nep-hrm New Economics Papers
on Human Capital and Human Resource Management
Issue of 2010‒09‒18
nine papers chosen by
Fabio Sabatini
Euricse and University of Trento

  1. Human Capital Composition, Proximity to Technology Frontier and Productivity Growth By Md. Rabiul Islam
  2. The impact of migration on origin countries: a numerical analysis By Luca Marchiori; Patrice Pieretti; Benteng Zou
  3. Height, Health Human Capital and Quality of Life Among Older Chinese By Asadul Islam; Paul Raschky; Russell Smyth
  4. Why Do Low-Educated Workers Invest Less in Further Training? By Fouarge, Didier; Schils, Trudie; de Grip, Andries
  5. Employment and sustainable development: education, training and R&D in the regulation of the labour market By Kovács, Ilona; Chagas Lopes, Margarida
  6. Gender Differentials in the Payoff to Schooling in China By Ren, Weiwei; Miller, Paul W.
  7. Left Behind: Intergenerational Transmission of Human Capital in the Midst of HIV/AIDS By Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude; Turan, Belgi
  8. A Review of Local Economic and Employment Development Policy Approaches in OECD Countries: Policy Transferability to Wales By Jonathan Potter; Marco Marchese
  9. Enduring Inequality: Labor market outcomes of the immigrant second generation in Germany By Luthra R

  1. By: Md. Rabiul Islam
    Abstract: The role of human capital composition has been given importance in the most recent endogenous growth models. Assuming that primary as well as secondary education is more suitable for imitation and higher education is more appropriate for innovation, this paper empirically investigates whether the contribution of human capital to productivity growth depends on the composition of human capital and the proximity to technology frontier in a panel of 87 sample countries over the period of 1970 to 2004. The sample is further divided into 28 high, 37 medium, and 22 low income countries to gain some insights into the importance of composition effects of human capital on growth in developing countries relative to their developed counterparts. Using different levels of human capital data from four alternative sources empirical results from system GMM estimator demonstrate that growth enhancing effect of skilled human capital increases with the proximity to the technology frontier only for high and medium income countries. Unskilled human capital is contributing more for low income countries as they move closer to the technology frontier. Matured workers with tertiary education are more growth enhancing for high and medium income countries, whereas younger workers with secondary education are more growth improving for low income countries. Estimated results are consistent across male and female workers.
    Keywords: Human capital composition, proximity, technology frontier, growth, GMM, world
    JEL: I20 O30 O40
    Date: 2010–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2010-23&r=hrm
  2. By: Luca Marchiori (CREA, University of Luxembourg); Patrice Pieretti (CREA, University of Luxembourg); Benteng Zou (CREA, University of Luxembourg)
    Abstract: The focus of this article is on the impact of high-skilled emigration on fertility and human capital of a sending country within an overlapping generations model where parents choose to finance higher education to a certain number of their children. We assume that high- and low-skilled children emigrate with a certain probability when they reach adulthood and that they send remittances to their parents back home. The model shows that an increase in the intensity of the brain drain induces parents to provide more higher education to their children and to raise less low-skilled children. The impact on fertility and on human capital formation however remains unclear. This is why we run numerical simulations by calibrating our model to a developing country like the Philippines. The calibration results show in particular, that increased brain drain lowers fertility and boosts long-run human capital formation in the sending country.
    Keywords: Simulation method, migration, fertility
    JEL: C63 F22 J13
    Date: 2010
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:luc:wpaper:10-06&r=hrm
  3. By: Asadul Islam; Paul Raschky; Russell Smyth
    Abstract: We find that taller people enjoy a higher quality of life at older ages in China. Implications are drawn for investment in health human capital in infancy and adolescence.
    Keywords: China, Height, Well-being
    JEL: I1 J14 O1
    Date: 2010–05
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mos:moswps:2010-35&r=hrm
  4. By: Fouarge, Didier (ROA, Maastricht University); Schils, Trudie (Maastricht University); de Grip, Andries (ROA, Maastricht University)
    Abstract: Several studies document the fact that low-educated workers participate less often in further training than high-educated workers. The economic literature suggests that there is no significant difference in employer willingness to train low-educated workers, which leaves the question of why the low educated invest less in training unanswered. This paper investigates two possible explanations: Low-educated workers invest less in training because of 1) the lower economic returns to these investments or 2) their lower willingness to participate in training. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity that can affect the probability of enrolling into training, we find that the economic returns to training for low-educated workers are positive and not significantly different from those for high-educated workers. However, low-educated workers are significantly less willing to participate in training. This lesser willingness to participate in training is driven by economic preferences (future orientation, preference for leisure), as well as personality traits (locus of control, exam anxiety, and openness to experience).
    Keywords: returns to training, preferences, non-cognitive skills
    JEL: J24 J31 C21
    Date: 2010–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5180&r=hrm
  5. By: Kovács, Ilona; Chagas Lopes, Margarida
    Abstract: “Employment and sustainable development: education, training and R&D in the regulation of the labour market” Ilona Kovács & Margarida Chagas Lopes Abstract Sustainable development has been considered in various discourses as the answer to the economic, social and ecological crisis. However, its principles are far from being implemented. The dominant model of society giving priority to financial capital and short term profitability in the context of globalization and market deregulation involves social disinvestment, increasing inequalities and exclusion, that is to say non sustainable development. We argue that sustainable development requires an orientation towards human needs, social and ecological sustainability and consequently a break with the prevailing model of society and learning and knowledge sharing within modern societies. In the first section we confront the “market driven work society”, which is embedded in the neo-liberal paradigm with the alternative model of the “humanized work society”, which aims to dignify work, enhance quality of working life and skills development. The next sections focus on long trend and new forms of labour market regulation and the role successively played by Education, Vocational Training and – desirably – Innovation in that regulation process . We stress that sustainable development imply an effective upgrading of work and skills, requiring adequate structural education, training and R&D policies.
    Keywords: Renewed and humanised work centered societies; Education; training and R&D in labour market regulation
    JEL: E24 J01 I21 J24 O32 J68 J23
    Date: 2010–09–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:24931&r=hrm
  6. By: Ren, Weiwei (University of Western Australia); Miller, Paul W. (Curtin University of Technology)
    Abstract: This paper examines the gender differential in the payoff to schooling in China. The analyses are conducted separately for rural and urban areas, and are based on a framework provided by the over education/required education/under education literature, and the decomposition developed by Chiswick and Miller (2008). It shows that the payoff to correctly matched education in rural China is much higher for females than for males. Associated with this, the wage penalty where workers are under qualified in their occupation is greater for females than for males. Both of these factors are shown to be linked to the higher payoff to schooling for females than for males. Over educated females, however, are advantaged compared with their male counterparts, though this has little effect on the differential in the payoff to schooling between males and females in rural China. These findings are interpreted using the explanations offered for the gender differential in the payoff to schooling in the growing literature on earnings determination in China. The payoffs to actual years of schooling for males and females in urban China are remarkably similar in this study.
    Keywords: China, schooling, earnings, rates of return
    JEL: J31 J62 J70
    Date: 2010–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5179&r=hrm
  7. By: Akbulut-Yuksel, Mevlude (Dalhousie University); Turan, Belgi (University of Houston)
    Abstract: This paper provides evidence on how adverse health conditions affect the transfer of human capital from one generation to the next. We explore the differential exposure to HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa as a substantial health shock to both household and community environment. We utilize the recent rounds of the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 11 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that provide information on mother’s HIV status and enable us to link mothers and their children. The data also allow us to distinguish between two separate channels that are likely to differentially affect the intergenerational transfers: mother’s HIV status and community HIV prevalence. First, we find that mothers transfer 37% of their human capital to their children in the developing economies in sub-Saharan Africa. Second, our results show that mother's HIV status has large detrimental effect on inheritability of human capital. HIV-infected mothers are 30% less likely to transfer their human capital to their children. Finally, focusing only on non-infected mothers and their children, we find that HIV prevalence in the community also significantly impairs the intergenerational human capital transfers even if mother is HIV negative. The findings of this paper is particularly distressing for these already poor, HIV-torn countries as in the future they will have even lower overall level of human capital due to the epidemic.
    Keywords: HIV/AIDS, intergenerational transmission, human capital investment
    JEL: O12 I1 I2
    Date: 2010–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp5166&r=hrm
  8. By: Jonathan Potter; Marco Marchese
    Abstract: This paper is written in the context of a coalition government in the Welsh Assembly which is committed to full employment (defined as an employment rate of 80%) based on quality jobs. At the outset it should be noted that not all activities relevant to the subject matter of this report have been devolved to the Welsh Assembly. Though the Assembly has powers relating to education and training it does not have responsibility for employment issues. It should also be emphasised that the Welsh Assembly has introduced many new policies and strategies and has recently integrated bodies such as Education and Learning Wales (ELWa) and the Welsh Development Agency into Government Departments. This report considers the transferability of ten policy audits focusing on specific policy interventions in different OECD countries in the fields of labour market participation, skills development and economic and physical regeneration. First, it considers the main policy challenges for Wales in relation to the labour market. It then examines evidence of policy gaps in the current approach of the Welsh Assembly Government. This leads on to an assessment of the policy options that might be considered in relation to the challenges facing Wales. The next section attempts to consider the potential role of the reviewed initiatives in filling these gaps. A final section draws conclusions and makes some policy recommendations.
    Date: 2010–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:oec:cfeaaa:2010/7-en&r=hrm
  9. By: Luthra R (Institute for Social and Economic Research)
    Abstract: Exploiting the 2005 Mikrozensus, the first dataset to allow the full disaggregation of different immigrant origin groups in Germany, this paper examines the effect of context of reception, citizenship, and intermarriage on the labor force participation, employment, and occupational status of the children of immigrants in Germany. Most second generation men have much higher unemployment than native Germans, even after controlling for human capital. Disadvantage is less pronounced among second generation women, and among the employed. There is considerable heterogeneity across immigrant origins, but citizenship and intermarriage have only modest impacts.
    Date: 2010–09–09
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ese:iserwp:2010-30&r=hrm

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