Entrepreneurial Human Capital and Firm Dynamics

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Queiró
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Firm Dynamics ◽  
Returns To Schooling ◽  
Cycle Growth ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
The Right ◽  
Entrepreneurial Human Capital ◽  
The Universe

Abstract This paper shows that entrepreneurial human capital is a key driver of firm dynamics using administrative panel data on the universe of firms and workers in Portugal. Firms started by more educated entrepreneurs are larger at entry and exhibit higher life cycle growth. Consistent with an effect on growth, the thickness of the right tail of the size distribution increases with entrepreneur schooling. The evidence points to several underlying mechanisms, with technology adoption playing the most important part. I develop and estimate a model of firm dynamics that can parsimoniously account for these findings, and use it to draw aggregate implications. Accounting for the effect of entrepreneurial human capital on firm dynamics can substantially increase aggregate returns to schooling and the fraction of cross-country income differences explained by human and physical capital.

PHYSICAL CAPITAL, HUMAN CAPITAL, AND THE HEALTH EFFECTS OF POLLUTION IN AN OLG MODEL

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
Sichao Wei ◽  
David Aadland
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Health Effects ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Cognitive Learning ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Overlapping Generations Model ◽  
High Pollution ◽  
Balanced Growth Path ◽  
Key Driver

In a standard overlapping generations model, we show how the health effects of pollution impact the balanced-growth path (BGP) and the transition dynamics of the economy. The key driver is the differential between physical and human capital accumulation. The differential occurs because pollution alters the incentives to save and to invest in education via reductions in longevity and alters the effectiveness of education expenditures via impaired cognitive learning. Two predictions of the model are noteworthy. The first prediction is the existence of two stable BGPs with a separating saddle path. One BGP is desirable featuring high economic growth and low pollution, whereas the other should be avoided because it is associated with low economic growth and high pollution. The second prediction is that economic and environmental cycles may emerge, implying inequality between generations. These theoretical results are supported by empirical evidence and imply a role for government to steer the economy toward the desirable BGP and eliminate the cycles.

scholarly journals Human Capital Disparities and Earnings Inequality in The Portuguese Private Labour Market

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derick R. C. Almeida ◽  
João A. S. Andrade ◽  
Adelaide Duarte ◽  
Marta Simões
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Earnings Inequality ◽  
Kuznets Curve ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Returns To Schooling ◽  
Education Inequality ◽  
Using Data

AbstractThis paper examines human capital inequality and how it relates to earnings inequality in Portugal using data from Quadros de Pessoal for the period 1986–2017. The objective is threefold: (i) show how the distribution of human capital has evolved over time; (ii) investigate the association between human capital inequality and earnings inequality; and (iii) analyse the role of returns to schooling, together with human capital inequality, in the explanation of earnings inequality. Our findings suggest that human capital inequality, computed based on the distribution of average years of schooling of employees working in the Portuguese private labour market, records a positive trend until 2007 and decreases from this year onwards, suggesting the existence of a Kuznets curve of education relating educational attainment levels and education inequality. Based on the decomposition of a Generalized Entropy index (Theil N) for earnings inequality, we observe that inequality in the distribution of human capital plays an important role in the explanation of earnings inequality, although this role has become less important over the last decade. Using Mincerian earnings regressions to estimate the returns to schooling together with the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of real hourly earnings we confirm that there are two important forces associated with the observed decrease in earnings inequality: a reduction in education inequality and compressed returns to schooling, mainly in tertiary education.

scholarly journals The Change of Sources of Growth and Sustainable Development in China: Based on the Extended EKC Explanation

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2803
Author(s):  
Huaide Wen ◽  
Jun Dai
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Environmental Pollution ◽  
Knowledge Economy ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Inflection Point ◽  
Physical Capital ◽  
Production Factors ◽  
Main Production ◽  
Traditional Economy

This paper extends the “sources of growth” explanation for the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) proposed by Copeland and Taylor in a concise theoretical framework, that is, when the sources of growth are transformed from physical capital and labor to human capital and knowledge, the environmental pollution could at first rise and then fall with a sustainable growth in per capita income. Using the provincial panel data from 1995 to 2017 in the mainland of China, an empirical analysis is carried out by the System Generalized Method of Moment (sys-GMM). The results show that: first, the EKC hypothesis exists in China. The inflection point for SO2 emissions has been passed in all of the provincial regions, and for CO2 and comprehensive environmental pollution losses have not been passed in some regions, but the inflection point from the national average level in China has been passed; second, the main production factors of the traditional economy, physical capital and labor, are positively correlated with environmental pollution, while human capital and green technological progress, the main production factors of the knowledge economy, are negatively related to environmental pollution; third, human capital and green technological progress have become important factors to promote economic growth, and human capital, in particular, has become the primary factor, which indicates that China is in the process of transforming traditional economy into a knowledge economy. The stage of China’s economic development and the trend of environmental pollution is consistent with the extended “sources of growth” explanation for the EKC, which proved the theoretical hypothesis. This has an important practical significance for China’s current economic reform and important theoretical value for the economic transformation and sustainable development of developing countries. The paper finally puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.

scholarly journals Is Sexual Conflict a Driver of Speciation? A Case Study With a Tribe of Brush-footed Butterflies

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Paula S Carvalho ◽  
Ryan A St Laurent ◽  
Emmanuel F A Toussaint ◽  
Caroline Storer ◽  
Kelly M Dexter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Conflict ◽  
Abiotic Factors ◽  
Evolutionary Mechanisms ◽  
Diversification Rates ◽  
Exon Capture ◽  
Key Driver ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Analytical Approaches ◽  
Acting In Concert

Abstract Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms governing the uneven distribution of species richness across the tree of life is a great challenge in biology. Scientists have long argued that sexual conflict is a key driver of speciation. This hypothesis, however, has been highly debated in light of empirical evidence. Recent advances in the study of macroevolution make it possible to test this hypothesis with more data and increased accuracy. In the present study, we use phylogenomics combined with four different diversification rate analytical approaches to test whether sexual conflict is a driver of speciation in brush-footed butterflies of the tribe Acraeini. The presence of a sphragis, an external mating plug found in most species among Acraeini, was used as a proxy for sexual conflict. Diversification analyses statistically rejected the hypothesis that sexual conflict is associated with shifts in diversification rates in Acraeini. This result contrasts with earlier studies and suggests that the underlying mechanisms driving diversification are more complex than previously considered. In the case of butterflies, natural history traits acting in concert with abiotic factors possibly play a stronger role in triggering speciation than does sexual conflict. [Acraeini butterflies; arms race; exon capture phylogenomics; Lepidoptera macroevolution; sexual selection; sphragis.]

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