Can the educational system promote the social polarization? A macroeconomics approach

LONDON S.

SAN FRANCISCO

Conferencia; LASA 2012; 2012

LASA

This work underlines the importance of the human capital for economic growth, from an aggregate point of view. We base our analysis on a theoretical model (London: 2008) in which there exist important complementarities among educational attainment, R&D activities (and their derived innovations) and economic growth, subject to a ?skill-loss effect? ( -effect). Taking a empirical data from some Latin American Countries, we conclude that the more distorted the labour market is, the stronger must be the investment in R&D necessary to attain a positive economic growth rate. In a second stage, we focus, in a conceptual framework, on the relevance of initial conditions to explain potential economic growth of the economy. There are three possible results, analyzed thought simulated scenarios: a poverty trap (or vicious circle), a positive growth path (or positive circle), or a dual (polarized) economy, in which high levels of education coexists with an important sector of the population with low levels of formal education.