Unequal Opportunities and Human Capital Formation

Daniel Mejia and Marc St-Pierre

No 1383, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: This paper develops a tractable, heterogeneous agents general equilibrium model where individuals have different endowments of the factors that complement the schooling process. The paper explores the relationship between inequality of opportunities, inequality of outcomes, and efficiency in human capital formation. Using numerical solutions we study how the endogenous variables of the model respond to two different interventions in the distribution of opportunities: a mean-preserving spread and a change in the support. The results suggest that a higher degree of inequality of opportunities is associated with lower average level of human capital, a lower fraction of individuals investing in human capital, higher inequality in the distribution of human capital, and higher wage inequality. In other words, the model does not predict a trade-off between efficiency and equality of opportunity in human capital formation.

Keywords: human capital; inequality; equity-efficiency trade-off (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dev, nep-edu and nep-mic
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Unequal opportunities and human capital formation (2008)
Working Paper: Unequal Opportunities and Human Capital Formation (2006)
Working Paper: Unequal Opportunities and Human Capital Formation (2006)
Working Paper: Unequal opportunities and human capital formation (2004)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_1383

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