparidades entre educación formal y educación en el puesto de trabajo," Revista de Economía Laboral - Spanish Journal of Labour Economics, Asociación Española de Economía Laboral - AEET, vol. 5, pages 1-32.
    16. David H. Autor & Frank Levy & Richard J. Murnane, 2003. "The skill content of recent technological change: an empirical exploration," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    17. Gervan Fearon, 1998. "Monitoring Competitive Bidding in the Public Sector," University of Western Ontario, Departmental Research Report Series 9810, University of Western Ontario, Department of Economics.
    18. Aurora A.C. Teixeira & Natércia Fortuna, 2006. "Human capital, trade and long-run productivity. Testing the technological absorption hypothesis for the Portuguese economy, 1960-2001," FEP Working Papers 226, Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Economia do Porto.
    19. Arusha Cooray & Antonio Paradiso, 2012. "The level and growth effects in empirical growth models for the Nordic countries: A knowledge economy approach," CAMA Working Papers 2012-36, Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    20. Arusha Cooray & Marcella Lucchetta & Antonio Paradiso, 2013. "A knowledge economy approach in empirical growth models for the Nordic countries," Economics Working Papers wp13-06, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    education; endogenous growth; human capital investment; technology adoption.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    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:wop:cidhav:29. 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: Thomas Krichel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ciharus.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.