Strategic complementarities between innovative firms and skilled workers: The poverty trap and the policymaker’s intervention

The economy under study is populated by two types of firms (innovative and not) and two types of workers (skilled and unskilled). The aim is to develop a model that confirms the existence of complementarities between innovative firms (R&D activities) and skilled workers (human capital) and traces corresponding optimal dynamics. Workers follow an imitative behavior to choose their action type (skilled or unskilled). As the share of innovative firms is large enough, then the share of skilled workers in equilibrium depends on the reviewing rate (of imitation) for those unskilled workers. The policy maker intervention is justified only for a certain time by reducing the threshold to reach the high-level equilibrium, but once the economy is in a path for a high-level equilibrium such an intervention may stop.