Human Capital in the United States from 1975 to 2000

Patterns of Growth and Utilization

Introductory chapter | Table of Contents

This study enhances the existing measures of the nation’s human capital and the extent to which that capital is utilized. Haveman, Bershadker, and Schwabish develop an indicator of the value of the human capital stock held by the nation’s working-age population called Earnings Capacity (EC), and use it to study the time trends in aggregate human capital in the United States and human capital per worker. They also use EC to evaluate utilization of the nation’s human capital stock, thereby demonstrating the usefulness of the EC indicator in measuring the size and strength of the U.S. economy.

The authors then explore these patterns for the entire working-age population as well as for at-risk subgroups distinguished by race, schooling, and age in order to highlight the social and public policy relevance of the EC indicator.

Overall, their empirical results provide insights into the performance of the U.S. economy over the past three decades, and they serve to supplement other analyses of this performance.

"[This] book contains the clearest statement yet and the most comprehensive treatment to date of the 'earnings capacity' measure of human capital originally devised by Haveman in the late 1970s. The book provides annual estimates of aggregate EC capital stock over the period 1975 to 2000, a measure of capacity utilization of EC, and EC estimates for different demographic groups. The work is a commendable job! I think that it will become a standard reference work on human capital and poverty measurement in the years to come." Edward Wolff, New York University

"It is a truism that modern economic growth depends on human capital - but, as Haveman, Bershadker and Schwabish point out, national statistics on labour input currently measure only the quantity of labour input, and ignore trends in its quality. Fortunately, their comprehensive, well-written book now fills this important gap. Their analysis of the costs of unrealized potential earnings in the USA from 1975 to 2000 and of trends by race, age, gender and education in earnings capacity and its utilization sheds new light on some old problems. It’s an excellent book that will be much referred to in future years." Lars Osberg, Dalhousie University

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