Journal Article Human Capital and Earnings: British Evidence and a Critique Get access George Psacharopoulos, George Psacharopoulos London School of Economics Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Richard Layard Richard Layard London School of Economics Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The Review of Economic Studies, Volume 46, Issue 3, July 1979, Pages 485–503, https://doi.org/10.2307/2297015 Published: 01 July 1979 Article history Received: 01 October 1976 Accepted: 01 June 1978 Published: 01 July 1979

ONE question that arises following recent I attempts to introduce economic theory in explaining income distribution is to what extent schooling can be used as a policy instrument to promote equality in our society. Although the link between the size of individual earnings and education has been rather well established, the change in the distribution of income among individuals resulting from a change in the level of schooling is not yet settled. In this paper we elaborate on the relationship between schooling and income distribution based on human capital theory. In order to answer the question we need an expression relating a measure of income distribution to a measure of education. It would be convenient in this respect to start from the work of what we will call the Becker-MincerChiswick (B-M-C) group,1 as perhaps the best known of those providing such an expression. In their work the level of earnings (Y) of an individual with S years of schooling is determined by an earnings generating function of the form