演講摘要 : This paper studies how human capital connects economic growth with income distribution. We construct a model where households can choose between private and public schools. Government provides public education and public supports for private education through voucher programs to help households overcome problems caused by credit market imperfections. We find that the structure of educational system is important to determine transitions of growth and inequality both in the short run and in the long run. In a private education regime, income inequality can be transmitted from one generation to another. Deregulation of financial markets will increase both growth rate and income inequality. Switching from a private education regime to a public education regime can avoid the problem of financial market imperfections. Income inequality is lower under a public education regime than under a private education regime. In a mixed educational system, our quantitative study shows that government is able to control economic performance (high economic growth or low income inequality) by changing the size and structure of educational system. If government wants to reduce income inequality, a policy to increase the enrollment rate in public schools should be adopted. However, having high enrollment rate in private schools with liberalization of credit markets can keep the growth rate high. Impacts of different government policies of tax rates, financial developments and scales of voucher programs are also analyzed. This paper also provides theoretical explanations of Kuznets curve found in time series and cross-sectional regressions.
