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Does Public Education Expansion Lead to Trickle-Down Growth?

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  • Böhm, Sebastian
  • Grossmann, Volker
  • Steger, Thomas M.

Abstract

The paper revisits the debate on trickle-down growth in view of the widely discussed evolution of the earnings and income distribution that followed a massive expansion of higher education. We propose a dynamic general equilibrium model to dynamically evaluate whether economic growth triggered by an increase in public education expenditure on behalf of those with high learning ability eventually trickles down to low-ability workers and serves them better than redistributive transfers. Our results suggest that, in the shorter run, low-skilled workers lose. They are better off from promoting equally sized redistributive transfers. In the longer run, however, low-skilled workers eventually benefit more from the education policy. Interestingly, although the expansion of education leads to sustained increases in the skill premium, income inequality follows an inverted U-shaped evolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Böhm, Sebastian & Grossmann, Volker & Steger, Thomas M., 2014. "Does Public Education Expansion Lead to Trickle-Down Growth?," FSES Working Papers 452, Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences, University of Freiburg/Fribourg Switzerland.
  • Handle: RePEc:fri:fribow:fribow00452
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    Cited by:

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    2. Morimoto, Takaaki & Tabata, Ken, 2020. "Higher Education Subsidy Policy And R&D-Based Growth," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(8), pages 2129-2168, December.
    3. Agénor, Pierre-Richard & Lim, King Yoong, 2018. "Unemployment, growth and welfare effects of labor market reforms," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 19-38.
    4. Eva Deuchert & Martin Huber, 2017. "A Cautionary Tale About Control Variables in IV Estimation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(3), pages 411-425, June.
    5. Arman Pourghaz & Ehsan Bahrami Samani & Babak Shokri, 2023. "Analysis of the impact of research output on economic growth with using a multivariate random effects model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2259-2282, April.
    6. Jakob B. Madsen & Antonio Minniti & Francesco Venturini, 2023. "The long‐run investment effect of taxation in OECD countries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 584-611, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Directed Technological Change; Publicly Financed Education; Redistributive Transfers; Transitional Dynamics; Trickle-Down Growth;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • J31 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs - - - Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General

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