Overview
Systems of national accounts measure the output of a nation and the incomes generated by tangible assets, but they leave out intangible assets such as human capital. This presentation, with David Passmore and Mihee Park, reviews theory and research on accounting for human capital at the macro level and outlines the main approaches in use.
It is a conceptual review. There is no new dataset; the slides move from the origins of the human capital concept to the practical problems of measuring it for a whole economy.
Key points
- Human capital is treated as an analogue of a capital asset: a stock of knowledge, skills, experience, and personal attributes that can produce value and that needs maintenance.
- It is mostly intangible and latent, so it is measured indirectly through indicators or its current market value.
- Investment in human capital takes many forms, including health care, migration, training, and education, and occurs at micro, meso, and macro levels.
- Macro accounting remains unresolved: data are dispersed, measurement is incomplete, and most data are cross-sectional where a longitudinal view is needed.
- Approaches reviewed: satellite accounts within the national accounts framework, cost-based, income-based, and indicator-based methods.
Event
University Forum for Human Resource Development Annual Conference 2019, Nottingham, England, June 2019.
Citation
Passmore, D., Park, M., & Chae, C. (2019, June). National accounting for human capital. Presentation at the University Forum for Human Resource Development Annual Conference 2019, Nottingham, England.