This paper examines the linkage between the incentives to work and to invest in human capital through education. These incentives are shown to be mutually reinforcing in a simple stylized model. This theoretical prediction is investigated empirically using three large micro datasets covering a...

Aggregate and average human capital per worker in each of the 50 United States are estimated using microdata from the Annual Demographic File (ADF) and outgoing Rotation Groups (ORG) of the Current Population Survey for 1976-2000 and 1979-2000, respectively, and are compared to one another and...

This paper examines the relationship between the incentives to work and to invest in human capital through education in a lifecycle optimizing model. These incentives are shown to be mutually reinforcing in a simple stylized model. This theoretical prediction is investigated empirically using...

Numerous studies have documented disproportionate increases in wage rates from receiving educational credentials, as opposed to from just years of education. This study shows 'sheepskin effects' in hours of work that are similar to the sheepskin effects in wage rates. Systematic sheepskin...

Conservatively speaking, a college graduate generates $142,000 in state fiscal benefits over time while costing a state only $60,500. But trends in higher education allocations (4.1 percent of total state spending nationwide in 1984; 1.8 percent in 2004) suggest states have become shortsighted.

This study quantifies one important part of the economic return to public investment in college education, namely, the fiscal benefits associated with greater college attainment. College graduates generally pay much more in taxes than those not going to college. Government expenditures are also...

This study examines a crucial assumption in much of the recent work on endogenous growth, namely, constant returns to scale in producing human capital. A simple model is constructed to show that the returns to scale in human capital production can be inferred from the relationship between the...

A study that measures the effects of human capital investment on the deficit financing costs of government spending finds that the lower current and higher future tax rates of deficit financing increases opportunity costs and reduces the benefits of investments.