Full Citation

Title: The Knowledge Trap: Human Capital and Development Reconsidered

Citation Type: Miscellaneous

Publication Year: 2009

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Abstract: This paper presents a model where human capital differences, rather than residual productivity differences, can explain several central phenomena in the world economy. In the model, workers choose both the duration and content of their training. A "knowledge trap" occurs where skilled workers avoid narrow, deep training and thus fail, collectively, to embody frontier knowledge. Standard human capital accounting is shown to underestimate the resulting skill differences between rich and poor nations. The theory may explain price, wage and income differences across countries, and suggests novel interpretations of immigrant outcomes, poverty traps, and the brain drain, among other applications.

Url: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5189139

User Submitted?: No

Authors: Jones, Benjamin F

Publisher: Kellogg School of Management and NBER

Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure, Other

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