Industrialization versus Education: Optimal Investment Choices and Growth in a Developing Economy

Abstract:     
Recent growth theory has focused on the role of human capital as a source of welfare gains in developing economies, rather than traditional sources such as improving resource allocation and physical capital accumulation. This paper examines traditional developing-country labor market problems in a Uzawa-Lucas endogenous growth model. Numerical solutions show that policies which promote human capital accumulation can have significant short-term costs, and lower overall welfare improvements, than policies that give similar productivity improvements in the physical-capital or final-goods sector.

JEL Classification: O14, O15

Accepted Paper Series