THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION: A MACROECONOMIC ANALYSIS
研究了1940年至2000年间美国教育程度大幅提升的原因，通过构建人力资本积累模型，发现技术进步（尤其是技能偏向型技术变革）是主要推动因素，对理解教育政策效果有参考价值。
Between 1940 and 2000 there was a substantial increase in educational attainment in the United States. What caused this trend? We develop a model of human capital accumulation that features a nondegenerate distribution of educational attainment in the population. We use this framework to assess the quantitative contribution of technological progress and changes in life expectancy in explaining the evolution of educational attainment. The model implies an increase in average years of schooling of 24%, which is the increase observed in the data. We find that technological variables and in particular skill‐biased technical change represent the most important factors in accounting for the increase in educational attainment. The strong response of schooling to changes in income is informative about the potential role of educational policy and the impact of other trends affecting lifetime income.