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Human Capital Investment and Debt Constraints

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Author Info

  • David Andolfatto

    (Simon Fraser University)

  • Martin Gervais

    (University of Western Ontario)

Abstract

When young individuals face binding debt constraints, their human capital investments will be insufficiently financed by private creditors. If generations overlap, then a well-designed fiscal policy may be able to improve human capital investments by replacing missing capital markets with an intergenerational transfer scheme. Boldrin and Monte (2002) demonstrate that the optimal (balanced budget) fiscal policy in this context entails the joint provision of an education subsidy for the young and a pension program for the old, financed with a tax on those in their peak earning years. We demonstrate, however, that the desirability of such a policy depends crucially on the assumption of an exogenous debt constraint. If debt constraints arise endogenously for reasons of limited commitment, then the optimal (balanced budget) fiscal policy looks radically different. Furthermore, we find that arbitrary (non-optimal) policy interventions may actually lead to lower levels of human capital investment as altered default incentives induce private creditors to contract the supply of student loans by an amount greater than the subsidy. In some cases, the constrained-optimal policy entails zero intervention. These results highlight the importance of taking seriously the reasons for why debt constraints exist, before recommending any specific policy intervention.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by EconWPA in its series Labor and Demography with number 0412006.

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Length: 18 pages
Date of creation: 24 Dec 2004
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:wpa:wuwpla:0412006

Note: Type of Document - pdf; pages: 18
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Web page: http://128.118.178.162

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  1. Stephen V. Cameron & James J. Heckman, 1998. "Life Cycle Schooling and Dynamic Selection Bias: Models and Evidence for Five Cohorts of American Males," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 106(2), pages 262-333, April.
  2. Gropp, Reint & Scholz, John Karl & White, Michelle J, 1997. "Personal Bankruptcy and Credit Supply and Demand," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 112(1), pages 217-51, February.
  3. Dirk Krueger & Fabrizio Perri, 1999. "Risk sharing: private insurance markets or redistributive taxes?," Staff Report 262, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
  4. Boldrin, Michele & Montes, Ana, 2002. "The Intergenerational State: Education and Pensions," CEPR Discussion Papers 3275, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
  5. Kehoe, Timothy J & Levine, David K, 1993. "Debt-Constrained Asset Markets," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(4), pages 865-88, October.
  6. Kehoe, Timothy J & Levine, David K, 2001. "Liquidity Constrained Markets versus Debt Constrained Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 69(3), pages 575-98, May.
  7. Michele Boldrin & Ana Montes, 2005. "The Intergenerational State Education and Pensions," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 651-664, 07.
  8. David Card, 2000. "Estimating the Return to Schooling: Progress on Some Persistent Econometric Problems," NBER Working Papers 7769, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  9. Stephen V. Cameron & James J. Heckman, 2001. "The Dynamics of Educational Attainment for Black, Hispanic, and White Males," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(3), pages 455-499, June.
  10. Alex Monge & Lance Lochner, 2000. "Endogenous Credit Constraints And Human Capital Formation," Computing in Economics and Finance 2000 318, Society for Computational Economics.
  11. Huggett, Mark, 1993. "The risk-free rate in heterogeneous-agent incomplete-insurance economies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 17(5-6), pages 953-969.
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Cited by:
  1. Costas Azariadis & Leo Kaas, 2012. "Endogenous credit limits with small default costs," Working Papers 2012-048, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
  2. David, DE LA CROIX, 2004. "Education and Growth with Endogenous Debt Constraints," Discussion Papers (IRES - Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales) 2004020, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
  3. Lance Lochner & Alexander Monge-Naranjo, 2011. "Credit Constraints in Education," NBER Working Papers 17435, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  4. Moritz Kuhn & Mark Wright & Tom Krebs, 2012. "Human Capital Risk, Contract Enforcement, and the Macroeconomy," 2012 Meeting Papers 159, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  5. Lance J. Lochner, 2009. "The Nature of Credit Constraints and Human Capital," 2009 Meeting Papers 745, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  6. Papagni, Erasmo, 2008. "The Long-run Effects of Household Liquidity Constraints and Taxation on Fertility, Education, Saving and Growth," MPRA Paper 12793, University Library of Munich, Germany.
  7. Andolfatto, David & Gervais, Martin, 2008. "Endogenous debt constraints in a life-cycle model with an application to social security," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 3745-3759, December.
  8. Satyajit Chatterjee & Felicia Ionescu, 2012. "Insuring student loans against the financial risk of failing to complete college," Working Papers 12-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

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