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Ceris-Cnr, W.P. N° 02/2009 La misurazione
del capitale umano: una rassegna della letteratura* Mario
Nosvelli
Ceris-Cnr,
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Abstract. As well known, human capital plays a crucial role both for private and social wellbeing. Notwithstanding, measurement of human capital is not univocally defined in empirical analyses, since different indicators and methods are employed and, sometimes, the proxies seem to be not very efficient for human capital econometric specification. The main aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive review of different measurements of human capital showing the most diffused approaches based both on simple indexes and on more complex statistical and econometric tools. Since human capital is a multifaceted and complex asset, a necessary condition to better measure it is to improve its understanding and definition, which are the basic requirements of an efficient measurement. Two major results emerge from this analysis. Firstly, it appears quite clearly that the best measurement of human capital in absolute terms does not exist, but, on the contrary, methods or formula which seem the most efficient and coherent to analytical objectives should be adopted. Secondly, approaching human capital measurement, data quality and availability are essential, more than any other methodological and theoretical issue. Keywords: Human capital measurement; Quantity and quality of education; Education statistics and estimation JEL Codes: J24, E24, I21
* Realizzato all’interno del progetto di ricerca “Definizione e Costruzione di Indicatori di Capitale Umano in Lombardia”, coordinato da IRER-Lombardia.
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