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Human Capital Theory (human + capital_theory)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting	63%
Humanities and Social Sciences	27%

Selected Abstracts

Overeducation in the Labour Market

JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 3 2006
Séamus McGuinness
Abstract., This paper presents a review of the literature on overeducation. The paper assesses the consistency of overeducation within the context of a number of theoretical frameworks including Human Capital Theory (HCT) and Assignment Theory. The analysis goes on to discuss the various measurement controversies associated with the study of overeducation in order to provide an assessment of the extent to which the impacts of the phenomenon represent an economic reality as opposed to a statistical artefact. After reviewing the literature, it is concluded that the impacts of overeducation are likely to be non-trivial and that the phenomenon may potentially be costly to individuals and firms, as well as the economy more generally. The existence of overeducation also raises some doubts with respect to the validity of some of the central assumptions and predictions of HCT that are unlikely to be fully explained by gaps in the standard wage equation framework. [source]

An Energy Model for Viewing Embodied Human Capital Theory

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 1 2007
Neil A. Kaufman
Human capital development is one of the emerging areas of study with regard to social science theory, practice, and research. Arelatively new concept, human capital is described in terms of individual knowledge skills and experience. It is currently expressed as a function of education as well as a measure of economic activity. Little theory exists to establish models of individual or group human capital. By drawing upon existing physical science constructs such as embodied energy, this article applies a framework for articulating an approach to human capital development and interaction. Our proposition is that human capital consists of active and passive capacity, which parallels the theoretic dimensions of potential and kinetic energy. Aconceptual binary phase diagram of a human capital system is presented along with examples for applying the model to practice. Utilizing an economic model of resource flows; a model of embodied human capital is developed as a vehicle for sustainable human capital theory. [source]

Parental education, time in paid work and time with children: an Australian time-diary analysis

THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY, Issue 4 2006
Lyn Craig
Abstract How does parental education affect time in the paid workforce and time with children? Potentially, the effects are contradictory. An economic perspective suggests higher education means a pull to the market. Human capital theory predicts that, because higher education improves earning capacity, educated women face higher opportunity costs if they forego wages, so will allocate more time to market work and less to unpaid domestic labour. But education may also exercise a pull to the home. Attitudes to child rearing are subject to strong social norms, and parents with higher levels of education may be particularly receptive to the current social ideal of attentive, sustained and intensive nurturing. Using data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics Time-use Survey 1997, this study offers a snapshot of how these contradictory pulls play out in daily life. It finds that in Australia, households with university-educated parents spend more daily time with children than other households in physical care and in developmental activities. Sex inequality in care time persists, but fathers with university education do contribute more time to care of children, including time alone with them, than other fathers. Mothers with university education allocate more daily time than other mothers to both childcare and to paid work. [source]

The Theory of Human Capital Revisited: on the Interaction of General and Specific Investments,

THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL, Issue 514 2006
Anke S. Kessler
Human capital theory distinguishes between training in general-usage and firm-specific skills. Becker (1964) argues that employers will only invest in specific training, not general training, when labour markets are competitive. The article reconsiders Becker's theory. Using essentially his framework, we show that there exists an incentive complementarity between employer-sponsored general and specific training: the possibility to provide specific training leads the employer to invest in general human capital. Conversely, the latter reduces the hold-up problem that arises with firm-specific training. We also consider the desirability of institutionalised training programmes and the virtues of breach penalties, and discuss some empirical facts that could be explained by the theory. [source]

Lifetime Earnings, Discount Rate, Ability and the Demand for Post,compulsory Education in Men in England and Wales

BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002
Daniel JohnsonArticle first published online: 16 DEC 200
Human capital theory suggests educational investments are made based on expected returns over the lifetime. Most other work in this field, particularly using British data, is based on demand models estimated in reduced form, with no earnings measures, or crudely constructed earnings measures, based on one or two earnings observations per individual. We present a structural model of demand for educational investment which includes estimates of earnings paths for educational options as determinants of educational choice. This provides us with directly interpretable parameter estimates. The discount rate is also determined within our demand model. Ability controlled earnings profiles are estimated by matching individuals from the General Household Survey to individuals in similar occupations from the National Child Development Survey (NCDS). Our results show that expected earnings profiles vary according to observed ability and educational choice. Results from the demand model show that expected lifetime earnings have a significant impact on educational choice. Other socio,demographic factors, particularly social class, also exhibit significant influences on the education decision. We estimate the discount rate to be lower than reported in other studies. [source]

Movin' On Up: Interpreting The Earnings,Experience Profile

BULLETIN OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, Issue 4 2000
Alan Manning
Human capital theory provides the generally accepted interpretation of the relationship between earnings and labour market experience, namely that general human capital tends to increase with experience. However, there are other plausible interpretations. Search models, for example, generally predict that more time in the labour market increases the chance of finding a better match and hence tends to be associated with higher earnings. This paper shows how a simple search model can be used to predict the amount of earnings growth that can be assigned to search with the residual being assigned to the human capital model. A substantial if not the larger part of the rise in earnings over the life-cycle in Britain can be explained by a simple search model, and virtually all the earnings gap between men and women can be explained in this way. Overall, the evidence suggests that we do need to reinterpret the returns to experience in earnings functions. [source]

Firm-specific human capital and compensation organizational tenure profiles: An archival analysis of salary data for it

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2007
Sandra A. Slaughter
We examine determinants of IT compensation using archival salary data from 2,251 IT professionals in Singapore. Consistent with human capital theory, we find that professionals in IT jobs requiring more firm-specific human capital are paid more than those in jobs requiring less firm-specific human capital. Moreover, compensation increases with organizational tenure at an increasing rate for professionals in higher firm-specific human capital IT jobs, but at a decreasing rate for those in lower firm-specific human capital IT jobs. Our results reveal firm-specific human capital as a primary determinant of compensation and a moderator of IT compensation-organizational tenure profiles. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]

Sources of Negative Attitudes toward Immigrants in Europe: A Multi-Level Analysis,

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2010
Elisa Rustenbach
In recent times, many nations are experiencing an increase in anti-immigrant attitudes on the part of natives. Most papers only explore one or two sources of anti-immigrant attitudes at a time, which provides an incomplete picture of the effects at work. This paper tests eight different explanations for anti-immigrant attitudes: cultural marginality theory, human capital theory, political affiliation, societal integration, neighborhood safety, contact theory, foreign investment, and economic competition. Analysis is conducted using combined data from the European Social Survey and Eurostat/OECD and individual-, regional-, and national-level predictors. Results indicate that key predictors of anti-immigrant attitudes are regional and national interpersonal trust, education level, foreign direct investment, and political variables. [source]

The two faces of knowledge diffusion: the Chilean case

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 1 2006
Piergiuseppe Morone
This paper analyses the dynamics of return to knowledge where knowledge is acquired through the combination of interactive and individual learning. We suggest that in light of this new definition of knowledge, choosing the optimal level of education is no longer an individual exercise of present and future utility maximization as suggested by formal human capital theory. We find that other external (environmental) variables might affect the individual decision of investment. We calculate the effect of individual and interactive learning on determining the wage of Chilean male workers resident in urban areas and aged between 14 and 65. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

An Energy Model for Viewing Embodied Human Capital Theory

Socioeconomic status, education, and reproduction in modern women: An evolutionary perspective

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HUMAN BIOLOGY, Issue 5 2010
Susanne Huber
Although associations between status or resources and reproduction are positive in premodern societies and also in men in modern societies, in modern women the associations are typically negative. We investigated how the association between socioeconomic status and reproductive output varies with the source of status and resources, the woman's education, and her age at reproductive onset (proxied by age at marriage). By using a large sample of US women, we examined the association between a woman's reproductive output and her own and her husband's income and education. Education, income, and age at marriage are negatively associated with a woman's number of children and increase her chances of childlessness. Among the most highly educated two-thirds of the sample of women, husband's income predicts the number of children. The association between a woman's number of children and her husband's income turns from positive to negative when her education and age at marriage is low (even though her mean offspring number rises at the same time). The association between a woman's own income and her number of children is negative, regardless of education. Rather than maximizing the offspring number, these modern women seem to adjust investment in children based on their family size and resource availability. Striving for resources seems to be part of a modern female reproductive strategy,but, owing to costs of resource acquisition, especially higher education, it may lead to lower birthrates: a possible evolutionary explanation of the demographic transition, and a complement to the human capital theory of net reproductive output. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 22:578,587, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]