Migration and Human Capital Formation: Theory and Evidence from the U.S. High School Movement

40 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2006

See all articles by Rodney Ramcharan

Rodney Ramcharan

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business

Date Written: July 2002

Abstract

In 1910, 12 percent of American 14-17 year olds were enrolled in high school; by 1930, enrollment had increased to 50 percent; enrollment in Britain was 12 percent in 1950. This paper argues that by increasing the skill premium, the massive inflows of European unskilled immigrants at the turn of the twentieth century engendered America's sharp rise in human capital investment. The increased enrollments raised the supply of schools, leading to continued schooling investment. Cross section evidence and a VAR analysis of the time series data support the hypothesized role of immigration in generating the high school movement.

Keywords: factor movements, human capital formation

JEL Classification: F22, F43, N32

Suggested Citation

Ramcharan, Rodney, Migration and Human Capital Formation: Theory and Evidence from the U.S. High School Movement (July 2002). IMF Working Paper No. 02/123, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=879881

Rodney Ramcharan (Contact Author)

University of Southern California, Marshall School of Business ( email )

2250 Alcazar Street
Los Angeles, CA 90089
United States

HOME PAGE: http://https://sites.google.com/site/rodneyramcharan/

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
142
Abstract Views
1,200
Rank
368,681
PlumX Metrics