1 option
The Production of Cognitive and Non-cognitive Human Capital in the Global Economy / Chong Xiang, Stephen Yeaple.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Xiang, Chong.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w24524.
- NBER working paper series no. w24524
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2018.
- Summary:
- A country's welfare depends on its ability to accumulate cognitive and non-cognitive human capital. In this paper, we model the productions of cognitive and non-cognitive human capital in general equilibrium. We use revealed comparative advantage to infer countries' non-cognitive and cognitive productivities without a direct measure for the non-cognitive dimension. Our model also delivers analytical expressions for how non- cognitive and cognitive productivities can be aggregated into a single human-capital quality index, or HCQI, and how HCQI relates to output per worker.
- Our model allows us to obtain the values of non-cognitive and cognitive productivities and HCQI, using publically available data for a sample of mostly high-income countries. We find that: 1. many countries with low test scores have high non-cognitive productivities; 2. the hard-to-measure non-cognitive human capital is important for HCQI, and HCQI is important for output per worker; 3. the trade-o¤ between cognitive- and non-cognitive productivities can be visualized and analyzed using an iso-HCQI curve: e.g. uneven cognitive and non-cognitive productivities tend to lower HCQI; 4. this trade-o¤ can be quantified, and has policy implications: e.g. excessive attention to test scores may decrease aggregate output; 5. international trade matters, theoretically, for HCQI, because the gains from trade help to compensate a country for uneven productivity across human capital types: e.g. the iso-HCQI curve would have a very different shape under free trade.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- April 2018.
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.