Project 9: Human Capital Over the Lifecycle

Contact:

	Professor Stephen Machin. Tel: +44 (0)20 7955 7443, +44(0)20 7504 5870 (UCL) Email: s.machin@ucl.ac.uk
	Dr Lorraine Dearden, IFS and CEE associate Tel: +44(0)20 7291 4800 Email: l.dearden@ifs.org.uk
	Dr Anna Vignoles, Institute of Education. Tel:+44(0)20 7612 6879 Email: a.vignoles@ioe.ac.uk

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The recent literature on human capital emphasizes that skill formation is a life-cycle process and that several skills are important for an individual's success in life. Such a view of the human capital accumulation process demands an integrated approach to human development, where

1. many different areas of policy and research are joined together (education, health, welfare and poverty, crime, family policy, firms' investment in workers, and others), and
   
   
2. there is a recognition that different stages of the life-cycle of an individual are connected as in any dynamic investment problem.

The aim of this project is to draw together all the work that has been done on the returns to human capital investments at different points in the life cycle and to provide a conceptual framework in which to assess the effectiveness or otherwise of different investments over the life cycle. This will be done by developing a common theoretical framework that allows the bringing together all the empirical work on the subject.

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Related Discussion Papers:

Education Policy in the UK
Stephen Machin, Anna  Vignoles,  March 2006
Paper No' CEEDP0057: | Full paper (free)

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