The aim of this paper is to explore how interpersonal variation in risk preference affects human capital investment and, hence, wage growth. To date, there has been a distinct lack of empirical research in this area despite the fact that the risk preference of individuals plays a key role in the...

We build an overlapping generations model in which reproductive households face a child quantity/child quality trade-off and bureaucrats are delegated with the task of delivering public services that support the accumulation of human capital. By integrating the theoretical analyses of endogenous...

In a three-period overlapping generations model, I show that different combinations of preference and technological parameters can lead to different patterns on the joint evolution of human capital and (endogenous) fertility choices. These patterns may include threshold effects and multiple...

Recent evidence of increasing fertility rates in developed countries, offers support to the idea that, from the onset of early industrialisation to the present day, the dynamics of fertility can be represented by an N-shaped curve. An OLG model with parental investment in human capital can...

Existing evidence shows that activities promoting the formation of human capital are countercyclical. In a two period OLG model, I show that countercyclical investment in human capital arises as a result of a parametric combination relating to preferences and technologies. This countercyclical...