Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T17:05:41.812Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

HOW DO ELEMENTARY AND HIGHER EDUCATION AFFECT HUMAN CAPITAL ACCUMULATION AND INEQUALITY? A NOTE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2011

Tetsuya Nakajima  and
Hideki Nakamura
Tetsuya Nakajima
Affiliation:
Osaka City University
Hideki Nakamura*
Affiliation:
Osaka City University
*
Address correspondence to: Hideki Nakamura, Faculty of Economics, Osaka City University, 3-3-138 Sugimoto, Sumiyoshi, Osaka 558-8585, Japan; e-mail: hnakamur@econ.osaka-cu.ac.jp.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We clarify the different effects of elementary and higher education on human capital accumulation and inequality. The productivity of elementary education plays a significant role in the widening of inequality regardless of the existence of multiple steady states. When the productivity of elementary education is low, the poor cannot afford higher education in the long run because the demand for education by the rich makes the price of education too high for the poor. However, the effect of its productivity on the attainable education level is ambiguous. A rise in the productivity of higher education always increases the education level.

Keywords

Elementary EducationHigher EducationPrice of EducationInequality
Type
Notes
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 16 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 151 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bénabou, Roland (1996) Heterogeneity, stratification and growth: Macroeconomic implications of community structure and education finance. American Economic Review 86, 584–609.Google Scholar
Bénabou, Roland (2000) Unequal societies: Income distribution and the social conflict. American Economic Review 90, 96–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bénabou, Roland (2002) Tax and education policy in a heterogeneous-agent economy: What levels of redistribution maximize growth and efficiency? Econometrica 70, 481–517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bräuninger, Michael and Vidal, Jean-Pierre (2000) Private versus public financing of education and endogenous growth. Journal of Population Economics 13, 387–401.Google Scholar
Galor, Oded and Moav, Omer (2004) From physical to human capital accumulation: Inequality and the process of development. Review of Economic Studies 71, 1001–1026.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, Oded and Moav, Omer (2006) Das human-kapital: A theory of the demise of the class structure. Review of Economic Studies 73, 85–117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, Oded and Zeira, Joseph (1993) Income distribution and macroeconomics. Review of Economic Studies 60, 35–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glomm, Gerhard and Ravikumar, B. (1992) Public versus private investment in human capital: Endogenous growth and income inequality. Journal of Political Economy 100, 818–834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moav, Omer (2002) Income distribution and macroeconomics: The persistence of inequality in a convex technology framework. Economics Letters 75, 187–192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakajima, Tetsuya and Nakamura, Hideki (2009) The price of education and inequality. Economics Letters 105, 183–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nakamura, Hideki and Nakajima, Tetsuya (2009) Education and Inequality. Mimeo, Osaka City University.Google Scholar
Nishimura, Kazuo (2003) Evaluation of “yutori kyouiku” by economics. In Ito, T. and Nishimura, K. (eds.), Kyouikukaikaku no keizaigaku, pp. 13–27. Tokyo: Nihonkeizaihyouronsha. (In Japanese.)Google Scholar
Rothschild, Michael and White, Lawrence J. (1995) The analytics of the pricing of higher education and other services in which the customers are inputs. Journal of Political Economy 103, 573–586.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tachibanaki, Toshiaki and Yagi, Tadashi (2009) Education and inequality: Why do individuals aim to go to famous schools? Tokyo: Nihonhyoronsha. (In Japanese.)Google Scholar