Measuring Human Capital

44 Pages Posted: 13 Mar 2019

See all articles by Noam Angrist

Noam Angrist

University of Oxford; Youth Impact

Simeon Djankov

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE); Peterson Institute for International Economics

Pinelopi Goldberg

World Bank

Harry A. Patrinos

World Bank

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: February 21, 2019

Abstract

Students around the world are going to school but are not learning – an emerging gap in human capital formation. To understand this gap, this paper introduces a new data set measuring learning in 164 countries and territories. The data cover 98 percent of the world’s population from 2000 to 2017. The data set will be publicly available and updated annually by the World Bank. The paper presents several stylized facts in a first application of the data: (a) although enrollment has increased worldwide, learning has stagnated; (b) girls outperform boys on learning – a positive gender gap – in contrast to a negative gender gap observed for schooling; (c) learning is associated with growth on a global scale; (d) associations with growth are heterogeneous; and (e) human capital accounts for up to a third of cross-country income differences – a middle ground in the recent development accounting literature. These stylized facts demonstrate the potential of the data to reveal new insights into the relationship between human capital and economic development.

JEL Classification: I20, O40, O15, H40, H52, J24, P50

Suggested Citation

Angrist, Noam and Angrist, Noam and Djankov, Simeon and Goldberg, Pinelopi and Patrinos, Harry Anthony, Measuring Human Capital (February 21, 2019). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3339416 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3339416

Noam Angrist

University of Oxford ( email )

Mansfield Road
Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 4AU
United Kingdom

Youth Impact ( email )

Gaborone
Botswana

Simeon Djankov

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Peterson Institute for International Economics ( email )

1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

Pinelopi Goldberg

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

Harry Anthony Patrinos (Contact Author)

World Bank ( email )

1818 H Street NW
Washington, DC 20433
United States

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