Dynamic Skill Accumulation, Comparative Advantages, Compulsory Schooling, and Earnings

Christian Belzil, Jorgen Hansen and Xingfei Liu

No 6167, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We show that a calibrated dynamic skill accumulation model allowing for comparative advantages, can explain the weak (or negative) effects of schooling on productivity that have been recently reported (i) in the micro literature on compulsory schooling, ii) in the micro literature on estimating the distribution of ex-post returns to schooling, and (iii) in the macro literature on education and growth. The fraction of the population more efficient at producing skills in the market than in school is a pivotal quantity that determines the sign (and magnitude) of different parameters of interest. Our model reveals an interesting paradox; as low-skill jobs become more skill-enhancing (ceteris paribus), IV estimates of compulsory schooling become increasingly negative, and ex-post returns to schooling (inferred from a Roy model specification of the earnings equation) become negative for an increasing fraction of the population. This arises even if each possible input to skill production has a strictly positive effect. Finally, our model provides a foundation for the weak (or negative) effect education on growth measured in the empirical literature.

Keywords: dynamic discrete choice; compulsory schooling reforms; dynamic skill accumulation; comparative advantages; returns to schooling; education and growth; dynamic programming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I2 J1 J3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2011-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-edu and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published - published in: Quantitative Economics, 2017, 8, 895–927

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp6167.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Working Paper: Dynamic Skill Accumulation,Comparative Advantages,Compulsory Schooling and Earnings (2012)
Working Paper: Dynamic Skill Accumulation, Comparative Advantages, Compulsory Schooling, and Earnings (2012)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp6167

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().