Net Investment and Stocks of Human Capital in the United States, 1975-2013

Michael S. Christian ()

International Productivity Monitor, 2017, vol. 33, 128-149

Abstract: This article continues the research initiated in Christian (2010, 2014) on measurement of human capital stocks and investment in the United States. It develops estimates of a series of human capital stock and net investment from 1975 to 2013, using the lifetime earnings approach of Jorgenson and Fraumeni (1989, 1992). The series decomposes net investment into investment from births, investment in education net of aging of persons enrolled in school, depreciation from aging of persons not enrolled in school, depreciation from deaths, and a residual term that includes net migration and measurement error. The study also discusses the cost-based approach of measurement in human capital of Kendrick (1976) and compares investment in education between the cost and income approaches. The stock of human capital rose at an annual rate of 1.0 per cent between 1977 and 2013, with population growth as the primary driver of human capital growth. Per capita human capital remained much the same over this period, with the effect of greater levels of education being offset by the effect of an aging population.

Keywords: Human Capital; Investment; Measurement; Cost-based Approach. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E22 J24 O16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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