Abstract
Human capital refers to the productive capacities of human beings as income producing agents in the economy. The concept is an ancient one, but the use of the term in professional discourse has gained currency only in the past twenty-five years. During that period much progress has been made in extending the principles of capital theory to human agents of production. Capital is a stock which has value as a source of current and future flows of output and income. Human capital is the stock of skills and productive knowledge embodied in people. The yield or return on human capital investments lies in enhancing a person’s skills and earning power, and in increasing the efficiency of economic decision-making both within and without the market economy. This account sketches the main ideas, and the bibliography is necessarily restrictive. For additional detail and alternative interpretations, the reader should consult the surveys by Blaug, Rosen, Sahota and Willis, which also present complete bibliographies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
Ashenfelter, O. 1978. Estimating the effect of training programs on earnings. Review of Economics and Statistics 60(1), February, 47–57.
Becker, G. 1964. Human Capital. 2nd edn, New York: Columbia University Press, 1975.
Becker, G. and Tomes, N. 1978. An equilibrium theory of the distribution of income and intergenerational mobility. Journal of Political Economy 87(6), December, 1153–89.
Ben-Porath, Y. 1967. The production of human capital and the life cycle of earnings. Journal of Political Economy 75(4), Pt 1, August, 352–65.
Blaug, M. 1976. The empirical status of human capital theory: a slightly jaundiced survey. Journal of Economic Literature 14(3), September, 827–55.
Chiswick, B. 1978. The effect of Americanization on the earnings of foreign-born men. Journal of Political Economy 86(5), October, 897–921.
Denison, E. 1962. The Sources of Economic Growth in the United States and the Alternatives Before Us. New York: Committee for Economic Development.
Dublin, L. and Lotka, A. 1930. The Monetary Value of a Man. New York: Ronald Press.
Fogel, R. and Engerman, S. 1974. Time on the Cross. New York: Little, Brown.
Freeman, R. 1971. The Market for College-Trained Manpower. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
Freeman, R. 1976. The Overeducated American. New York: Academic Press.
Friedman, M. and Kuznets, S. 1954. Income from Independent Professional Practice. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Galenson, D. 1981. White Servitude in Colonial America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Griliches, Z. 1970. Notes on the role of education in production functions and growth accounting. In Education, Income and Human Capital, ed. L. Hansen, New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Griliches, Z. 1977. Estimating the returns to schooling: some economic problems. Econometrica 45(1), January, 1–22.
Hanushek, E. 1977. A Reader’s Guide to Educational Production Functions. Institution for Social Policy Studies, Yale University.
Kendrick, J. 1976. The Formation and Stocks of Total Capital. New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.
Knight, F. 1944. Diminishing returns from investment. Journal of Political Economy 52, March, 26–47.
Lillard, L. and Willis, R.J. 1978. Dynamic aspects of earnings mobility. Econometrica 46(5), September, 985–1012.
Marshall, A. 1920. Principles of Economics. 8th edn. London: Macmillan, 1930; New York: Macmillan, 1948.
Michael, R. 1982. Measuring non-monetary benefits of education: a survey. In Financing Education: Overcoming Inefficiency and Inequity, ed. W. McMahon and T. Geske, Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Miller, H. 1960. Annual and lifetime income in relation to education, 1929–1959. American Economic Review 50, December, 962–86.
Mincer, J. 1958. Investment in human capital and personal income distribution. Journal of Political Economy 66, August, 281–302.
Mincer, J. 1974. Schooling, Experience and Earnings. New York: Columbia University Press.
Mincer, J. and Polachek, S. 1974. Family investment in human capital: earnings of women. Journal of Political Economy 82(2), Pt II, March-April, S76 - S108.
Paglin, M. 1975. The measurement and trend of inequality: a basic revision. American Economic Review 65(4), September, 589–609.
Petty, W. 1676. Political Arithmetic. In The Economic Writings of Sir William Petty, ed. C. Hull, Vol. 1, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1899.
Rosen, S. 1977. Human capital: a survey of empirical research. In Research in Labor Economics, Vol. 1, ed. R. Ehrenberg, Greenwich, Conn.: JAI Press.
Rosen, S. 1985. The theory of equalizing differences. In Handbook of Labour Economics, ed. O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard, Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Sahota, G. 1978. Theories of personal income distribution: a survey. Journal of Economic Literature 16(1), March, 1–55.
Schultz, T. 1961. Investment in human capital. American Economic Review 51, March, 1–17.
Schultz, T. 1975. The value of the ability to deal with disequilibria. Journal of Economic Literature 13(3), September, 827–46.
Smith, A. 1776. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Modern Library Edition, New York: Random House, 1947.
Spence, M. 1973. Job market signalling. Quarterly Journal of Economics 87(3), August, 355–74.
Walsh, J. 1935. Capital concept applied to man Quarterly Journal of Economics 49, February, 255–85.
Welch, F. 1970. Education in production. Journal of Political Economy 78(1), January—February, 35–59.
Welch, F. 1976. Ability tests and measures of differences between black and white Americans. Rand Corporation.
Welch, F. 1979. Effects of cohort size on earnings: the baby boom babies’ financial bust. Journal of Political Economy 87(5), Pt II, October, S65–97.
Willis, R. 1986. Wage determinants: a survey and reinterpretation of human capital earnings functions. In Handbook of Labour Economics, ed. O. Ashenfelter and R. Layard. Amsterdam: North-Holland.
Willis, R. and Rosen, S. 1978. Education and self-selection. Journal of Political Economy 87(5), Pt II, October, S65–S97.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1989 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rosen, S. (1989). Human Capital. In: Eatwell, J., Milgate, M., Newman, P. (eds) Social Economics. The New Palgrave. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19806-1_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-19806-1_19
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-333-49529-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-19806-1
eBook Packages: Palgrave Economics & Finance CollectionEconomics and Finance (R0)