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New Measures of Human Capital and Their Application

Paper Session

Friday, Jan. 5, 2018 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM

Pennsylvania Convention Center, 204-B
Hosted By: American Economic Association
  • Chair: Bruce Weinberg, Ohio State University

Measuring Labor Market Outcomes for United States Colleges

Raj Chetty
,
Stanford University
John N. Friedman
,
Brown University
Emmanuel Saez
,
University of California-Berkeley
Nicholas Turner
,
U.S. Treasury Department
Danny Yagan
,
University of California-Berkeley

Abstract

Chetty et al. (2017) provides estimates of labor market outcomes for each college in the U.S. in "Mobility Report Cards." This paper discusses those findings in several broader contexts: the increasing use of administrative data, at both the federal and state level; the use of labor market outcomes, rather than in-school outcomes (such as graduation rates), to gauge school quality; and the balance between selection and treatment in the observational data such as "Mobility Report Cards."

Earnings Inequality and Mobility Trends in the United States: Nationally Representative Estimates from Longitudinally Linked Employer-employee Data

John M. Abowd
,
U.S. Census Bureau and Cornell University
Kevin L. McKinney
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Nellie L. Zhao
,
Cornell University

Abstract

Using SSA data we create a consistent national frame of eligible workers each year from 1990 to 2013, with earnings data sourced from both administrative (LEHD) and household surveys (CPS/ACS). Although declining prior to 2000, from 2000 forward both administrative and survey data show similarly increasing inequality at the top relative to the middle. Below the median inequality also increases for both sources post 2000, although the character of the results differs. Using the administrative worker earnings data, we estimate year-to-year earnings mobility, documenting the evolution of the bottom, middle, and top as well as the changes in the number of inactive workers. Changes in the earnings/inactivity distribution from 2004 to 2013 are not driven by differential changes in average earnings, instead the changes are due to relatively large increases in the flow of workers from the middle to the bottom and the middle to inactivity.

People are our Greatest Asset: Measuring the Market Value of Human Capital

Erik Brynjolfsson
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Daniel Rock
,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Prasanna Tambe
,
Wharton School, U. Pennsylvania
Jacqueline Barrett
,
LinkedIn

Abstract

This paper uses new, fine-grained data sources generated by human activity conducted online on Linked In to measure the market value of human capital for firms

Research Experience as Human Capital in New Business Outcomes

Nathan Goldschlag
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Ron Jarmin
,
U.S. Census Bureau
Julia Lane
,
New York University
Nikolas Zolas
,
U.S. Census Bureau

Abstract

Human capital is typically cited as an important contributor to the survival, growth and innovative activity of new businesses. This paper contributes to the literature by both developing novel measures of human capital and examining the link between those measures and the outcomes of young firms. It builds on several strands of the literature which emphasize the importance of employee workplace experience as a dimension of human capital. It shows that the effects of work experience differ substantially by where an employee worked and is valued differently by firms in different sectors. This is particularly true for research experience, which is consistent with the notion that on the job training in complex tasks should be valuable to firms with complex production technologies.
Discussant(s)
Richard Freeman
,
Harvard University
Till M. Von Wachter
,
University of California-Los Angeles
Bruce Weinberg
,
Ohio State University
JEL Classifications
  • J0 - General
  • L0 - General