Vintage Human Capital, Growth, and the Diffusion of New Technology

Abstract

The authors develop a model of vintage human capital in which each technology requires vintage-specific skills. They examine the properties of a stationary equilibrium for their economy. The stationary equilibrium is characterized by an endogenous distribution of skilled workers across vintages. The distribution is shown to be single-peaked. Under general conditions, there is a lag between the appearance of a technology and its peak usage, a phenomenon known as diffusion. An increase in the rate of exogenous technological change shifts the distribution of human capital to more recent vintages, thereby increasing the diffusion rate. Copyright 1991 by University of Chicago Press.