Human capital in the UK, 1760 to 2009

Jan Kunnas, Nick Hanley, Eoin McLaughlin, David Greasley, Les Oxley and Paul Warde
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David Greasley: University of Edinburgh
Paul Warde: University of East Anglia

No 13029, Working Papers from Economic History Society

Abstract: "Human capital can be defined as the knowledge, skills, competencies and attributes embodied in individuals that facilitate the creation of personal, social and economic well-being. It is arguably one of the most important determinants of economic growth. In general, human capital has been calculated with two different approaches: 1) retrospective method through the expenditures on education, 2) prospective through the discounted sum of the wages it would receive over the expected number of remaining working years. In this paper we use the prospective method to calculate human capital in the UK from the mid 18th century to the present. To overcome the problems related to the scarcity of historical data, we have developed a method which is able to make the most efficient use of the scarce data available for the 18th and 19th centuries. Our calculations show a 122-fold increase of human capital, and a 14-fold increase of human capital per worker and per capita from 1760 to 2009. Using cumulative schooling expenditures from 1833-2000, we test whether increased spending on schooling explains this phenomenal growth in human capital."

JEL-codes: N00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-04
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