Human Capital and Rates of Return: Brilliant Ideas or Ideological Dead Ends?

Klees, Steven J.

doi:10.1086/688063

Cited by 77 publications

(47 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In a widely quoted recent study, Hanushek and Woessmann (2008) try to remedy this by adding country average PISA test scores as a proxy for the quality of education in a country, concluding that a one standard deviation difference in test scores yields a 2 percentage point higher growth rate of GNP/capita. In the light of the foregoing problems, I find this claim completely unreasonable and its uncritical reception due to ignorance of the fundamental problems with human capital theory and empirics discussed in this paper (also see Klees, 2016). Hanushek and Woessmann's measures of the quantity and quality of education, choice of other inputs to control for, and choice of functional form are all idiosyncratic 7 .…”

Section: Aggregate Production Functionsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Quantitative Methods in Comparative Education and Other Disciplines: are they valid?

Klees

2017

Educ. Real.

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-Quantitative Methods in Comparative Education and OtherDisciplines: are they valid? 1 Comparison is the essence of science and the field of comparative and international education, like many of the social sciences, has been dominated by quantitative methodological approaches. This paper raises fundamental questions about the utility of regression analysis for causal inference. It examines three extensive literatures of applied regression analysis concerned with education policies. The paper concludes that the conditions necessary for regression analysis to yield valid causal inferences are so far from ever being met or approximated that such inferences are never valid. Alternative research methodologies are then briefly discussed. Keywords: Comparative Education. Research Methods. Regression Analysis. Causal Inference. RESUMO -Métodos Quantitativos na Educação Comparada e em Outros Cursos: são válidos?A comparação é a essência da ciência e o campo da educação comparada e internacional, como muitas ciências sociais, encontra-se dominado por abordagens metodológicas quantitativas. Este artigo levanta questões fundamentais a respeito da utilidade da análise de regressão para inferências causais. Examina três obras extensas de análise de regressão aplicada referentes a políticas educacionais. O artigo conclui que o alcance ou até mesmo a proximidade das condições necessárias para que a análise de regressão produza inferências causais válidas está mais distante do que nunca, de modo que estas inferências nunca são válidas. As metodologias de pesquisa alternativas são então brevemente discutidas.

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Section: Aggregate Production Functionsmentioning

confidence: 84%

Quantitative Methods in Comparative Education and Other Disciplines: are they valid?

Klees

2017

Educ. Real.

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“…How can they benefi t from the massifi cation of education, especially higher education? Moreover, if the tension between a hegemonic discourse based on the theory of human capital (Klees, 2016) and results that are not congruent with it is not somehow resolved, could students become disenchanted with the University, as well as disinclined to enrol in it?…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a contextual data, we show in Table 1 that university graduates faced a better labour situation than the rest of the population, since unemployment rates of the total population almost double those of graduates both in Spain and Catalonia. However, differences are observed in the employment opportunities that graduates fi nd once they have obtained a degree (ANECA, 2009;Teichler, 2007;Fachelli and Planas, 2014;2016). Before the crisis, surveys showed that, in Catalonia, university graduates had an unemployment rate of 6.23% in 2001 and 5.06% in 2005 1 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Economic Crisis on Graduates’ Employment and Work

Navarro-Cendejas

Fachelli²

2018

Estudios sobre Educación

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Resumen: Analizamos la situación en el mercado laboral de titulados de universidades públicas catalanas, comparando las cohortes de 2004 (expansión económica), 2007 (inicio de la crisis económica), y 2010 (durante la crisis). En un primer análisis descriptivo, encontramos un aumento en el desempleo que afectó de manera diferenciada a los titulados en función del sexo, el origen social, la titulación y el trabajo durante los estudios. Un segundo análisis tipológico mostró una estructura homogénea de las ocupaciones entre las cohortes. Sin embargo, a partir de la cohorte 2010, la más expuesta a la crisis, disminuyó la cantidad absoluta de titulados con mejores condiciones laborales y se amplió la cantidad de graduados en ocupaciones más desprotegidas.Palabras clave: Transición a la vida profesional, Educación superior, Mercado laboral, Crisis económica.

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“…For example, an imbalance in favor of corporations occurred in the early period of industrialization [Rosenberg, Birdzell, 1986;Didenko, 2015] and an imbalance in favor of the individual may be seen on the labor market for highly qualified IT specialists today. The problem of human capital gives rise to a tension between classic theoretical models [Blaug, 1992] and socioeconomic reality, and it is this tension that some critics of the concept use in their arguments against it (Tan, 2014;Klees, 2016]. However, economic descriptions of the world often pay insufficient attention to corporations as intermediaries between the individual and society.…”

Section: Linking Education and Socioeconomic Development Through The mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The trend continued, however, as average spending per student in OECD countries went up 34% between 2000 and 2008 [Jensen, 2012]. There have been many examples demonstrating that active investment in education systems is far from being a guarantee that a country will achieve stable economic growth [Klees, 2016;Tan, 2014]. This has caused many to doubt the importance of education as a driver of economic growth.…”

Section: A Historical Overview Of Investment In Education: Towards a mentioning

confidence: 99%

Generic and Specific Skills as Components of Human Capital: New Challenges for Education Theory and Practice

Kuzminov

Sorokin

Froumin

2019

Foresight and STI Governance

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H uman capital theory in recent decades has become the basis for educational policy in many developed countries. Expert discussions, however, often undervalue research findings and developments related to this theory that since the 1970s have consistently enriched understanding of how human capital contributes to personal well-being and socioeconomic development of society as a whole. Educational policy lags behind these elaborations, which leads to a decline in the impact of education upon development worldwide. In the 21st century, fundamentally new trends in socioeconomic dynamics pose unprecedented challenges for educational systems around the world, including Russia. Despite the quantitative growth of money and time spent on education, performance per unit of education costs has fallen. The human potential, created by education, is facing more and more difficulties in its capitalization: economic growth is slowing down at both at the country level and globally. This situation brings to life new attempts to claim insignificance of education for economic growth and for individual success. So far, these attempts have not been very influential in educational policy, but in many countries, such arguments already serve as a backdrop for budget decisions that are detrimental for education. Educational systems need to complement practices that contribute to the development of human capital. In this regard, several theoretical elaborations that have not yet became part of the mainstream discussion on human capital, could be helpful for understanding the role of human capital in socioeconomic progress and possible ways to improve it in the short and long term.

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Human Capital and Rates of Return: Brilliant Ideas or Ideological Dead Ends?

Cited by 77 publications

References 42 publications

Quantitative Methods in Comparative Education and Other Disciplines: are they valid?

Quantitative Methods in Comparative Education and Other Disciplines: are they valid?

The Impact of Economic Crisis on Graduates’ Employment and Work

Generic and Specific Skills as Components of Human Capital: New Challenges for Education Theory and Practice

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