Mat,
How about all the studies that show the importance
of experience to labor productivity, aka "learning by
doing"?
Barkley Rosser
-----Original Message-----
From: Forstater, Mathew <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Friday, February 16, 2001 6:24 PM
Subject: [PEN-L:8222] RE: Re: RE: human "capital"
>human capital theory has been refuted logically, empirically, historically,
>theoretically, internally, externally, what possible other ways are there?
>
>Was it Ivar Berg who did the study that showed the best determinant of
>employment is.........who you know. ("social capital"?)
>
>the only retreat for the human capital people is to try to define new and
>invisible things as human capital, so we have filled our equations with as
many
>possible variables and we still dont explain everything, there is an
unexplained
>residual, so this must be some kind of human capital we havent identified.
the
>big thing lately has been.........."culture"
>
>so we are back in the 19th c. not very far from measuring foreheads.
>
>the best theory of wages is still the classical/Marxian theory, updated to
>include gender and race considerations: it is institutionally determined by
>historically and morally determined subsistence and bargaining, modified by
>racism and patriarchy.
>
>I am all ears if anyone has something better.
>
>I am still glad they did the human capital econometrics, to prove there is
still
>racism.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ken Hanly [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 3:40 PM
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [PEN-L:8210] Re: RE: human "capital"
>
>
>But dont people often pay for courses that give them skills that make them
>more likely to find jobs and hence of being wage laborers-- rather than
>resisting the relationship? At most it would be an attempt to attain better
>wages and job opportunities. Opting out and becoming a hippie subsistence
>farmer and growing high grade marijuana for personal use would seem more a
>way of resisting the wage/labor capital relationship and that would in the
>hippie world view not be foregoing anything worth while
> Cheers, Ken Hanly
>....
>----- Original Message -----
>From: Nicole Seibert <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Sent: Friday, February 16, 2001 1:56 PM
>Subject: [PEN-L:8201] RE: human "capital"
>
>
>> Jim,
>> Have you read Paula England's Comparable Worth? In particular, in
Chapter
>> 2 -- "Theories of Labor Markets" she writes, "The neoclassical theory of
>> human capital posits that individuals invest in their stock of skills by
>> paying and/or forgoing something in the present for the sake of some
>future
>> gain" (51). This would suggest that the individual has a choice in
>whether
>> or not to invest in human capital. Maybe investing in human capital
could
>> be seen as a way of resisting the wage/labor capitalist relationship?
>> -Nico
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of Jim Devine
>> Sent: Tuesday, February 13, 2001 1:36 PM
>> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> Subject: [PEN-L:8033] human "capital"
>>
>> [was: Re: [PEN-L:8031] Re: Re: RE: Social Capital]
>>
>> At 10:17 AM 2/13/01 -0800, you wrote:
>> > In order to come to grips with this expanded vision of the labor
force,
>> >economists devised a new concept. Specifically, they invented a new
>> resource,
>> >which they called, "human capital," a theoretical quantity, which is
>> >supposed to
>> >reflect the effect of the education and experience of a worker. Thus,
>> human
>> >capital is separate from and in addition to the conception of the worker
>> >as a basic
>> >mechanical device.
>>
>> in CAPITAL, vol. III (Intl. Publ. pp. 465-6), Marx remarx on the concept,
>> though he doesn't call it that. He argues that wages are totally unlike
>> interest on capital, since (a) the worker must labor -- typically for a
>> capitalist -- to earn this "interest" and (b) he or she cannot liquidate
>> the capital value of the human capital, i.e., convert it into money.
>>
>> What I don't understand is why Gary Becker and Jacob Mincer never read
>> this. It would have prevented the publication of their research on "human
>> capital."
>> ;-)
>>
>> Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] & http://bellarmine.lmu.edu/~jdevine
>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________
>> Do You Yahoo!?
>> Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
>>
>
>
