Public investment in education has been justified by assumed positive externalities of education. Using the 1995 10% Population and Housing Census and 1998 Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, this study first examines the distribution of human capita...
Public investment in education has been justified by assumed positive externalities of education. Using the 1995 10% Population and Housing Census and 1998 Korean Labor and Income Panel Study, this study first examines the distribution of human capital across Korean cities and industries, and second, investigates the sizes of external economies of education by exploring how the average schooling of workers in cities and industries affect an individual worker`s hourly wage. Generally, the average schooling of workers in the capital region cities is much higher than in other cities and the average schooling of workers in high tech industries is much higher than in other industries. As the average years of schooling in a city increases by one year, workers with the same personal and job characteristics such as sex, education, experience, occupation, and firm size, earn about 3% more. Also as the average years of schooling of workers in an industry increases by one year, the workers with the same personal and job characteristics earns about 5∼7% more.