This paper develops a model that shows how training costs incurred by firms alters the relationship between wage inflation and unemployment. During an upswing, firms will take on and train new workers. These workers are, however, not shed during a following downswing. This is due to the lump sum...

This paper studies the growth and efficiency effects of pay-as-you-go financed social security when human capital is the engine of growth. Employing a variant of the Lucas (1988) model with overlapping generations, it is shown that a properly designed unfunded social security system leads to...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the theoretical and econometric implications of omitting spatial dependence in the Mankiw, Romer, and Weil (1992) model. Indeed, the international distribution of income levels and growth rates suggests the existence of large international disparities, and...

We extend and test two models of asset pricing that feature status-seeking through accumulation of not only financial and real assets but also human capital. We use weak-identification robust tests to confront these models with U.S. aggregate data. Contrary to previous results, we find that the...

In this paper, a modification is made to the endogenous growth model studied by Lucas [1988]. It is shown that if individuals derive utility from their level of human capital, then a tax on the return to physical capital can raise the equilibrium growth rate. Consumption taxation may increase...

Bilingualism is a widespread phenomenon, yet its economic effects are under researched. Typically studies find that bilingual workers are disadvantaged. Governments often protect minority languages through official promotion of bilingualism, with potential economic consequences. This paper...

In this paper we use important new training and wage data from the British Household Panel Survey to estimate the impact of the national minimum wage (introduced in April 1999) on the work-related training of low-wage workers. We use two 'treatment groups' for estimating the impact of the new...

Why might people in poor countries leave school earlier and invest less in learning on-thejob than people in rich ones? How do these human capital decisions impact on inequality? To give quantitative answers to these questions, I build an overlapping generations model with optimal human capital...