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Where Are We Now with Human Capital Theory in Australia?

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  • Preston, Alison
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    Abstract

    The dominant economic paradigm for the study of wage determination is the human capital model. Increasingly, however, there is growing discontent with this model. The catalyst is the empirical literature on important earnings relationships which cannot be explained by competitive wage theory. Is human capital theory redundant? How useful is the model in the 1990s? This paper provides an assessment of the current status of human capital theory in Australia. The analysis demonstrates that even in a non-competitive environment such as Australia the human capital framework is extremely useful for the study of wage determination. Its weakness is its inability to explain significant and persistent inter-industry, inter-occupational and gender wage differences. Copyright 1997 by The Economic Society of Australia.

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    Bibliographic Info

    Article provided by The Economic Society of Australia in its journal The Economic Record.

    Volume (Year): 73 (1997)
    Issue (Month): 220 (March)
    Pages: 51-78

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    Handle: RePEc:bla:ecorec:v:73:y:1997:i:220:p:51-78

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    Cited by:
    1. Miller, Paul W. & Mulvey, Charles & Martin, Nick, 2004. "A test of the sorting model of education in Australia," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(5), pages 473-482, October.
    2. Kristy Eastough & Paul W. Miller, 2004. "The Gender Wage Gap in Paid- and Self-Employment in Australia," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 257-276, 09.
    3. Steve Dowrick, 2003. "Ideas and Education: Level or Growth Effects?," NBER Working Papers 9709, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Grace Chia & Paul W Miller, 2007. "Tertiary Performance, Field of Study and Graduate Starting Salaries," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 07-12, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    5. Meagher, K., 1998. "The Impact of Hierarchies on Wages," Papers 98-16, New South Wales - School of Economics.
    6. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Economic Explanations of Earnings Distribution Trends in the International Literature and Application to New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 00/16, New Zealand Treasury.
    7. Naderi, A. & Mace, J., 2003. "Education and earnings: a multilevel analysis: A case study of the manufacturing sector in Iran," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 143-156, April.
    8. Jeff Borland, 2000. "Disaggregated Models of Unemployment in Australia," Melbourne Institute Working Paper Series wp2000n16, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, The University of Melbourne.
    9. Alla Kirova, 2011. "Evolution of the Human Capital Doctrine," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 4, pages 94-131.
    10. Chan, Gavin & Heaton, Christopher & Tani, Massimiliano, 2012. "The Wage Premium of Foreign Education: New Evidence from Australia," IZA Discussion Papers 6578, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    11. Kifle, Temesgen, 2009. "The effect of immigration on the earnings of native-born workers: Evidence from Australia," The Journal of Socio-Economics, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 350-356, March.
    12. Chiswick, Barry R. & Lee, Yew Liang & Miller, Paul W., 2002. "Schooling, Literacy, Numeracy and Labor Market Success," IZA Discussion Papers 450, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
    13. Muhammad Purnagunawan, 2008. "Earning Motivation and The Conventional Earning Function," Working Papers in Economics and Development Studies (WoPEDS) 200805, Department of Economics, Padjadjaran University, revised Sep 2008.
    14. Steve Dowrick, 2004. "Ideas and Education: Level or Growth Effects and Their Implications for Australia," NBER Chapters, in: Growth and Productivity in East Asia, NBER-East Asia Seminar on Economics, Volume 13, pages 9-40 National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Peter Siminski, 2011. "Are Low Skill Public Sector Workers Really Overpaid? A Quasi-Differenced Panel Data Analysis," Economics Working Papers wp11-10, School of Economics, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia.
    16. Freebairn, John W., 2003. "Economic policy for rural and regional Australia," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 47(3), September.
    17. Rummery, Sarah & Vella, Francis & Verbeek, Marno, 1999. "Estimating the returns to education for Australian youth via rank-order instrumental variables," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(4), pages 491-507, November.
    18. Sawami Matsushita & Abu Siddique & Margaret Giles, 2006. "Education and Economic Growth: A Case Study of Australia," Economics Discussion / Working Papers 06-15, The University of Western Australia, Department of Economics.
    19. Leigh, Andrew & Ryan, Chris, 2008. "Estimating returns to education using different natural experiment techniques," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 149-160, April.

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