Risk in Human Capital Investment and Gender Difference in Adult College Enrollment
Risk in Human Capital Investment and Gender Difference in Adult College Enrollment

Author: Xueyu Cheng

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 172

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Abstract: The trend of gender inequality in education reversed since the late seventies with women catching up and surpassing men in educational attainment. Women now overtake men in completed years of school, high school completion rate, college enrollment rate, and receipt of college degrees including associate degrees, bachelor's degrees and master's degrees. Though women are the majorities on college campuses, they are over represented among adult college students. Through testing the hypothesis that people are more likely to attend college later in life, when their risk in human capital investment is high, this dissertation aims to examine the impact of gender difference in risk in human capital investment on gender difference in adult college enrollment using the Current Population Survey data. I assume that the return to education is heterogeneous across individuals and random. I use the variance of the random return to education and the mean rate of out of the labor force to measure risk in human capital investment. I find that risk in human capital investment has a significantly positive effect on adult college enrollment for both men and women. Specifically, when the risk in human capital investment is high, people are more likely to delay college entry and attend college later in life. I also show that women have higher return to education, higher variance of return to education and higher mean rate of out of the labor force than men. The fact that women have higher return to education, higher variance of return to education and higher mean rate of out of the labor force than men explains the trend in gender difference in adult college enrollment since the late 1960s. The result is robust to various measures of adult college enrollment.

Investment in Women's Human Capital
Investment in Women's Human Capital

Author: T. Paul Schultz

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1995-06-15

Total Pages: 474

ISBN-13: 9780226740874

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

How are human capital investments allocated between women and men? What are the returns to investments in women's nutrition, health care, education, mobility, and training? In thirteen wide-ranging and innovative empirical analyses, Investment in Women's Human Capital explores the nature of human capital distributions to women and their effect on outcomes within the family. Section I considers the experiences of high-income countries, examining the limitations of industrialization for the advancement of women; returns to secondary education for women; and state control of women's education and labor market productivity through the design of tax systems and the public subsidy of children. The remaining four sections investigate health, education, household structure and labor markets, and measurement issues in low-income countries, including the effect of technological change on transfers of wealth to and from children in India; women's and men's responses to the costs of medical care in Kenya; the effects of birth order and sex on educational attainment in Taiwan; wage returns to schooling in Indonesia and in Cote d'Ivoire; and the increasing prevalence of female-headed households and the correlates of gender differences in wages in Brazil.

Evolution of Gender Differences in Post-Secondary Human Capital Investments
Evolution of Gender Differences in Post-Secondary Human Capital Investments

Author: Ahu Gemici

Publisher:

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 69

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Over the past 40 years, the level of human capital investments has changed substantially for men and women. Changes in the intensive margin of college major selection have been also been substantial, as the number of graduates in humanities, social science, and teaching has declined, and the number in science, engineering, and business has increased, especially for women. However, while women are now more likely to complete a college degree than men, the distribution of college majors among college graduates remains unequal with women about 2/3 as likely as men to major in a business or science field. In this paper, we develop and estimate a dynamic overlapping generations model of human capital investment and employment decisions to understand these long-term changes in human capital investments. Our departure from the previous literature is that we separately examine college major choices, rather than aggregating these choices to the education level (e.g. college or no college). We overcome the absence of field of study information in the CPS and Census data by combining these data with auxiliary data sources which characterize the changes in field of study composition across a large number of birth cohorts. Results from counterfactual experiments show that changes in skill prices, higher schooling costs, and a reduction in the value of home for women all played an important role in the educational attainment and college major composition trends. The following are appended: (1) NSCG Data Appendix; (2) Model Solution Appendix; and (3) Type Parameter Estimates.

The Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Education
The Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Education

Author: Brian P. McCall

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2021-12-30

Total Pages: 617

ISBN-13: 0429511132

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The economics of education is a burgeoning area of study, employing increasingly sophisticated analytical tools to answer questions with high societal impact. Thus, the aim of this handbook is to provide readers with an up-to-date overview of the current state of the field of the economics of education and its main areas of research. This comprehensive handbook provides an authoritative overview of key theoretical and policy areas, covering topics like econometric methods for education economics, returns to education, competition in education provision, education and economic growth, and education and inequality. It reviews the current state of research from early childhood through postgraduate education as well as adult education and life-long learning. Offering a truly international perspective, the handbook benefits from a global group of contributors and attention to both developed and developing country contexts. The Routledge Handbook of the Economics of Education will be a valuable resource for advanced students, researchers, and policymakers across economics, education, and public policy.

Essays on Human Capital Formation
Essays on Human Capital Formation

Author: Gonzalo A. Castex Hernandez

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 198

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"I analyze two issues on the efficiency of schooling choice. The first chapter analyzes changes in the distribution of college enrollment rates that occurred between 1980 and 2000. It aims not only to explain the 69% increase in the overall college enrollment rates, but also changes in the distribution of college attendees by their ability and financial status. College attendance increased by 27% less than the overall trend for individuals in the lowest quartile of the joint family income and ability distribution. However, it increased by 12% more than the trend for individuals in the highest quartile. To explain these changes, I construct a quantitative life-cycle model of labor supply and human capital formation. The model is calibrated to match schooling patterns and labor market outcomes for the 1980 and 2000 cohorts. I explicitly model four potential driving forces to explain the observed changes. First, college wage premium increased during the 1980 - 2000 period. This increase had a positive effect on enrollment across all profiles and the largest gain was for the low-ability and low-income groups. Second, there was a merit-oriented reform in distribution of grants which mostly increased college attendance of high-ability students. Third, increase in tuition costs led to reduced attendance across all profiles. This effect was particularly strong for students from low-income families. Fourth, the joint distribution of ability and family income shifted, affecting allocation of grants as well as educational success and expected college wages. This shift had the largest positive effect on students in the center of the ability distribution as they experienced rising incentives to attend college. The second chapter studies the role of college dropout risk premium on returns to education and attendance decisions. Attending college has been considered one of the most profitable investment decisions, as its estimated annualized return ranges from 8% to 13%. However, a large fraction of high school graduates do not enroll in college. Using a simple risk premium approach, I reconcile the observed high average returns to schooling with relatively low attendance rates. A high dropout risk has two important effects on the estimated average returns to college: selection bias and risk premium. Once taking into account dropout risk, a simple calculation of risk premium accounts for 51% of the excess of return to college education. In order to explicitly consider the selection bias, I further explore the dropout risk in a life-cycle model with heterogeneous ability. The risk-premium of college participation accounts for 29% of the excess of returns to college education for high-ability students, and accounts for 27% of the excess return for low-ability students, since they face a larger college dropout risk. Risk averse agents are willing to reduce their return to college in order to avoid the dropout risk. The effect is not uniform across ability levels"--Leaves v-vi.

The Human Capital Index 2020 Update
The Human Capital Index 2020 Update

Author: World Bank

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2021-05-05

Total Pages: 301

ISBN-13: 1464816476

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is a central driver of sustainable growth, poverty reduction, and successful societies. More human capital is associated with higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. Much of the hard-won human capital gains in many economies over the past decade is at risk of being eroded by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. Urgent action is needed to protect these advances, particularly among the poor and vulnerable. Designing the needed interventions, targeting them to achieve the highest effectiveness, and navigating difficult trade-offs make investing in better measurement of human capital now more important than ever. The Human Capital Index (HCI)—launched in 2018 as part of the Human Capital Project—is an international metric that benchmarks the key components of human capital across economies. The HCI is a global effort to accelerate progress toward a world where all children can achieve their full potential. Measuring the human capital that children born today can expect to attain by their 18th birthdays, the HCI highlights how current health and education outcomes shape the productivity of the next generation of workers and underscores the importance of government and societal investments in human capital. The Human Capital Index 2020 Update: Human Capital in the Time of COVID-19 presents the first update of the HCI, using health and education data available as of March 2020. It documents new evidence on trends, examples of successes, and analytical work on the utilization of human capital. The new data—collected before the global onset of COVID-19—can act as a baseline to track its effects on health and education outcomes. The report highlights how better measurement is essential for policy makers to design effective interventions and target support. In the immediate term, investments in better measurement and data use will guide pandemic containment strategies and support for those who are most affected. In the medium term, better curation and use of administrative, survey, and identification data can guide policy choices in an environment of limited fiscal space and competing priorities. In the longer term, the hope is that economies will be able to do more than simply recover lost ground. Ambitious, evidence-driven policy measures in health, education, and social protection can pave the way for today’s children to surpass the human capital achievements and quality of life of the generations that preceded them.

Evolution of Gender Differences in Post-Secondary Human Capital Investments
Evolution of Gender Differences in Post-Secondary Human Capital Investments

Author: Ahu Gemici

Publisher:

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Although women in the United States now complete more college degrees than men, the distribution of college majors among college graduates remains unequal, with women about two-thirds as likely as men to major in business or science. We develop and estimate a dynamic, overlapping generations model of human capital investments and labor supply. We allow for specific college major choices, instead of aggregating these choices to the education level. Results show that changes in skill prices, higher schooling costs, and gender-specific changes in home value were each important to the long-term trends.