Social Labor vs Human Capital: Competing Theories of Skills

Kyle Glenn ()
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Kyle Glenn: Department of Economics, Adams State University

No 2115, Working Papers from New School for Social Research, Department of Economics

Abstract: Wage theory has long relied upon Human Capital theory as an explanation of skilled wages with labor economists attempting to find the appropriate specification for the return to education. Shaikh and Glenn (2018) construct an alternative model of skilled wages called the Social Labor hypothesis. Instead of returns to education, the Social Labor hypothesis posits wages as a function of social costs of education. This paper tests the empirical validity of the Social Labor hypothesis comparing it against the Human Capital model, finding a remarkable fit to empirical data. The paper also provides a theoretical approach to, and empirical evidence of, labor market discrimination.

Keywords: Skills; wage differentials; classical theory; human capital theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: B51 J24 J31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2021-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hme, nep-hpe, nep-lma and nep-pke
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:new:wpaper:2115

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