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Public investment and human capital with segmented labour markets

Abstract:
We develop a dynamic general equilibrium macroeconomic model with segmented labour markets and efficiency wages to examine how labour market structures influence the impact of human capital investment in low-income countries. For plausible calibration values, public investment in education is much more effective than infrastructure investment in promoting long-run economic development, but because investment in education affects labour productivity with a lag, policymakers face an intertemporal trade-off which depends on their social discount rate and the weight of distributional objectives in the social welfare function. We show the distortionary structure of labour markets matters in leveraging welfare gains from public investment and in shifting the optimal public investment programme further in favour of human capital, relative to the case of flex-wage full-employment labour markets.
Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1093/oep/gpac051

Authors

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Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
SSD
Department:
International Development
Oxford college:
St Cross College
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0002-3247-9437


Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Journal:
Oxford Economic Papers More from this journal
Volume:
76
Issue:
1
Pages:
162–186
Publication date:
2022-12-14
Acceptance date:
2022-11-30
DOI:
EISSN:
1464-3812
ISSN:
0030-7653


Language:
English
Pubs id:
1317672
Local pid:
pubs:1317672
Deposit date:
2023-01-09
ARK identifier:

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