A consensus has been forged in the last decade that recent periods of sustained growth in total factor productivity and reduced poverty are closely associated with improvements in a population's child nutrition, adult health, and schooling, particularly in low-income countries. Estimates of the productive returns from these three forms of human capital investment are nonetheless qualified by a number of limitations in our data and analytical methods. This paper reviews the problems that occupy researchers in this field and summarizes accumulating evidence of empirical regularities. Social experiments must be designed to assess how randomized policy interventions motivate families and individuals to invest in human capital, and then measure the changed wage opportunities of those who have been induced to make these investments.
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Find related papers by JEL classification: I12 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health Production I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Robert J. Barro & Paul Romer, 1993.
"Economic Growth,"
NBER Books,
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number barr93-1, September.
Other versions:
Robert J. Barro & Paul M. Romer, 1991.
"Economic Growth,"
NBER Books,
National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number barr91-1, September.
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