nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2010‒06‒11
twelve papers chosen by
Fabio Sabatini
University of Siena

  1. Is there any relationship between Economic Growth and Human Development? Evidence from Indian States By Mukherjee, Sacchidananda; Chakraborty, Debashis
  2. The Allocation of Entrepreneurial Talent and Destructive Entrepreneurship By Sanders, Mark; Weitzel, Utz
  3. School Educational Attainment in Kerela: Trends and Differentials By T.R. Dilip
  4. Twenty Years Later and the Socialist Heritage is still Kicking: the Case of Russia By Ofer, Gur
  5. Flexicurity analysis of youngsters in Europe: the role of “capabilities” and human capital By Emanuela Ghignoni; Gabriella Pappadà
  6. Endogenous Growth, Population Growth and the Repugnant Conclusion By Simone Marsiglio
  7. Estimating the technology of cognitive and noncognitive skill formation By Flavio Cunha; James Heckman; Susanne Schennach
  8. The impact of EU integration on the Portuguese distribution of employees' earnings By João Sousa Andrade; Adelaide Duarte; Marta Simões
  9. Output Quality, Skill Intensity, and Factor Contents of Trade: An empirical analysis based on microdata of the Census of Manufactures By FUKAO Kyoji; ITO Keiko
  10. Participation in and Completion of Vocational Education and Training for People with Disability By Cain Polidano; Kostas Mavromaras
  11. The role of parental investments for cognitive and noncognitive skill formation: Evidence for the first 11 years of life By Coneus, Katja; Laucht, Manfred; Reuß, Karsten
  12. Trade and Geography in the Economic Origins of Islam: Theory and Evidence By Stelios Michalopoulos; Alireza Naghavi; Giovanni Prarolo

  1. By: Mukherjee, Sacchidananda; Chakraborty, Debashis
    Abstract: The paper attempts to analyse the relationship between economic growth and human development for 28 major Indian States during four time periods ranging over last two decades: 1983, 1993, 1999-00 and 2004-05. To construct Human Development Index for Indian States, we consider the National Human Development Report 2001 Methodology. The objective of this exercise to understand at what degree and extent the per capita income (as an indicator of economic growth) has influenced the human development across Indian States. To understand the rural – urban disparity in the achievement of human development, the Human Development Index is constructed for rural and urban areas separately for each of the States. The result shows that that per capita income is not translating into human well being. This perhaps in another way might signify the rising influence of other variables in determination of the HD achievements of a state. The result shows the need for further investigation to determine the underlying factors (other than per capita income) which influence HD achievements of a State.
    Keywords: Economic Growth; Human Development; Human Development Index Methodology; Economic Liberalisation; Indian States
    JEL: O47 H75 O15 E21 C01
    Date: 2010–05–31
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:22997&r=hrm
  2. By: Sanders, Mark; Weitzel, Utz
    Abstract: Entrepreneurship is generally regarded as a force of change, innovation, and development in modern economies. Entrepreneurs bring new and better products to markets, restore allocative efficiency through arbitrage and reinvest their profits. However,
    Keywords: destructive entrepreneurship, allocation of talent, development, institutions
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2010-46&r=hrm
  3. By: T.R. Dilip
    Abstract: This paper examines the trends and differentials in school educational attainment in Kerala, the State that ranks right on top in terms of human development in India. The trend analysis is based on a cohort-level comparison of educational attainment while the differential analysis is done using life table techniques. The analysis is based on data on educational attainment of the household population in the National Family Health Survey (2005-06). The unique features of this paper are that it provides comparable time-series data on entry to different stages of the schooling system, right from the time the State was formed in 1956, and that it analyses the probabilities of continuing from the first standard to the higher secondary level across different sub-groups of the population.[Working Paper 429]
    Keywords: schooling, continuity, inequality, social divide, educational attainment, Kerala
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ess:wpaper:id:2516&r=hrm
  4. By: Ofer, Gur
    Abstract: Only recently, 20 years after transition to a market system, has Russia regained a similar production level it had achieved on the eve of transition in 1991. This may sound surprising, given its low productivity under central planning which dropped even l
    Keywords: transition, institutions, Russia, economic growth, human capital, higher
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp2010-59&r=hrm
  5. By: Emanuela Ghignoni; Gabriella Pappadà
    Abstract: The paper presents some significant results of the YOUTH project (Young in Occupations and Unemployment: THinking of their better integration in the labour market), promoted by the European Commission – DG Employment. The paper assumes that flexicurity is very important for young workers, because they are (as new entrants in the labour market and as workers with peculiar qualitative structural characteristics) particularly exposed to risks of unemployment, “atypical” employment and precariousness trap. In this framework, we perform a principal component and a cluster analyses to classify the EU Member States in accordance with the degree of achievement of flexicurity for young people. The analysis use a set of indicators wider than that identified in the four flexicurity pillars proposed by the EC and includes flexibility and security components more targeted to young people needs. In particular, we use further human capital indicators and some measures of combination security and young people autonomy, that we propose as indicators of individuals’ “real opportunities”, strictly tied to the concept of “capabilities”.
    Keywords: youth employment, labour economic policies, flexicurity,
    JEL: J08 J21 J24
    Date: 2009–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sap:wpaper:125&r=hrm
  6. By: Simone Marsiglio (University of Milan)
    Abstract: This paper studies the impact of endogenous population change on economic growth, analyzing the simplest optimal endogenous growth model, an AK type model, driven by human capital accumulation. We show that in steady state both demographic change and economic growth are constant, but the rate of these growth can be positive, negative or null accordingly to parameter values. Population dynamics is determined by the difference between the stationary fertility rate and the exogenous mortality rate: if this is positive population size indefinitely increases, otherwise it reaches a stationary level, which can be positive (if the difference is null) or null (if it is negative). If fertility is strictly lower than mortality, population size will constantly decrease in finite time and we end up with a complete collapse of the economy, characterized by the total extinction of the population. We also analyze the problem of optimal population size and its relationship with growth. The seminal work of Parfit (1984) suggests that total utilitarianism leads to increase population size indefinitely, even if it the average welfare tends to zero. We show that in our model economy, under certain parametric conditions, the repugnant conclusion holds; in particular, this happens when consumption growth is negative and the stationary fertility rate is higher than the exogenous mortality rate.
    Keywords: Economic Growth, Human Capital Accumulation, Endogenous Fertility, Optimal Population, Repugnant Conclusion,
    Date: 2010–04–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bep:unimip:1103&r=hrm
  7. By: Flavio Cunha; James Heckman (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Chicago); Susanne Schennach (Institute for Fiscal Studies and University of Chicago)
    Abstract: <p><p>This paper formulates and estimates multistage production functions for children's cognitive and noncognitive skills. Skills are determined by parental environments and investments at different stages of childhood. We estimate the elasticity of substitution between investments in one period and stocks of skills in that period to assess the benefits of early investment in children compared to later remediation. We establish nonparametric identification of a general class of production technologies based on nonlinear factor models with endogenous inputs. A by-product of our approach is a framework for evaluating childhood and schooling interventions that does not rely on arbitrarily scaled test scores as outputs and recognizes the differential effects of the same bundle of skills in different tasks. Using the estimated technology, we determine optimal targeting of interventions to children with different parental and personal birth endowments. Substitutability decreases in later stages of the life cycle in the production of cognitive skills. It is roughly constant across stages of the life cycle in the production of noncognitive skills. This finding has important implications for the design of policies that target the disadvantaged. For most configurations of disadvantage, it is optimal to invest relatively more in the early stages of childhood than in later stages.</p></p>
    Date: 2010–04
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ifs:cemmap:09/10&r=hrm
  8. By: João Sousa Andrade (GEMF/Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal); Adelaide Duarte (GEMF/Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal); Marta Simões (GEMF/Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal)
    Abstract: The accession of Portugal to the EU resulted in several important and different shocks to the Portuguese economy, imposing among others a real positive and lasting effect on employees’ earnings. This paper analyses the impact of Portugal’s accession to the EU in terms of employees’ earnings inequality using data for the years 1985 and 1991 at the Concelhos level from the Quadros de Pessoal database. The two earnings distributions are compared using cardinal measures of inequality and the Lorenz stochastic dominance approach (Araar Abelkrim and Jean-Ives Duclos). The Relative Distribution approach (Mark S. Handcock and Martina Morris) is applied in order to inspect the overall differences of the two distributions and split the overall relative distribution into location and shape shift effects. The technique of covariate decomposition is used to assess the importance of the human capital/education distribution for the explanation of the evolution of the employees’ earnings distribution from 1985 to 1991. This paper contributes to the literature on inequality by focusing on country specific data at the regional and sectoral level and by applying distinct empirical methodologies that clarify the nature of inequality at the aggregate level. During the period under analysis employees’ median and average earnings registered a strong growth pointing to a sort of honeymoon effect of EU integration on Portuguese employees’ earnings. The paper also contributes to the literature by sorting out this kind of honeymoon effect and emphasizing it as a case to be analyzed in other countries since, in the absence of appropriate country policies, it can jeopardize future growth.
    Keywords: Portugal, EU integration, earnings inequality, human capital/education inequality, relative distribution.
    JEL: O12 D33
    Date: 2010–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gmf:wpaper:2010-08&r=hrm
  9. By: FUKAO Kyoji; ITO Keiko
    Abstract: Using factory-level data for Japanfs manufacturing sector, we estimate the relationship between the unit values of gross output and factor intensities. We find a significant and positive relationship between the unit value of a product and its white-collar labor intensity, which supports the assumption widely used in theoretical models that commodities with higher prices are of higher quality and more human capital-intensive. However, the relationship between the unit value of a product and its capital intensity is not always positive, and is significantly negative in some sectors. Using the results of the relationship between unit values and factor intensities, we also estimate the factor contents of Japanfs trade, taking account of differences in the unit values of exports and imports. We find that the number of non-production workers and the capital stock embodied in Japanfs net exports are under-estimated when differences in unit values are not taken into account.
    Date: 2010–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:eti:dpaper:10028&r=hrm
  10. By: Cain Polidano (Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne); Kostas Mavromaras (National Institute of Labour Studies, Flinders University)
    Abstract: Improving the educational outcomes of people with a disability is seen as key in helping improve their employment and life prospects. Vocational Education and Training (VET) is an important avenue for further education for people with disability because it is a highly flexible and accessible form of education. This paper uses the HILDA survey and multivariate estimation to examine whether people with disability face barriers in participating in and completing a VET qualification, with particular focus on the role of social support. Overall, we find that people with disability are not disadvantaged in terms of participation, but are in terms of completion, especially those with more limiting conditions and those with mental health problems who have low levels of social support. These findings add to the growing literature on the role of social support in the functioning of people with mental illness and underline the importance of ensuring access to adequate support services.
    Date: 2010–06
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iae:iaewps:wp2010n08&r=hrm
  11. By: Coneus, Katja; Laucht, Manfred; Reuß, Karsten
    Abstract: This paper examines the impact of parental investments on the development of cognitive, mental and emotional skills during childhood using data from a longitudinal study, the Mannheim Study of Children at Risk, starting at birth. Our work offers three important innovations. First, we use reliable measures of the child's cognitive, mental and emotional skills as well as accurate measures of parental investment. Second, we estimate latent factor models to account for unobserved characteristics of children. Third, we examine the skill development for girls and boys separately, as well as for children who were born with either organic or psychosocial risk. We find a decreasing impact of parental investments on cognitive and mental skills, while emotional skills seem to be unaffected by parental investment throughout childhood. Thus, initial inequality persists during childhood. Since families are the main sources of education during the first years of life, our results have important implications for the quality of the parent-child relationship. --
    Keywords: cognitive skills,noncognitive skills,critical and sensitive periods,self-productivity,inequality,organic risk,psychosocial risk
    JEL: I12 I21 J13
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:zewdip:10028&r=hrm
  12. By: Stelios Michalopoulos; Alireza Naghavi; Giovanni Prarolo
    Abstract: This research examines the economic origins of Islam and uncovers two empirical regularities. First, Muslim countries, virtual countries and ethnic groups, exhibit highly unequal regional agricultural endowments. Second, Muslim adherence is systematically larger along the pre-Islamic trade routes in the Old World. The theory argues that this particular type of geography (i) determined the economic aspects of the religious doctrine upon which Islam was formed, and (ii) shaped its subsequent economic performance. It suggests that the unequal distribution of land endowments conferred differential gains from trade across regions, fostering predatory behavior from the poorly endowed ones. In such an environment it was mutually beneficial to institute a system of income redistribution. However, a higher propensity to save by the rich would exacerbate wealth inequality rendering redistribution unsustainable, leading to the demise of the Islamic unity. Consequently, income inequality had to remain within limits for Islam to persist. This was instituted via restrictions on physical capital accumulation. Such rules rendered the investments on public goods, through religious endowments, increasingly attractive. As a result, capital accumulation remained low and wealth inequality bounded. Geography and trade shaped the set of economically relevant religious principles of Islam affecting its economic trajectory in the preindustrial world.
    Keywords: Religion; Physical Capital; Human Capital; Land Inequality; Wealth Inequality
    JEL: O10 O13 O16 O17 O18 F10 Z12
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cca:wpaper:145&r=hrm

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