Measuring Aggregate Human Capital

Casey Mulligan and Xavier Sala-i-Martin

No 1149, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We construct a set of human capital indexes for the states of the United States for each Census year starting in 1940. To do so we propose a new methodology for the construction of index numbers in panel data sets. Our method is based on an optimal approach by which we choose the `best' set index numbers by minimizing the expected estimation error subject to some search constraints. Some of the empirical findings are that the stock of human capital in the United States grew twice as rapidly as the average years of schooling and that human capital inequality across states went up during the 1980s (while the dispersion of schooling actually fell). We conclude that using the average years of schooling for the empirical study of existing growth models may be misleading.

Keywords: Divisia Index; Human Capital; Index Numbers; Multilateral Comparisons; Travelling Saleman Problem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C43 C82 O49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1995-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (30)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=1149 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
Journal Article: Measuring Aggregate Human Capital (2000)
Working Paper: Measuring Aggregate Human Capital (1995)
Working Paper: Measuring Aggregate Human Capital (1995)
Working Paper: Measuring aggregate human capital (1995)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:1149

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.cepr.org/ ... ers/dp.php?dpno=1149

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().