Human Capital Distribution, Technological Progress, and Economic Growth

Oded Galor and Daniel Tsiddon

No 971, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: This paper analyses the interaction between the distribution of human capital, technological progress, and economic growth. It demonstrates the significant role of the distribution of human capital in the process of economic development. The evolutionary pattern of the human capital distribution, the income distribution and economic growth are determined by the interplay between a local home environment externality and a global technological externality. In periods during which the home environment externality is the dominating factor, the distribution of human capital becomes polarized, whereas in periods during which the global technological externality dominates, convergence ultimately takes place. The study suggests that a poor uneducated economy which values equity as well as prosperity may confront a trade-off between equity in the short run and equity and prosperity in the long run. An economy that prematurely implements a policy designed to enhance equality may be trapped at a low output equilibrium.

Keywords: Growth; Human Capital; Income Distribution; Kuznets Hypothesis; Overlapping-Generations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 O40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1994-06
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=971 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
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:cpr:ceprdp:971

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... pers/dp.php?dpno=971

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().