Data and Code for Jedwab et al: Human Capital Accumulation at Work: Estimates for the World and Implications for Development

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Remi Jedwab, George Washington University; Paul Romer, New York University ; Asif Islam, The World Bank; Roberto Samaniego, George Washington University

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Data and Code for Jedwab et al: Human Capital Accumulation at Work: Estimates for the World and Implications for Development		0

Project Citation:

Jedwab, Remi, Romer, Paul, Islam, Asif , and Samaniego, Roberto . Data and Code for Jedwab et al: Human Capital Accumulation at Work: Estimates for the World and Implications for Development. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2023. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2023-06-23. https://doi.org/10.3886/E176481V1

Project Description

Summary: In this paper, we: (i) study wage-experience profiles and obtain measures of returns to potential work experience using data from about 24 million individuals in 1,084 household surveys and census samples across 145 countries; (ii) show that returns to work experience are strongly correlated with economic development - workers in developed countries appear to accumulate twice as much human capital at work than workers in developing countries; (iii) use a simple accounting framework to find that the contribution of work experience to human capital accumulation and economic development might be as important as the contribution of education itself; and (iv) employ panel regressions to investigate how changes in the returns over time correlate with several factors such as economic recessions, transitions, and human capital stocks.

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Returns to experience; Returns to education; Human capital; Development Accounting; Economic development; Labor markets

JEL Classification:
      E24 Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
      J11 Demographic Trends, Macroeconomic Effects, and Forecasts
      J31 Wage Level and Structure; Wage Differentials
      O11 Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
      O12 Microeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
      O15 Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
      O47 Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

Geographic Coverage: Global

Universe: Global, working-age adults (18-67 year-old)

Data Type(s): aggregate data

Methodology

Sampling: 24 million individuals in 1,084 household surveys and census samples across 145 countries.

Data Source: As explained in the main README file, the underlying files are the raw files of the International Income Distribution Database (I2D2) of the World Bank, a harmonized database of 1,500 household surveys and census samples from more than 150 countries in the recent period. We describe how the proprietary files can be obtained.

Unit(s) of Observation: We study wage-experience profiles and obtain measures of returns to potential work experience using data from about 24 million individuals in 1,084 household surveys and census samples across 145 countries.

Geographic Unit: While the underlying data is at the individual level (since these are household surveys and census samples), we provide the aggregate data at the country level.

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V1 [2023-06-23]

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