The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human Development

Flavio Cunha and James J. Heckman

No 14695, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Recent research on the economics of human development deepens understanding of the origins of inequality and excellence. It draws on and contributes to personality psychology and the psychology of human development. Inequalities in family environments and investments in children are substantial. They causally affect the development of capabilities. Both cognitive and noncognitive capabilities determine success in life but to varying degrees for different outcomes. An empirically determined technology of capability formation reveals that capabilities are self-productive and cross-fertilizing and can be enhanced by investment. Investments in capabilities are relatively more productive at some stages of a child's life cycle than others. Optimal child investment strategies differ depending on target outcomes of interest and on the nature of adversity in a child's early years. For some configurations of early disadvantage and for some desired outcomes, it is efficient to invest relatively more in the later years of childhood than in the early years.

JEL-codes: A12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hap and nep-hrm
Date: 2009-01
Note: CH ED HC HE PE
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14695.pdf (application/pdf)
Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html.

Related works:
Working Paper: The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human Development (2009)
Journal Article: The Economics and Psychology of Inequality and Human DEvelopment (2009)
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: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:14695

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w14695
The price is Paper copy available by mail.

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc
Address: National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by ().