文章基本信息

标题：LEARNING ABOUT EDUCATION
本地全文：下载
作者：Patrick M. Emerson ; Bruce McGough
期刊名称：Economic Inquiry
印刷版ISSN：0095-2583
出版年度：2018
卷号：56
期号：1
页码：263-277
DOI：10.1111/ecin.12487
语种：English
出版社：Western Economic Association International
摘要：Limited human capital investment is a common characteristic of low‐income countries despite the fact that estimated returns to educational investment in low‐income countries are generally higher than those in high‐income countries. Empirical evidence suggests that income and credit constraints can only account for a part of this underinvestment. Recent experimental evidence shows that families' misperceptions about the returns to education play a role in their low‐investment levels. This paper builds a heterogeneous‐agent model of human capital and growth that incorporates an adaptive learning mechanism to capture the way agents form perceptions about returns to education. We find natural conditions guaranteeing existence of stable equilibria. Along transition paths, agents' misperceptions about returns to education depress realized returns, which serves to reenforce and perpetuate low human‐capital investment. If human capital investments have both private and public returns, we find multiple stable equilibria, including those which are characterized by low investment and low returns. (JEL D83, O10, I25)