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Growth or Stagnation? The Role of Public Education

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  • Kenneth Beauchemin

Abstract

This paper presents a political-economic theory of growth and human capital accumulation. Age heterogeneity is put forth as the primary source of disagreement between individuals over various levels public education expenditures. An overlapping generations model with with two-period lived agents is constructed to capture the heterogeneity. With a growing population, the equilibrium quantity of public education reflects the preferences of youth and is therefore foward looking. As such, policy preferences are a function of intertemporal elasticities, utility discounting and population growth. Despite foward looking behavior, it is shown that sufficiently rapid population growth can trigger stagnation (zero growth) in the form of a corner solution to the public policy problem. The model therefore complements existing models that associate slow per capita output growth with high population growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenneth Beauchemin, 1999. "Growth or Stagnation? The Role of Public Education," Discussion Papers 99-06, University at Albany, SUNY, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:nya:albaec:99-06
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    Cited by:

    1. Pierre-Richard Agénor, 2012. "Infrastructure, Public Education And Growth With Congestion Costs," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 64(4), pages 449-469, October.
    2. Andrea Doneschi & Rossana Patron, 2011. "Assessing incentives and risks in training decisions. A methodological note applied to the Uruguayan case," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 1511, Department of Economics - dECON.
    3. Yanagihara, Mitsuyoshi & Lu, Chen, 2013. "Cash-in-advance constraint, optimal monetary policy, and human capital accumulation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 278-288.
    4. Juntip Boonprakaikawe & Frédéric Tournemaine, 2014. "On the Macroeconomic Impact of a Regional Development Policy with Endogenous Residential Choice," The Review of Regional Studies, Southern Regional Science Association, vol. 44(1), pages 75-100, Spring.
    5. Alfred Greiner & Peter Flaschel, 2009. "Economic Policy in a Growth Model with Human Capital, Heterogenous Agents and Unemployment," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 33(2), pages 175-192, March.
    6. Greiner, Alfred, 2008. "Fiscal policy in an endogenous growth model with human capital and heterogenous agents," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 643-657, July.
    7. Greiner, Alfred, 2008. "Human capital formation, public debt and economic growth," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 415-427, March.
    8. Leonid Azarnert, 2006. "Free Education: For Whom, Where and When?," DEGIT Conference Papers c011_024, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    9. Alfred Greiner, 2012. "Human capital formation, learning by doing and the government in the process of economic growth," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 59(1), pages 71-89, February.
    10. Peter Flaschel & Alfred Greiner, 2011. "A Future for Capitalism," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14241.
    11. Senjuti Gupta & Bidisha Chakraborty & Tanmoyee Banerjee (Chatterjee), 2019. "Service Good as an Intermediate Input and Optimal Government Policy in an Endogenous Growth Model," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 8(1), pages 57-91, June.
    12. Fabienne Dascher-Preising & Alfred Greiner, 2024. "Human Capital Formation With Heterogeneous Agents, Sustainable Debt Policies and Growth: Who Benefits from Fiscal Policy Rules?," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 25(1), pages 175-212, May.
    13. Alfred Greiner, 2016. "Human capital formation and public debt: growth and welfare effects of three different deficit policies," Journal of Economic Policy Reform, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 369-385, October.
    14. Chaitali Sinha, 2014. "Human Capital and Public Policy," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 3(1), pages 79-125, June.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic Growth; Public Education; Political Economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory

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