Human Capital Formation, Life Expectancy, and the Process of Development
Matteo Cervellati and
Uwe Sunde
American Economic Review, 2005, vol. 95, issue 5, 1653-1672
Abstract:
We provide a unified theory of the transition in income, life expectancy, education, and population size from a nondeveloped environment to sustained growth. Individuals optimally trade off the time cost of education with its lifetime returns. Initially, low longevity implies a prohibitive cost for human capital formation for most individuals. A positive feedback loop between human capital and increasing longevity, triggered by endogenous skill-biased technological progress, eventually provides sufficient returns for widespread education. The transition is not based on scale effects and induces population growth despite unchanged fertility. A simulation illustrates that the dynamics fit historical data patterns.
Date: 2005
Note: DOI: 10.1257/000282805775014380
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (419)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/000282805775014380 (application/pdf)
http://www.aeaweb.org/aer/data/dec05_data_20030573.zip (application/zip)
Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
Related works:
Working Paper: Human capital formation, life expectancy, and the process of development (2005)
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:aea:aecrev:v:95:y:2005:i:5:p:1653-1672
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.aeaweb.org/journals/subscriptions
Access Statistics for this article
American Economic Review is currently edited by Esther Duflo
More articles in American Economic Review from American Economic Association Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Michael P. Albert ().