The political economy of educational content and development: Lessons from history
Davide Cantoni|Noam Yuchtman
Beyond years of schooling, educational content can play an important role in the process economic development. Individuals' choices are often shaped by political economy government policies that determine incentives to acquire various skills. We first present a model which differences human capital investments emerge as equilibrium outcome private decisions and policy choices. then illustrate these dynamics two historical circumstances. In medieval Europe, states Church found individuals trained Roman law valuable, eventually supported productive this new form capital. late 19th-century China, elites were threatened introduction Western science engineering continued select civil servants—who enjoyed substantial rents—based on their knowledge Confucian classics; result, productive, modern not made.
Journal of Development Economics|London School of Economics and Political Science Research Online (London School of Economics and Political Science)|Library Union Catalog of Bavaria, Berlin and Brandenburg (B3Kat Repository)|Econstor (Econstor)|Open access LMU (Ludwid Maxmilian's Universitat Munchen)|RePEc: Research Papers in Economics