Place and role of the human capital theory in the contemporary history of economic thought

2016 ◽  
pp. 253-277
Author(s):  
Яков Ядгаров
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Contemporary History ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Journal of the History of Economic Thought Preprints - Economic Analysis of Education in Post-War America: New insights from Theodore Schultz and John Kenneth Galbraith

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
alexandre CHIRAT ◽  
Le Chapelain Charlotte
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
Planning System ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Theory Of Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Generative Mechanism ◽  
Post War

Human capital theory has suffered much criticism. The filter theory of education (Arrow 1973), the theory of education as a “signal” (Spence 1973) and the theory of “screening” (Stiglitz 1975), for instance, have seriously challenged it from within mainstream economics, and heavy criticism has also come from other paradigms, with Bailly (2016) recently documenting the critique from the radical school. Within this set of ideas that flourished in the post-WWII period and challenged human capital theory, John Kenneth Galbraith’s analysis of the dynamics of the education process is often neglected. In his original institutionalist and firm-based approach to the evolution of education, Galbraith placed great emphasis on the issue of the requirements of the planning system when he tackled the issue of human capital investment. More surprisingly – since he is unanimously recognized as the “founding father” of the “human capital revolution” – Theodore Schultz himself developed a substantial critique of human capital theory that shares some ground with Galbraith’s. The aim of this contribution is to provide new insights into the history of post-WWII ideas in the field of economics of education by reviewing Schultz’s and Galbraith’s respective analyses of education and highlighting their proximities. Both authors raise doubts regarding the idea that the aggregation of individual choices must be regarded as the relevant generative mechanism of the dynamic of education and the basis of the allocation of education resources. Consequently, both question the equivocal concept of student sovereignty.

scholarly journals Journal of the History of Economic Thought Preprints - A.J. Brown, 'Phillips’ Curve', and Economic Networks in the 1950s

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth John Button
Keyword(s):  
Phillips Curve ◽  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Economic Networks ◽  
Wage Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Ordinal Interpretation

This paper is concerned with examining the role of the English economist Arthur (A.J.) Brown in the 1950s debate surrounding the wage-change unemployment relationship. While the publication of William (Bill) Phillips’ 1958 paper, and the subsequent moniker of the “Phillips Curve” attracted a wealth of attention, Brown’s book on the subject, The Great Inflation, and his later work on inflation, has received much less. Here the focus is on redressing somewhat this situation by looking at Brown’s work to see how much it predates Phillips’ paper, and what differences there are to it. We also considers this within the changing institutional structure of English economic networks in the 1950s that led to a relatively rapid acceptance of Phillips’ analysis, and in many cases, to a strong, ordinal interpretation of the Phillips Curve that overshadowed Brown’s work.

scholarly journals “Journal of the History of Economic Thought Preprints - Economists and Their Travels, or the Time When JFK Sent Douglass North on a Mission to Brazil”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mauro Boianovsky
Keyword(s):  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
History Of Economics ◽  
Potential Source ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Douglass North

The role of traveling as a source of discovery and development of new ideas has been controversial in the history of economics. Despite their protective attitude toward established theory, economists have traveled widely and gained new insights or asked new questions as a result of their exposition to “other” economic systems, ideas and forms of behavior. That is particularly the case when they travel to new places while their frameworks are in their initial stages or undergoing changes. This essay examines economists’ traveling as a potential source of new hypotheses, from the 18th to the 20th centuries, with a detailed case study of Douglass North’s 1961 travel to Brazil.

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 1162-1165
Keyword(s):  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
History Of

Catherine Herfeld of the Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy reviews “Defending the History of Economic Thought”, by Steven Kates. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Explores the importance of the study of the history of economic thought to the practice of economics. Discusses why to study the history of economic thought; debating the role of the history of economic thought; teaching the history of economic thought; and defending the history of economic thought. Kates is with the School of Economics, Finance, and Marketing at RMIT University.”

Origins

2020 ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Phillip Brown
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Adam Smith ◽  
Wealth Creation ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Ibn Khaldun ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Human Labor ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Individual

This chapter discusses the history of human capital theory. Before the mid-twentieth century the idea of human capital had a checkered history. Ideas linking the role of human labor to wealth creation can be traced to the works of Aristotle, Ibn Khaldun, and Thomas Aquinas. The chapter examines the ideas posed by notable economic theorists and thinkers such as Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, Theodore Schultz, and Gary Becker. It shows how the ideas developed by these thinkers extended to a wide range of issues concerning the relationship between education and the labor market. In turn, they were able to influence policy in such powerful ways that their legacy remains. Above all, their influence shaped the way education is viewed in many countries: as an investment in the economic fortunes of the individual and the nation. This view gradually emerged as the dominant one, but was triumphantly sealed by the advent of neoliberalism in the 1980s.

My Work as a Historian of Economic Thought

1996 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Warren J. Samuels
Keyword(s):  
Economic Thought ◽  
History Of Economic Thought ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Economic Role ◽  
Professional Activities ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of Political Economy ◽  
Synergistic Relationship

My work as a historian of economic thought and methodologist has had several dimensions. One comprises a heavy research program. Another involves some major editing projects, several long term. Still another involves a synergistic relationship between my work on the history of economic thought and methodology and on the economic role of government. Another involves my participation in the founding and operation of bothHistory of Political Economyand the History of Economics Society. If all this sounds like a lot of activity, it must be understood that my research and professional activities have been both my vocation and principal avocation. I use the word “work” in the title reluctantly and where others might say “career.” I have never thought of my professional activities as either toil or a career; indeed, I have both engaged in and seen them as a joyful adventure—so much for the theory of the marginal disutility of labor! Especially important has been the continued support of my wife, Sylvia. She has not only understood and supported, albeit sometimes with difficulty, my time-consuming involvement with intellectual work, she has nurtured a wonderful family life.

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