Literacy Traps: Society-wide Education and Individual Skill Premia

Kaushik Basu, Vidya Atal, John Gray () and Travis Lee

Working Papers from eSocialSciences

Abstract: Using a model of O-ring production function, the paper demonstrates how certain communities can get caught in a low-literacy trap in which each individual finds it not worthwhile investing in higher skills because others are not high-skilled. The model sheds light on educational policy. It is shown that policy for promoting human capital has to take the form of a mechanism for solving the coordination failure in people's choice of educational strategy.

Keywords: education; people; O-ring; skill formation; economy; human capital; production function; communities; literacy trap; skills; educational policy; strategy; Literacy; Society (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hrm and nep-lab
Note: Institutional Papers
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Related works:
Journal Article: Literacy traps: Society‐wide education and individual skill premia (2010)
Working Paper: Literacy Traps: Society-Wide Education and Individual Skill Premia (2009)
Working Paper: Literacy Traps: Society-wide Education and Individual Skill Premia (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2324

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