Human Capital and Income Distribution Dynamics

The paper assumes a continuum of two period-lived agents; agents are identical except for the inherited income. Young agents optimally allocate their inherited income between consumption and investment in human capital in a stochastic environment. In the second period they receive a wage proportional to the accumulated human capital and invest in offspring. Two main results are provided: a low earning per unit of human capital leads the economy to converge to a stationary income distribution whatever the initial distribution. Viceversa, for a sufficently high wage an endogenous growth is at work and the income distribution dynamics depends on the initial conditions. In this case several redistributive policies are analized.