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HUMAN CAPITAL, AGGREGATION, AND GROWTH

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 March 2010

Jakub Growiec
Jakub Growiec*
Affiliation:
Warsaw School of Economics
*
Address correspondence to: Jakub Growiec, Institute of Econometrics, Warsaw School of Economics. Al. Niepodleglości 162, 02-554 Warsaw, Poland; e-mail: jakub.growiec@sgh.waw.pl.
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Abstract

Human capital is embodied in people of different generations whose lifetimes are finite. We show that the finiteness of people's lives precludes human capital accumulation from driving long-run aggregate economic growth unless sufficiently strong externalities from aggregate human capital are introduced. Two possible channels for carrying forward such externalities are (i) knowledge spillovers and (ii) public education spending. Our findings shed new light on the foundations of the Uzawa–Lucas growth model. We also show that the cross-sectional Mincer equation, generated by a linear human capital accumulation equation at the individual level, does not carry forward to aggregate data.

Keywords

Human Capital AccumulationAggregation across VintagesExternalitiesBalanced Growth
Type
Articles
Information
Macroeconomic Dynamics , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 189 - 211
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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