Collaborative Research: Human Capital and Income Inequality

在这个研究项目中，我们感兴趣的是探索国家之间的不平等在多大程度上可以出现时，国家是事前相同的。我们研究一个模型，其中不完全可观察的人力资本投资，否则标准的新古典贸易框架。由于信息外部性和一般均衡价格效应之间的相互作用，当各国专门从事人力资本强度不同的行业时，均衡中可能会出现不平等。低人力资本国家的公民比高人力资本国家的公民更糟糕。 由于在人力资本低的国家投资的积极性较低，这种情况是自我强化的。贫穷国家的激励机制不好有两个原因：1）由于投资者很少，“看起来不错”的人更有可能是人力资本较低的人，他们得到了“幸运抽奖”; 2）从另一个国家进口人力资本密集型商品的可能性使人力资本的价值低于没有贸易的国家。在我们的研究中，我们将探讨这些影响是如何相互作用的，以及该模型为专业化提供了一个理论基础，并提供了一些可测试的影响模型。

In this research project we are interested in exploring the extent ex post inequalities between nations can arise when countries are ex ante identical. We study a model where imperfectly observable human capital investments are introduced in an otherwise standard neoclassical trade framework. Due to interaction between an informational externality and general equilibrium price effects, inequalities may arise in equilibrium when countries specialize in industries with different intensities in human capital. Citizens in the country specializing as a low human capital country are worse off than citizens in the country specializing as a high human capital country. Because incentives to invest are lower in the low human capital country the situation is self-enforcing. Incentives are bad in the poor country two reasons: 1) with few investors someone who "looks good" is more likely an individual with low human capital that got a "lucky draw"; 2) the possibility to import goods intensive in human capital from the other country makes human capital less valuable compared to a situation where countries don't trade. In our research we will explore how these effects interact and the extent the model provides a rationale for specialization as well as provide a number of testable implications of the model.