Abstract We develop a simple growth model featuring individuals’ choices between general and specific skills, endogenous technological innovation, and a government subsidy for education. The two types of skills differ by their productivity and transferability: general skills are transferable across firms, while each firm-specific skill has a productivity advantage in the firm. Firms face uncertainty in their innovation activities, and the resulting heterogeneity in their labor demand makes the transferability of general skill valuable. We theoretically show that as a country catch up to the world technology frontier, firms invest more in innovation activities. This rises firms’ technological uncertainty and, thus, their demands for general skills increases. As a result, especially in more advanced economies, education subsidies may enhance GDP by increasing the supply of general skills. Using aggregated data for 12 European OECD counties, we calibrate the model and compare the theoretical prediction with the data. In cross-country comparisons, we find that the returns on general skills and the impact of general education expenditure on GDP are higher in countries with higher total factor productivity. These findings support our theoretical argument of the positive relationship between firms’ demand for general skills and countries’ stages of development.

中文翻译：

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对通用技能，技术不确定性和经济增长的需求不断变化

摘要我们建立了一个简单的增长模型，该模型具有个人在一般技能和特殊技能之间的选择，内源性技术创新以及政府对教育的补贴。两种技能在生产率和可转移性方面有所不同：常规技能可在公司之间转移，而每种公司专有技能在公司中都具有生产率优势。企业在创新活动中面临不确定性，由此产生的劳动力需求异质性使通用技能的可转让性变得十分宝贵。我们从理论上表明，随着一个国家追赶世界技术前沿，企业在创新活动上的投入会更多。这增加了公司的技术不确定性，因此，他们对一般技能的需求也增加了。结果，尤其是在较发达的经济体中，教育补贴可以通过增加一般技能的供应来提高GDP。我们使用12个欧洲OECD县的汇总数据，对模型进行了校准，并将理论预测与数据进行了比较。在跨国比较中，我们发现在全要素生产率较高的国家，通识技能的回报率和通识教育支出对GDP的影响较高。这些发现支持了我们的理论观点，即企业对通用技能的需求与国家发展阶段之间存在正相关关系。我们发现，在全要素生产率较高的国家，通识技能的回报率和通识教育支出对GDP的影响较高。这些发现支持了我们的理论观点，即企业对通用技能的需求与国家发展阶段之间存在正相关关系。我们发现，在全要素生产率较高的国家，通识技能的回报率和通识教育支出对GDP的影响较高。这些发现支持了我们的理论观点，即企业对通用技能的需求与国家发展阶段之间存在正相关关系。