0000000000659129
AUTHOR
Amparo Castello-climent
Human capital and income inequality revisited
This paper revisits the relationship between human capital and income inequality, using an updated data set on human capital inequality and a novel database on earnings inequality. We find an inver...
On the distribution of education and democracy
This paper empirically analyzes the influence of the distribution of education on democracy by controlling for unobservable heterogeneity and by taking into account the persistency of some of the variables. The most novel finding is that increase in the education attained by the majority of the population is what matters for the implementation and sustainability of democracy, rather than the average years of schooling. We show this result is robust to issues pertaining omitted variables, outliers, sample selection, or a narrow definition of the variables used to measure democracy.
Human Capital Inequality, Life Expectancy and Economic Growth
This article presents a model in which inequality affects per capita income when individuals decide to invest in education taking into account their life expectancy, which depends to a large extent on the human capital of their parents. Our results show the existence of multiple steady states depending on the initial distribution of education. The low steady state is a poverty trap in which children raised in poor families have low life expectancy and work as non-educated workers. The empirical evidence suggests that the life expectancy mechanism explains a major part of the relationship between inequality and human capital accumulation. Increases in life expectancy and human capital accumu…
The Age Structure of Human Capital and Economic Growth
This paper shows that the age structure of human capital is a relevant characteristic to take into account when analysing the role of human capital in economic growth. The effect of an increase in the education of the population aged 40–49 years is found to be an order of magnitude larger than an increase in the education attained by any other age cohort. The results are unlikely to be driven by the age structure of the population, as we find that the effects on growth of the age structure of education and the age structure of population are distinct. The findings are robust across specifications and remain unchanged when we control for long‐delayed effects in human capital or for the exper…
Higher education and prosperity: from catholic missionaries to luminosity in India
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12551 This article estimates the impact of completed higher education on economic prosperity across Indian districts. To address the endogeneity of higher education, we use the location of Catholic missionaries circa 1911 as an instrument. Catholics constitute a very small share of the population in India and their influence beyond higher education has been limited. Our instrumental variable results find a positive effect of higher education on development, as measured by light density. The results are robust to alternative measures of development, and are not driven by lower levels of schooling or other chann…
Channels through Which Human Capital Inequality Influences Economic Growth
This paper empirically investigates the theoretical predictions of some of the channels through which human capital inequality may discourage investment and growth. In a cross section of countries over the period 1960–2000, findings reveal that, all other things being equal, a greater degree of human capital inequality increases fertility rates and reduces life expectancy, which in turn hampers the accumulation rates of human capital. This effect is reinforced in the countries where individuals find it difficult to access credit. Extensive sensitivity analyses show that the results are robust across specifications and are not driven by atypical observations, endogenous regressors, or unobse…
Mass education or a minority well educated elite in the process of growth: The case of India
Abstract This paper analyzes whether mass education is more growth enhancing in developing countries than having a minority well educated elite. Using Indian Census data as a benchmark and enrollment rates at different levels of education, we compute annual attainment levels for a panel of 16 Indian states from 1961 to 2001. Results indicate that if the reduction in illiteracy stops at the primary level of education, it is not worthwhile for growth. Instead, the findings reveal a strong and significant effect on growth of a greater share of population completing tertiary education. The economic impact is also found to be large: a one percent change in tertiary education has the same effect …