Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/58534 
Year of Publication: 
2011
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 6167
Publisher: 
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
We show that a calibrated dynamic skill accumulation model allowing for comparative advantages, can explain the weak (or negative) effects of schooling on productivity that have been recently reported (i) in the micro literature on compulsory schooling, ii) in the micro literature on estimating the distribution of ex-post returns to schooling, and (iii) in the macro literature on education and growth. The fraction of the population more efficient at producing skills in the market than in school is a pivotal quantity that determines the sign (and magnitude) of different parameters of interest. Our model reveals an interesting paradox; as low-skill jobs become more skill-enhancing (ceteris paribus), IV estimates of compulsory schooling become increasingly negative, and ex-post returns to schooling (inferred from a Roy model specification of the earnings equation) become negative for an increasing fraction of the population. This arises even if each possible input to skill production has a strictly positive effect. Finally, our model provides a foundation for the weak (or negative) effect education on growth measured in the empirical literature.
Subjects: 
compulsory schooling reforms
dynamic skill accumulation
comparative advantages
returns to schooling
education and growth
dynamic discrete choice
dynamic programming
JEL: 
I2
J1
J3
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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