From Metaphor to Popular Area of Research
In recent years the expression human capital has gained wide currency in academic circles, in policy debates, and even in daily discussions about almost everything referring to education and training. Moreover, the idea that both individuals and societies should invest some of their scarce time and resources in developing their human capital has pervaded many societal debates and provided the rationale for many policy decisions. How has this happened and what developments in academic research have provided support to that process? Although for many centuries education was presented as a positive factor in the development of individuals and societies, the development of human capital research has contributed to make education a central tenet of individual and social wealth. Research about human capital provided a sophisticated rationale to justify that a growing share of resources should be allocated to those activities developing skills and...
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Teixeira, P. (2019). Human Capital: Historical and Conceptual Developments. In: Encyclopedia of International Higher Education Systems and Institutions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9553-1_107-1
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