Seminar: Fabrizio Panebianco, U Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

Abstract

This paper provides the first analysis of how access to a morally compelling set of new technologies, allowing for Human Enhancement Treatments (HET), may impact parental investment in children's human capital, induced aggregate demand of HET, social mobility, and choices of future generations. We present a framework that encompasses HET, moral concerns, skills acquisition due to parental choices-either through traditional methods or through HET-and a labor market featuring either positive or negative social externalities from HET. We find that in low-inequality societies HET enhance social mobility, whereas in high-inequality societies, HET reduce it. Both of these effects are mitigated by the presence of significant moral costs. Next, we highlight the possibility that lobbying against HET on moral grounds might inadvertently achieve the opposite of the intended outcome. We also demonstrate that a non-authoritarian policymaker utilizing market instruments is more effective compared to an authoritarian one, particularly in societies with greater diversity in moral costs.