scholarly journals Human Capital and the Lifetime Costs of Impatience

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 126-153 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian C. Cadena ◽  
Benjamin J. Keys
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Dropping Out ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Lifetime Costs ◽  
Using Data ◽  
One Year ◽  
Exponential Discounting

In this paper, we examine the role of impatience in human capital formation—arguably the most important investment decision individuals make during their lifetimes. We focus on a set of investment behaviors that cannot be explained solely by variation in exponential discounting. Using data from the NL SY and a straightforward measure of impatience, we find that impatient people more frequently invest in dynamically inconsistent ways, such as dropping out of college with one year or less remaining. The cumulative investment differences result in the impatient earning 13 percent less and expressing more regret as this cohort reaches middle age. (JEL D91, I26, J24, J31)

scholarly journals Human Capital Disparities and Earnings Inequality in The Portuguese Private Labour Market

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derick R. C. Almeida ◽  
João A. S. Andrade ◽  
Adelaide Duarte ◽  
Marta Simões
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Tertiary Education ◽  
Earnings Inequality ◽  
Kuznets Curve ◽  
Positive Trend ◽  
Returns To Schooling ◽  
Education Inequality ◽  
Using Data

AbstractThis paper examines human capital inequality and how it relates to earnings inequality in Portugal using data from Quadros de Pessoal for the period 1986–2017. The objective is threefold: (i) show how the distribution of human capital has evolved over time; (ii) investigate the association between human capital inequality and earnings inequality; and (iii) analyse the role of returns to schooling, together with human capital inequality, in the explanation of earnings inequality. Our findings suggest that human capital inequality, computed based on the distribution of average years of schooling of employees working in the Portuguese private labour market, records a positive trend until 2007 and decreases from this year onwards, suggesting the existence of a Kuznets curve of education relating educational attainment levels and education inequality. Based on the decomposition of a Generalized Entropy index (Theil N) for earnings inequality, we observe that inequality in the distribution of human capital plays an important role in the explanation of earnings inequality, although this role has become less important over the last decade. Using Mincerian earnings regressions to estimate the returns to schooling together with the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of real hourly earnings we confirm that there are two important forces associated with the observed decrease in earnings inequality: a reduction in education inequality and compressed returns to schooling, mainly in tertiary education.

scholarly journals Returning to the Question of a Wage Premium for Returning Migrants

2010 ◽  
Vol 213 ◽  
pp. R43-R51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Barrett ◽  
Jean Goggin
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Source Country ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Self Selection ◽  
The Us ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Eu

Using data from a large-scale survey of employees in Ireland, we estimate the extent to which people who have emigrated from Ireland and returned earn more relative to comparable people who have never lived abroad. In so doing, we test the hypothesis that migration can be part of a process of human capital formation. We find through OLS estimation that returners earn 7 per cent more than comparable stayers. We test for the presence of self-selection bias in this estimate but the tests suggest that the premium is related to returner status. The premium holds for both genders, is higher for people with postgraduate degrees and for people who migrated beyond the EU to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The results show how emigration can be positive for a source country when viewed in a longer-term context.

scholarly journals Networks in the Premodern Economy: The Market for London Apprenticeships, 1600–1749

2011 ◽  
Vol 71 (2) ◽  
pp. 413-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Leunig ◽  
Chris Minns ◽  
Patrick Wallis
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Economic Development ◽  
Capital Formation ◽  
Human Capital Formation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Place Of Origin

We examine the role of social and geographical networks in structuring entry into premodern London's skilled occupations. Newly digitized apprenticeship indenture records for 1600–1749 offer little evidence that personal ties strongly shaped apprentice recruitment. The typical London apprentices had no identifiable tie to their master through kin or place of origin. Migrant apprentices' fathers were generally outside the craft sector. The apprenticeship market was strikingly open: well-to-do families accessed a wide range of apprenticeships, and would-be apprentices could match ability and aptitude to opportunity. This fluidity aided human capital formation, with obvious implications for economic development.

Human Capital and Welfare Dynamics in Canada

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorgen Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Work Experience ◽  
High School Completion ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Entry Rate ◽  
Self Sufficiency ◽  
Time Work ◽  
Using Data ◽  
One Year ◽  
Full Time Employment

Abstract This paper analyzes the effects of human capital on welfare dynamics in Canada using data from the Self-Sufficiency Project (SSP). SSP offered a time-limited earnings supplement to a randomly assigned group of new welfare applicants who remained on welfare for one year and, in the subsequent year, left welfare for full-time employment. The results suggest that high school completion has no significant impact on the exit rate from welfare or on the re-entry rate. Moreover, full-time work experience is found to reduce the risk of returning to welfare but not for respondents who were assigned to the treatment group. This finding suggests that the provision of an earnings subsidy encourages welfare recipients to accept low-wage jobs with little gains from work experience. Thus, the rationale for such a policy that work today will raise experience and consequently future wages is not supported by the results in this paper.

Wealth inequality, redistribution and local development: The case of land reform in Italy

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Percoco
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
Capital Accumulation ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Local Development ◽  
Wealth Inequality ◽  
Land Reforms ◽  
The North ◽  
Using Data

The role of wealth inequality for local development has long been neglected, although some literature has pointed out its relevance in explaining entrepreneurial and education investment. Among the typologies of assets composing individuals’ wealth, land is of paramount importance in underdeveloped economies specialised in agriculture. Land reforms in terms of redistribution of land ownership are hence expected to boost development through an increase in entrepreneurship rate and human capital stock. In this paper, we consider land reform in Italy, which took place in the 1950s in specific areas across the country. By adopting an Oaxaca-Blinder regression method and using data at a city level on the implementation of the reform for Puglia–Basilicata–Molise in the South of Italy and, as robustness checks, for Maremma in the Centre and Delta del Po in the North of Italy, we have found a positive impact of land redistribution on human capital accumulation and a less significant impact on employment and firm location.

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