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Release Date 27.02.2026

Bykovsky Kirill

student

Plekhanov Russian Economic University (Moscow), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Kartashev Daniil

student

Plekhanov Russian Economic University (Moscow), This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

EDUCATION AND INCOME: THE PARADOXES OF GLOBALIZATION

112-127

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Text of the Article

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This paper examines G. Becker's hypothesis on the direct relationship between the duration of education and income levels in national economies over the period 2000–2023. Overall, the classical hypothesis is fully confirmed (correlation coefficients of 0.782 for GDP per capita at current prices and 0.8 for constant prices). However, a certain deflation occurred during the period under review, which should have negatively impacted the relationship under consideration. When dividing countries into four separate income groups (rich, above the global average, below the global average, and poor), as used in World Bank statistics, it turned out that for rich countries, the relationship between the duration of education and income is absent (<0), while for upper-middle-income countries, it is relatively significant, and for lower-middle-income countries, it is significant. For poor countries, this relationship weakens, but remains significant. Thus, investments in education exhibit diminishing returns, well known in microeconomics, which manifest themselves at high income levels and, accordingly, at a sufficiently long duration of education (and the transition to mass higher education). This trend, however, may also be linked to migration flows of educated workers from relatively poor countries to rich countries.

Keywords: Becker hypothesis, human capital, education, income, globalization

JEL: I20, I25

UDC: 330.341, 371

DOI: 10.52342/2587-7666VTE_2026_1_112_127

©  K. Bykovsky, D. Kartashev, 2026

© Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences «Issues of Theoretical Economics», 2026

Acknowledgments: The authors express their gratitude to Doctor Habilitatus in economics, Chief Researcher O.A. Kislitsyna for advice and assistance in carrying out calculations and preparing the text of the article. The study was carried out with the financial support of the «Step into Science» program of the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics.

REFERENCES

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Manuscript submission date: 15.12.2025

Manuscript acceptance date: 15.01.2026

For citation:

Bykovsky K., Kartashev D. Education and Income: The Paradoxes of Globalization // Voprosy teoreticheskoy ekonomiki. 2026. No. 1. Pp. 112–127. DOI: 10.52342/2587-666VTE_ 2026_1_112_127