“The Technological Origins of the High School Movement” (Job Market Paper)

Abstract: This paper argues that the emergence of knowledge hierarchies in the modern U.S. firms since the late 19th century, expedited by huge progress in communication technology, played a significant role in the expansion of mass secondary education called the high school movement in the U.S. in the early 20th century. To analyze the causal connections among these historical events, the paper presents a dynamic model in which the complementarity between individual skills is crucial to production. Middle-skilled individuals could help increase the payoff to the high-skilled by supervising low-skilled production workers as middle managers in firms, and so some of potential top managers with high skill actively supported the expansion of mass education to the secondary level some time after a sophisticated form of production organizations had started to emerge. This theoretical explanation is consistent with the existing historical evidence in the literature.

 

“A Theory of Selective College Admission in the U.S.”

Abstract: This paper presents a formal dynamic model showing that the origins of the unique admission process at selective U.S. colleges, which considers both academic and non-academic merits of applicants, can be found in the dramatic expansion of public secondary education called the high school movement in the early 20th century. The complementarity between individual skills in production, combined with huge progress in communication technology, caused a sophisticated form of knowledge hierarchies to emerge in the modern U.S. firms in the late 19th century, thereby leading to the introduction of public secondary education in the early 20th century with the demand for middle managers in multi-layered organizations increasing. Rather paradoxically, however, the implementation of public secondary education ultimately caused the shortage of the middle-skilled compared to the high-skilled in the economy, as many who could not have afforded to get college education before had the opportunities with the lower cost of secondary schooling. As a result, colleges have adopted selective admission criteria, following the preferences of their potential customers and alumni, so that the balance between the number of the middle-skilled and that of the high-skilled can be restored. This theoretical explanation is consistent with historical facts of the U.S. since the late 19th century, and implies that selective college admission could effectively address the problem of overinvestment in higher education, thereby having been pivotal in making the high school movement a really historic event that would change the structure of the U.S. economy in a more efficient direction.