Human capital formation in an open economy with increasing wage differentials

Several developed countries are witnessing a trend towards an increasing gap in the earnings between skilled and unskilled workers. Though it is widely recognised that human capital formation programs through education and training should be strengthened in the presence of increasing wage differentials, it seems that this is not currently occurring to a satisfactory extent. We show an example where technology and terms of trade shocks that enhance the wage differential between high and low-skilled labour aggravate the underinvestment in public education arising from majority voting, thus leading to an undesirable outcome, both in terms of efficiency and equity.