Human Capital Inequality, Life Expectancy And Economic Growth

Amparo Castello-Climent () and Rafael Domenech ()

Economic Journal, 2008, vol. 118, issue 528, pages 653-677

Abstract: This article presents a model in which inequality affects per capita income when individuals decide to invest in education taking into account their life expectancy, which depends to a large extent on the human capital of their parents. Our results show the existence of multiple steady states depending on the initial distribution of education. The low steady state is a poverty trap in which children raised in poor families have low life expectancy and work as non-educated workers. The empirical evidence suggests that the life expectancy mechanism explains a major part of the relationship between inequality and human capital accumulation. Copyright © 2008 The Author(s).

Date: 2008

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Related works:
Working Paper: Human Capital Inequality, Life Expectancy and Economic Growth (2003)
Working Paper: Human Capital Inequality, Life Expectancy and Economic Growth (2006)
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