The determinants of long-run inequality

Andrea, Canidio (2010): The determinants of long-run inequality.

Abstract

I explore the effect of skill-biased technological change on long-run inequality using a theoretical model where the supply of skilled and unskilled workers, the cost of education, and credit rationing are endogenous. I show that the existence of unequal steady states does not depend on the degree of technological skill bias, but on the credit market, the cost of education, altruism, and the overall growth rate of the economy. However, when unequal steady states exist, economies with a higher technological skill bias have a greater long-run inequality. Therefore, skill-bias technological change is a second-order determinant of long-run inequality: a higher technological skill bias is associated with greater long-run inequality only if long-run inequality exists; the existence of long-run inequality does not depend on skill bias.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Endogenous Inequality, Skill Bias, Credit Rationing, Education, Growth
• Subjects: O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O11 - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers > J62 - Job, Occupational, and Intergenerational Mobility; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O16 - Financial Markets ; Saving and Capital Investment ; Corporate Finance and Governance; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J24 - Human Capital ; Skills ; Occupational Choice ; Labor Productivity; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O33 - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences ; Diffusion Processes

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