Collaborative Research: Human Capital and Income Inequality

在这个研究项目中，我们感兴趣的是探索当国家在事前相同的情况下，国家之间的事后不平等可能会出现的程度。我们研究了一个模型，在这个模型中，不完全可观察的人力资本投资被引入了一个标准的新古典贸易框架中。由于信息外部性和一般均衡价格效应之间的相互作用，当国家专门从事人力资本强度不同的行业时，均衡可能会出现不平等。作为低人力资本国家的公民比专门作为高人力资本国家的公民的境况更差。由于低人力资本国家的投资动机较低，这种情况是自我强制的。激励在贫穷国家是不好的，有两个原因：1)由于投资者很少，“看起来不错”的人更有可能是一个人力资本较低的人，却得到了“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不进行贸易的情况。在我们的研究中，我们将探索这些影响是如何相互作用的，以及该模型在多大程度上为专业化提供了理论基础，并提供了该模型的一些可检验的含义。

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.