Learning about Education

Patrick Emerson () and Bruce McGough ()

No 5756, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: Limited human capital investment is a common characteristic of low-income countries despite the fact that estimated returns to educational investment in low-income countries are generally higher than in high-income countries. Empirical evidence suggests that income and credit constraints can only account for a small part of this underinvestment. Recent experimental evidence shows that families' misperceptions about the returns to education play a large role in their low investment levels. This paper builds a model of human capital and growth that incorporates an adaptive learning mechanism to capture the way agents form perceptions about returns to education. In an economy where human capital investments have both private and public returns, we find multiple learnable equilibria, including those which are characterized by low investment and low returns. We also find that even when the rational equilibrium corresponds to a high level of human capital investment, the learning mechanism, influenced by the agents' priors and cultural bias, may impart low human capital investment for extended periods. Policies that can speed up the learning process are examined and it is found that faster rates of growth can be achieved through interventions.

Keywords: growth; education; learning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O15 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 45 pages
Date: 2011-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-dge and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: LEARNING ABOUT EDUCATION (2018)
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