Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/71444 
Year of Publication: 
2004
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Papers No. 04/31
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
We examine the contribution of human capital to economy-wide technological improvements through the two channels of innovation and imitation. We develop a theoretical model showing that skilled labor has a higher growth-enhancing effect closer to the technological frontier under the reasonable assumption that innovation is a relatively more skillintensive activity than imitation. Also, we provide evidence in favor of this prediction using a panel dataset covering 19 OECD countries between 1960 and 2000 and explain why previous empirical research had found no positive relationship between initial schooling level and subsequent growth in rich countries. In particular, we show that in OECD economies it is crucial to isolate the two separate margins of primary/secondary and tertiary education. Interestingly, the latter type of schooling proves to be a factor of economic divergence.
Subjects: 
economic growth
human capital
education
imitation
innovation
convergence
technological frontier
wave
JEL: 
I20
O30
O40
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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