Professors Claudia Goldin and Lawrence Katz publish new book “The Race Between Education and Technology”

Professor Claudia Goldin and Professor Lawrence Katz co-authored a new book, “The Race Between Education and Technology” which provides a careful historical analysis of the co-evolution of educational attainment and the wage structure in the United States through the twentieth century. They propose that the twentieth century was not only the American Century, but also the Human Capital Century. That is, the American educational system is what made America the richest nation in the world. Its educational system has always been less elite than that of most European nations. By 1900, the U.S. had begun to educate its masses at the secondary level, in addition to the primary schools which had remarkable success in the nineteenth century.

The book argues that technological change, education, and inequality have been involved in a kind of race. During the first eight decades of the twentieth century, the increase of educated workers was higher than the demand for them. This had the effect of boosting income for most people and lowering inequality. However, the reverse has been true since about 1980. This educational slow-down was accompanied by rising inequality. The authors discuss the complex reasons for this, and what might be done to improve it.

For more information on the book, please see the description on the Harvard University Press Website.

Please see the New York Times Review, October 4, 2008.