The Effects of Remoteness in Japanese Educational Levels

Resumen

In this paper we analyze the role played by remoteness to explain the spatial distribution of educational attainment levels across the 47 Japanese prefectures. Our study departs from the concept of market potential developed by Harris (Harris, 1954) to explain the interplay between human capital location and remoteness and then goes on to validate its effects with Japanese data for 2005. The results of our estimations show that the unequal distribution of population (workers) by educational level depends positively (negatively) on the prefecture´s market potential (prefectures remoteness). High market potential prefectures have a high percentage of individuals with medium and high educational attainment levels whereas the opposite occurs for low market potential prefectures. Doubling a prefecture´s market potential, would increase its percentage of individuals with medium and high educational levels by 25-30%. Moreover the econometric results show that between 55% and 64% of the spatial variation in human capital levels is explained by prefectures market potential.