Child nutrition and multiple equilibria in the human capital transition function

  1. Rivera, Berta
  2. Currais Nunes, Luis
  3. Rungo, Paolo
Revista:
Papeles de trabajo del Instituto de Estudios Fiscales. Serie economía

ISSN: 1578-0252

Año de publicación: 2006

Número: 21

Páginas: 3-21

Tipo: Artículo

Otras publicaciones en: Papeles de trabajo del Instituto de Estudios Fiscales. Serie economía

Resumen

An overlapping generation model has been developed in order to analyze the effects of health on the accumulation and intergenerational transmission of human capital. The model shows that the human capital transition function can provide multiple steady states when it is assumed that returns to education are an increasing function of child nutrition. Depending on the initial endowment of human capital, dynasties may find themselves trapped in vicious circle of low human capital, poor health status and high fertility rates. Moreover, human capital could converge to different equilibria depending on child nutrition, regardless of the length of schooling.