The Technology of Skill Formation

Flavio Cunha, James Heckman

NBER Working Paper No. 12840
Issued in January 2007
NBER Program(s):   CH   ED   HE   LS   PE

This paper develops a model of skill formation that explains a variety of findings established in the child development and child intervention literatures. At its core is a technology that is stage-specific and that features self productivity, dynamic complementarity and skill multipliers. Lessons are drawn for the design of new policies to alleviate the consequences of the accident of birth that is a major source of human inequality.

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Published: Flavio Cunha & James Heckman, 2007. "The Technology of Skill Formation," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 31-47, May.

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Acknowledgments

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