Data and Code for: Measuring Human Capital

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Katharine Abraham, University of Maryland; Justine Mallatt, Bureau of Economic Analysis

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
cpsoct06.dat text/plain 152.3 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
cpsoct07.dat text/plain 152.7 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
cpsoct08.dat text/plain 150 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
cpsoct09.dat text/plain 154.2 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
jan12pub.dat text/plain 168.9 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
oct10pub.dat text/plain 163.2 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
oct11pub.dat text/plain 151.7 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
oct12pub.dat text/plain 172.2 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
oct13pub.dat text/plain 149.3 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM
oct14pub.dat text/plain 152.9 MB 06/08/2022 09:11:AM

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary There are many reasons to want measures of countries’ investments in human capital and especially their investments in formal education. We review the existing literature on the measurement of human capital. Broadly speaking, economists have proposed three approaches to the measurement of human capital—the indicator approach, the cost approach and the income approach. Studies employing the indicator approach have used single measures such as average years of schooling or created indexes of multiple measures as human capital proxies. The cost approach values human capital investments based on spending. The income approach values human capital investments by looking forward to the increment to expected future earnings they produce. The latter two approaches have the significant advantage of consistency with national income accounting practices and measures of other types of capital, but there are also challenges to their implementation. Measures based on the income approach typically yield far larger estimates of the value of human capital than measures based on the cost approach. We outline possible reasons for this discrepancy and show how changes in assumptions can reconcile estimates based on the two approaches.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms human capital; national accounts; measurement; returns to education
JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      E01 Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
      I26 Returns to Education
      J24 Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States, 157 Countries


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Published Versions

V1 [2022-07-27]

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