Income Distribution Commons^™

Essays On Human Capital And Inequality, Youngmin Park

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis conducts positive and normative analysis of inequality based on human capital theory. In Chapter 2, we document important differences in early child investments by family income and study four leading mechanisms thought to explain these gaps: intergenerational ability correlation, consumption value of investment, information frictions, and credit constraints. We evaluate whether these mechanisms are consistent with other stylized facts related to the marginal returns on investments and the effects of parental income on child investments and skills.

In Chapter 3, I study optimal higher education subsidies when parents’ willingness to pay for their children's education differs due to …