This thesis is formed of three chapters. The first chapter examines the effect on social mobility and economic growth following the introduction of reprogenetic technology such that parents can choose to invest in the talent or ability of their unborn children. I find that if the economy is initially in a steady state such that social mobility is low, the introduction of such technology can increase social mobility and economic growth. If the economy is initially in a steady state such that social mobility is high, then the introduction of such technology will not increase (and may decrease) social mobility and will not affect economic growth. The second chapter is a review of the literature on how immigration affects wages focusing on studies of the US and UK labour markets. The third chapter analyses how the skill premium depends on the relative supply of high and low skilled workers in the economy, and the size of the economy. Using a two-sector model where one sector is more skill-intensive than the other, and returns to scale are larger in the skill-intensive sector, I find that the skill premium depends positively on the size of the economy. I consider the effect of an exogenous increase in the number of skilled workers (perhaps due to immigration) on the skill premium and find that under certain conditions the skill premium may increase. I then analyse the effect on the skill premium and the relative price of the skill intensive good in the short and long run and compare the models predictions to the data.

Household survey data collected primarily from rural Bangladesh (Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2005-2006) is utilized in this paper to identify the important individual, household and district-level factors that influence the decision making process that parents undertake to determine their children’s (between the age of 7 and 14 inclusive) absence rate from school and work intensity. Bivariate Tobit model is used to jointly estimate the absence rate and hours worked equations. The results of the analysis conducted in this paper suggest that an increase in perceived returns on human capital from attending school – as measured by the wage differential between low-skilled and higher-skilled occupations in a given market – negatively impact absence rate in rural Bangladesh. Moreover, results suggest that the education level of the parents has an impact on a child’s absence rate and the number of hours worked in a week. It is found that the higher the education level of the father, the lower the absence rate and the number of hours worked of a child, while higher levels of the mother’s education level is shown to negatively impact the absence rate. It is also found that being the first born child in a household is associated with both higher absence rate from school and greater amount of hours worked per week. With respect to gender, being a girl is found to be associated with a greater number of hours worked. Lastly, household wealth is found to have a U-shaped relationship with both absence rates and number of hours worked; it is negatively associated with both of the dependent variables at lower levels, but has a positive impact on both absence rate and number of hours worked at higher levels. In general, the results detailed in this paper highlight the importance of policies such as the provision of cash stipends to the poorest households, improving the quality of schooling facilities and directed educational schemes meant to eradicate the persistent gender inequality that is hindering truly universal primary education in rural Bangladesh. / Graduate / 0501 / najsaqib@hotmail.com

No description available.

The evolution of the U.S. skill premium over the past century has been characterized by a U-shaped pattern. The previous literature has attributed this observation mainly to the existence of exogenous, unexpected technological shocks or changes in institutional factors. In contrast, this paper demonstrates that a U-shaped evolution of the skill premium can also be obtained using a simple two-sector growth model that comprises both variants of skill-biased technological change (SBTC): technological change (TC) that is favorable to high-skilled labor and capital-skill complementarity (CSC). Within this framework, we derive the conditions necessary to achieve a non-monotonic evolution of relative wages and analyze the dynamics of such a case. We show that in the short run for various parameter constellations an educational, a relative substitutability, and a factor intensity effect can induce a decrease in the skill premium despite moderate growth in the relative productivity of high-skilled labor. In the long run, as the difference in labor productivity increases, the skill premium also rises. To underpin our theoretical results, we conduct a comprehensive simulation study.