Human-capital investment and the wage gap

Jürgen Meckl () and Stefan Zink ()
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Stefan Zink: Department of Economics, University of Konstanz, Box D 146, 78457 Konstanz, GERMANY

Economic Theory, 2002, vol. 19, issue 4, 853-859

Abstract: According to empirical studies, the wage differential by skills evolved non-monotonically in the past decades although the relative supply of skilled labor steadily increased. The present paper provides a theoretical explanation for this finding. In our setting, technological change intertemporally alters the human-capital investment incentives of heterogeneous individuals. As a consequence of changing incentives, the time path of the relative wage is U-shaped while there is a rise in the share of skilled workers.

Keywords: Human-capital investment; Wage inequality. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I21 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002-02-06
Note: Received: November 28, 2000; revised version: January 30, 2001
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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