Jacob Mincer seems to have been first in print with the post-war revival of interest in human capital, in his 1958 paper’? rederiving Irving Fisher’s present value equation and stressing job training. Schultz impresses me as the main idea man among these post-war contributors. He usually avoided math, unlike the others, and is probably the best source for quotes in plain English. His paper Investment in
Human Capital, published in 1961, includes:
... Much of what we call consumption constitutes investment in human capital. Direct expenditures on education, health and internal migration to take advantage of better job opportunities are clear examples. Earnings foregone by mature students attending school and by workers acquiring on-the-job training are equally clear examples.
... This use of leisure time to improve skills and knowledge is widespread... I shall contend that such investment in human capital accounts for most of the impressive rise in the real earnings per worker...
... Measured by what labor contributes to output, the productive capacity of human beings is now vastly larger than all other forms of wealth taken together...
... the curve relating income to age trends to be steeper for skilled than for unskilled persons. Investment in on-the-job training seems a likely explanation...
... We can think of three classes of expenditures: expenditures that satisfy human preferences and in no way enhance the capabilities under discussion - these represent pure consumption; expenditures that enhance capabilities and do not satisfy any preference underlying consumption - these represent pure investment; and expenditures that ... are ... partly consumption and partly investment. ...
In 19621! he added:
... the investment in human capital can conveniently be classified in (1) nurture and higher education, (2) postschool training and learning, (3) preschool learning activities, (4) migration, (5) health, (6) information, and (7) investment in children (population) ...
10 Investment in Human Capital and Personal Income Distribution 11 Human Capital: Policy Issues and Research Opportunities
Chapter 5 Bringing Human Capital In 1/13/16 3
HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_011022