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A FORWARD‐LOOKING MEASURE OF THE STOCK OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN NEW ZEALAND *
Author(s) -
LE TRINH,
GIBSON JOHN,
OXLEY LES
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the manchester school
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9957
pISSN - 1463-6786
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9957.2006.00511.x
Subject(s) - human capital , economics , physical capital , stock (firearms) , financial capital , census , proxy (statistics) , capital deepening , capital intensity , population , labour economics , capital formation , economic growth , geography , sociology , demography , archaeology , machine learning , computer science
Human capital is increasingly believed to play an important role in the growth process; however, adequately measuring its stock remains controversial. Because the estimated impact that human capital has on economic growth is sensitive to the measures or proxies of human capital, accurate and consistent measures are needed. While many measures of human capital have been developed, most rely on some proxy of educational experience and are thus plagued with limitations. In this study, we modify the lifetime labour income approach outlined by Jorgenson and Fraumeni ( The Measurement of Savings, Investment and Wealth , Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 1989, pp. 227–282; Output Measurement in the Services Sector , Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 303–338) to estimate the monetary value of the human capital stock for New Zealand. Based on data from the New Zealand Census of Population, we find that the country's working human capital grew by half between 1981 and 2001, mostly due to the rise in employment level. This stock of human capital was also well over double that of physical capital in all the census years studied.