Human capital, a leading approach used to understand the role of education and job training in the economy, has been the subject of seminal research at the University of Chicago. On Friday, Nov. 20 and Saturday, Nov. 21, scholars from around the world will gather for a conference on campus to discuss the latest work of leading researchers studying human capital.
The Milton Friedman Institute for Research in Economics will host the conference, titled "New Directions in the Economic Analysis of Education," in conjunction with the Center for Human Capital at SUNY, Buffalo.
"The reason why human capital has remained so vital is that it combines theory with actual observation. It looks at the way people make choices and earn their incomes. You can't get much more relevant than that," said Gary Becker, University Professor in Economics, Chicago Booth and Sociology. Becker co-organized the conference with Isaac Ehrlich, Distinguished Professor of Economics at SUNY, Buffalo.
Ehrlich said, "The expanding role of knowledge, learning and productivity growth in the global information economy increases the centrality of human capital as an asset and our interest in understanding the process of its acquisition and formation, as well as its measurement and impact on various sectors of the economy."
Becker, who received the 1992 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, began studying human capital as a graduate student at UChicago in the 1950s, when Theodore Schultz, also a Nobel laureate, began investigating the topic. Jacob Mincer, an Economics faculty member, also was doing work on the topic at the time.
Schultz was interested in the growth of national wealth that was not accounted for by conventional measures such as increases in the supply of material goods. He found that nations such as Germany and Japan grew quickly after World War II because of their higher levels of education. He was the first economist to systematize "how investments in education can affect productivity in agriculture as well as the economy as a whole," according to his 1979 Nobel citation.
Becker's Ph.D. thesis on discrimination launched him into the field. "I noticed that the incomes of blacks and whites were influenced by education, and I wanted to learn more about that," he said. Becker developed some of the analytical framework that provided a way to look more closely at human capital. Becker, along with other scholars whose work followed, helped create a strong focus of research on human capital at UChicago.
That expanded work on human capital has led to a study of how early-childhood education can influence future earnings and outcomes, for instance, and how much reward comes from higher education. It also has shed light on the labor market and personal decisions, such as choices women make to further their education and remain in the labor force.
Human capital research has helped explain the value of pay increases to motivate workers. Other work has explored how paying parents to keep their children in school in developing countries can boost progress in those nations.
The research on human capital also has explained the huge differences in outcomes during the current financial crisis.
"People who are college-educated are doing much better than those who are not," Becker said. "Some of them are out of work, but they are much more likely to find another job than those who are less educated."
Conference participants will further explore human capital by looking at, for instance, education and health, accountability in public schools and the expanding participation of women in education worldwide.
The conference will be held in Room C09 at Chicago Booth from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20, and in Room 110 of the Classics Building from 8:30 a.m. until noon on Saturday, Nov. 21. It is free and open to the campus community. Registration is requested and may be completed by notifying mfi@uchicago.edu.
Leading academics will present and discuss recent research on a variety of issues and topics, including the following:
- "Education and Health": James Heckman, the Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor in Economics, and Gabriella Conti, post-doctoral scholar in Economics.
- "Trends in Quality-Adjusted Skill Premia in the United States, 1960-2000": Pedro Carneiro, Lecturer, University College, London, and Sokbae Lee, University College London.
- "Human Capital, Endogenous Information Acquisition and 'Home Bias' in Financial Markets": Isaac Ehrlich.
- "Accountability and Flexibility in Public Schools: New Evidence from Boston's Charters and Pilots": Susan Dynarski, Associate Professor of Public Policy, University of Michigan.
- "Endogenous Gentrification and Housing Price Dynamics": Erik Hurst, Professor in Economics and the Neubauer Family Faculty Fellow at Chicago Booth.
- "The Dynamics of Age-Structured Human Capital and Economic Growth": Jesus Crespo Cuaresma, Professor of Economics, University of Innsbruck, and Wolfgang Lutz, Director, Vienna Institute of Demography.
- "Explaining the Worldwide Boom in Higher Education of Women": Gary Becker; William Hubbard, researcher in Economics; and Kevin Murphy, the George Stigler Distinguished Service Professor in Economics at Chicago Booth.
For more information, visit the conference Web site at:
http://mfi.uchicago.edu/programs/fy10_events/20091120_becker.shtml.
—Prof. Chuan He
