Public Education, Occupational Choice, and the Growth-Inequality Relationship

This article develops a dynamic general equilibrium model in which the occupational structure of the economy drives a wedge between the social and private returns to schooling for some workers. I study the impacts of alternative allocations of public resources between basic and higher levels of education on enrollments, income distribution, and growth. In particular, I illustrate how the growth-inequality relationship depends on the tension between two forces: (1) the “trickle-down” effects of expenditures on higher education and (2) the positive impacts on secondary enrollments generated by high-quality basic education and reduced parental inequality.