Human Capital Outcomes Research Articles

Public Governance, Human Capital and Environmental Outcomes: an Analysis Based on Self‐Organizing Maps

ABSTRACTThis paper intends to map on a large‐n basis the existing links between public governance and human capital to find out the most significant rules from an environmental perspective. Following an introduction, the second section describes the theoretical background at the intersection between political science, economics and public administration. The next section proposes a definition of public governance and emphasizes the need for a multivariate analysis. The fourth section attempts to link public governance, human capital and environmental outcomes in a more comprehensive and systemic manner making use of self‐organizing maps. The fifth section discusses main results and puts emphasis on those rules between governance and human capital that are more associated with environmental outcomes: supervision and human capital, coordination versus human capital and supervision versus coordination. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Infancy and childhood growth and physical activity in adolescence: prospective birth cohort study from Brazil.

BackgroundThe Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis suggests that intrauterine, infancy and early childhood variables play a key role at programming later health. However, little is known on the programming of behavioral variables, because most studies so far focused on chronic disease-related and human capital outcomes. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effects of prenatal, infancy and childhood weight and length/height gains on objectively-measured physical activity (PA) in adolescence.MethodsThis is a prospective birth cohort study in Pelotas, Brazil, including 457 adolescents (mean age: 13.3 years) with weight and length/height data at birth, one, three and six months, one and four years of age. PA was measured using a GT1M Actigraph accelerometer, and expressed as (a) minutes per day spent on sedentary, light, moderate, vigorous and very-vigorous activities; (b) total counts per day.Results61.3% of the adolescents accumulated 60+ minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA per day. Weight and length/height trajectories in infancy and childhood were similar between those classified as active or inactive at 13.3 years. However, those classified as inactive were heavier and taller at all ages; differences were statistically significant only in terms of length at three, six and 12 months.ConclusionsWeight gain in infancy and childhood did not predict variability in adolescent PA, but those active in adolescence showed somewhat smaller average gains in length in infancy. These findings suggest that PA may partially be sensitive to early hormonal programming, or that genetic factors may affect both early growth and later metabolism or predisposition for PA.

Caste and religious diversity on human capital outcome: evidence from India

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the impact of caste and religious diversity on human capital outcome and external effect of ethnic capital on human capital accumulation process based on social fragmentation of West Bengal state which is mainly shaped under caste and religious lines.Design/methodology/approachA field survey was undertaken in which 440 respondents belonging to 440 households were interviewed in four municipalities of West Bengal – one each for most homogeneous and most heterogeneous along caste dimension and the equal number along religious line. For a cross sectional study during a one‐year period between January‐December 2006, this study considers stratified random sampling method (a mixture of both purposive and random sampling). In addition to construction of caste and a religion based fractionalization indexes, this study considers regression analyses of ordinary least square method in order to explore the stated objectives.FindingsIt suggests that more heterogeneous localities have lower outcome of per capita education after controlling the effect of per capita income. Moreover, the external effect of ethnic capital in heterogeneous localities has also lower outcome of human capital accumulation process.Originality/valueThe lower human capital accumulation in the heterogeneous localities along caste and religious dimensions might play an adverse effect on economic growth, crime, markets, technological breakthroughs and the arts and science. So, institutional measures by government and non‐government sources are needed to improve the stock of human capital, particularly in the heterogeneous localities influencing the positive impact on higher socio‐economic outcome in those localities.

Same Bureaucracy, Different Outcomes in Human Capital? How Indigenous and Rural Non-Indigenous Areas in Panama Responded to the CCT

This paper estimates the impact of the conditional cash transfer program, Red de Oportunidades, on human capital outcomes in areas with different incidences of poverty: indigenous and rural non-indigenous areas of Panama. The analysis relies on data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey of 2008. It uses a propensity score matching technique to identify the impact of the program by replicating the selection criteria followed by the government. Our results show that the program increased school enrollment and was able to reduce child labor in both areas. In rural areas, the impact of the program on education outcomes was restricted to enrollment in middle school where we estimated an increase of 10.2 percentage points (pp). The program also increased the proportion of children that completed elementary school by 13.8 pp, although it did not have an impact on enrollment in elementary or high school. In indigenous areas, the impact of the program on education outcomes was restricted to enrollment in elementary school where we estimate an increase of 7.9 pp. Additionally, the results show that the program reduced child labor in children ages 12 to 15 in both areas: by 10.1 pp in rural areas and 15.8 pp in indigenous areas. With regard to preventive health care services, we found no evidence of impact on the numbers of visits to health care providers or the number of vaccines that children received. However, we estimated that the proportion of women who had a Papanicolau test screening because of the program increased by 11.7 pp in rural areas and 14.7 pp in indigenous areas. Sadly, we found that the program might also have led to an increase in the number of pregnancies in rural areas: the proportion of pregnant women in 2008 was 3.2 pp higher in the beneficiary group than in the control group, and the number of pregnancies since the beginning of the program increased by 0.44 among beneficiaries – despite the fact that the number of children ages 3 to 6, who were born before the implementation of the program, was not statistically different between the groups.

The Effect of Childhood Migration on Human Capital Accumulation: Evidence from Rural-Urban Migrants in Indonesia

Developing countries are experiencing unprecedented levels of urbanization. Although most of these movements are motivated by economic reasons, they could affect the human capital accumulation of the children who follow their parents to the cities. This paper estimates the causal effect of permanently migrating as a child from a rural area to an urban area on human capital outcomes. To our knowledge, this paper is one of only several papers, especially in the context of a developing country, which is able to estimate the causal effect of migration. We utilize a recent survey of urban-rural migrants in Indonesia and merge it with a nationally representative survey to create a dataset that contains migrants in urban areas and non-migrants in rural areas who were born in the same rural districts. We then employ a measure of district-level propensity to migrate, calculated from the Indonesian intercensal survey, as an instrument. We find that childhood migration to urban areas increase education attainment by about 4.5 years by the time these individuals are adults. In addition, the childhood migrants face a lower probability to be underweight by about 15 percentage points as adults. However, we find no statistically significant effect on height, which is a measure of long-term nutritional intake, and we only find a weak effect on the probability to be obese. Therefore, our results suggest a permanent, positive, and large effect of childhood migration on education attainment and some health measures. In addition, our results can rule out any negative effect on health.

Reconnecting young people with learning: A social capital approach in VET

This paper contributes to pedagogical debates on how to meet the learning needs of young people who are disconnected from school. It presents a case study of a program which aimed to prepare students for their Year 10 equivalent school leaving qualification in a basic education section of a Technical and Further Education (TAFE) college in Australia. Most of the students were between 15 and 17 years of age, had experienced literacy and numeracy difficulties in formal learning, and for various reasons were disconnected from the school system. The paper explains how an approach to learning in VET led to important human and social capital outcomes, and in particular, a changed sense of efficacy on the part of students in the program. The two key elements of this VET pedagogy were: individualised, self-paced learning within a flexible program structure; and the fostering of social capital, including mutual trust and respect, through the course-related learning network of teachers and students and other influential networks, including peer networks. Analysis of interview transcript data with students and teachers revealed the mutually reinforcing role of these elements of VET pedagogy.

Mergers, jobs, and wages in the United States telecommunications industry

This article evaluates the human capital consequences of several mergers of local exchange companies that took place between 1988 and 2001 in the telecommunications industry of the United States. Most firms in the sector underwent one merger event while other firms underwent two events. The levels of jobs and average wages in the firms are assessed after the merger events and analysis reveals that, while the first merger events experienced by firms led to growth in employment and compensation, second merger events, which included several mega-mergers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, have led to stagnation and decline in employment levels and to negative human capital outcomes with declines in wage levels.

Conditional Cash Transfers and Agricultural Production: Lessons from the Oportunidades Experience in Mexico

This paper explores whether cash transfer programmes conditioned on human capital outcomes can influence agricultural production. Programme impact on food consumption from own production, land use, livestock ownership, and agricultural spending are evaluated using first difference and weighted estimators, in which weights are constructed from propensity scores. The programme is found to increase the value and variety of food consumed from own production and to increase land use, livestock ownership and crop spending. Impact estimates are found to differ across land use categories and PROCAMPO participation. Results support the hypothesis that transfers influence agricultural production and impacts are greater for households invested in agriculture.

Early childhood length-for-age is associated with the work status of Filipino young adults

Most studies on childhood health and human capital in developing countries examine how early childhood linear growth relates to later human productivity as reflected in schooling success. Work status is another important human capital outcome related to early child health. This study examines the relationship of linear growth restriction at 2 years of age to work status in young adults who have, for the most part completed their schooling and further explores whether this relationship differs by gender. The analysis sample of 1795 was drawn from participants in the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, which followed individuals from birth to age 20–22 years. Work status in 2005 was represented by three categories: not working, working in an informal job, and working in a formal job. Formal work in the Philippines, as in most countries, is associated with regular hours, higher wages and benefits. Analyses were stratified by gender and current school enrolment, and adjusted for socioeconomic status and attained years of schooling. Among males no longer in school, higher length-for-age Z-score (LAZ) at age 2 was associated with a 40% increase in likelihood of formal work compared to not working. In females, each 1 unit increase in LAZ was associated with 0.2 higher likelihood of formal vs. informal work. No significant associations were observed in the small sample of young adults still in school. To improve job prospects of young adults, it is important to provide proper nutrition in early childhood and adequate educational opportunities during schooling years.

Conditionality in Public Policy Targeted to the Poor: Promoting Resilience?

This paper explores the role of conditionality in policies targeting the poor. By requiring beneficiaries to send their children to school and to undertake regular health visits, proponents argue, conditionalities improve human capital outcomes, promoting resilience. This widespread perception has led to the adoption of conditional cash transfers in many countries. Yet policy debate on conditionality does not always reflect a full appreciation of how behavioural, administrative and political economy variables influence outcomes. This paper identifies the multiple channels through which conditionality determines human capital outcomes and reviews the evidence on linkages between conditionality and processes of resilience.

The spatial dimension of human capital segregation: An empirical investigation for Seoul, Korea

This research note examines changes in the spatial patterns of human capital segregation in Seoul, Korea from 1995 to 2005, and investigates whether spatial clusters of human capital can be isolated across neighborhoods in the metropolitan area. The major finding is that the proportion of college-educated individuals in the population aged 25 years and over increased significantly over the 1995–2005 period, and human capital segregation declined. However, the spatial distribution of human capital is by nature clustered and tends to be more clustered over the period. The neighborhoods with relatively high level of human capital tend to be localized close to other neighboring areas with high level of human capital. Most of these neighborhoods are located in the southern parts of Seoul, and these spatial clusters, which can be considered as hot spots of human capital, persist throughout the period. These results may have important implications for how the spatial dimension of human capital segregation contributes to the manner through which neighborhood effects of human capital impact metropolitan socioeconomic outcomes.

Widening participation; widening capability

This paper proposes that widening participation in higher education might distinctively be conceptualised beyond economically driven human capital outcomes, as a matter of widening capability. Specifically, the paper proposes forming the capability of students to become and to be 'strong evaluators', able to make reflexive and informed choices about what makes a good life for each of them. Evaluating equality and justice in higher education, and specifically the case of 'widening participation', is then greatly advanced by considering the conceptual tools provided by Amartya Sen's capability approach. The paper therefore elaborates on Sen's ideas and demonstrates their applicability in relation to widening participation student voices gathered in research interviews. Important though Sen's ideas are, there are barriers that stand in the way of taking up these ideas educationally. While three such barriers are acknowledged in the paper, four resources of possibility for recovering widening participation as capability formation from neoliberal and other forms of instrumentalism are also sketched.

Do gender stereotypes reduce girls' or boys' human capital outcomes? Evidence from a natural experiment

Schools and teachers are often said to be a source of stereotypes that harm girls. This paper tests for the existence of gender stereotyping and discrimination by public high-school teachers in Israel. It uses a natural experiment based on blind and non-blind scores that students receive on matriculation exams in their senior year. Using data on test results in several subjects in the humanities and sciences, I found, contrary to expectations, that male students face discrimination in each subject. These biases widen the female–male achievement difference because girls outperform boys in all subjects, except English, and at all levels of the curriculum. The bias is evident in all segments of the ability and performance distribution and is robust to various individual controls. Several explanations based on differential behavior between boys and girls are not supported empirically. However, the size of the difference is very sensitive to teachers' characteristics, suggesting that the bias against male students is the result of teachers', and not students', behavior.

Role of Parental Education in Schooling and Child Labour Decision: Urban India in the Last Decade

This paper uses household level data from National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) of India, the 55th (1999–2000) and the 61st (2004–05) rounds, to show that even with a significant wage incentive for schooling of urban children, the school drop out rate and child labour incidence are not small over this period. The parents’ level of education plays an important role in reducing this tendency; thus establishing the linkage between social and human capital outcomes in the family. We also look at the incidence of harmful and manual occupations among the child labour. Mother’s education appears as the more important factor in the recent round in curbing the manual work incidences; supporting earlier findings that women’s empowerment (one important indicator of which would be female educational level) is indeed becoming instrumental in increasing parental awareness. Using a pooled data set, we have also analysed the changes in the impact of parental education on these decisions between 1999–2000 and 2004–05.

Role of women in schooling and child labour decision: the case of urban boys in India

This paper uses household level data from National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) of India, the 55th round (1999-2000), to show that for urban male children there exists significant wage incentive for schooling, though school dropout rate and child labour incidence are not so small. The parents' level of education plays an important role in reducing this tendency; thus establishing the linkage between social and human capital outcomes in the family. We also look at the incidence of harmful and manual occupations among the child labour. Mother's education now appears as a very important factor in curbing these incidences; supporting earlier findings that women's empowerment (one important indicator of which would be female educational level) is indeed instrumental in increasing parental awareness.

A new paradigm for evaluating TAFE graduate outcomes

There is a gap in the current research literature regarding evaluation of TAFE outcomes and it stems from a predominant human capital focus. The existing paradigm of human capital, which values the acquisition of knowledge and skills for their economic value, has been of primary interest and significance, particularly in terms of government policy in relation to vocational education and training. The concept of personal capital is distinct from human capital in that it considers the intrinsic reasons, impetus and values that individuals ascribe to their motivation to undertake and complete a course of study. Personal capital is not quantifiable within the present human capital outcomes paradigm, however the personal capital paradigm allows for a deeper exploration of a range of further tangible and valid outcomes not addressed in the human capital approach.

Childhood Migration and Social Integration in Adulthood

This study develops and tests two hypotheses regarding how childhood, adolescent, and postadolescent migration are associated with social integration in adulthood. Competing explanations are tested by estimating a number of models that control for earlier family context and contemporary adult characteristics. Using a national longitudinal and intergenerational data set, the results reveal that the age when a move occurred is associated with both higher and lower levels of social integration in adulthood. The direction of the associations depends on the sex of the offspring, the age at migration, and the measure of social integration. Adolescence appears to be the age when the effects of migration are most pronounced. Variables such as experiencing a parental divorce, low parental support, or growing up in a stepfamily and variables measuring adult characteristics of the adult offspring alter modestly the migrationintegration relationships. The process of international migration includes the extent to which migrants eventually integrate. The assumption is that the level of disruption associated with immigration affects one's ability to assimilate successfully, adapt, acculturate, and integrate following the move (Portes & Rumbaut, 1990). Yet, the stress and disruption accompanying migration are lower among migrants who can integrate quickly or who have access to social networks such as friends, relatives, or other ties in the destination community (Boyd, 1989). This concern with integration has not been a focus of studies on domestic migration-whether interstate, intercounty, or residential. That is, research on internal migration in the United States focuses on aspects other than postmigration integration, usually on human or financial capital outcomes, such as education, occupational mobility, and earnings. Recently, research has adopted a long-term orientation and an increased interest in the possible disruptive effects of earlier family migration on later adult outcomes perhaps, in part, due to the proliferation of longitudinal and intergenerational data and an emphasis on the entire life course. Yet, all of the recent longitudinal research on U.S. migration is along traditional foci-where migration is found to disrupt educational and occupational trajectories (e.g., Hagan, MacMillian, & Wheaton, 1996). A common perception is that migration during childhood and adolescence is disruptive and detrimental at the time of the move, shortly after the move, and, therefore, for social integration in adulthood. However, childhood and adolescent migration do not necessarily have to represent a stressful transition with negative consequences. Certain families may use migration as a way to move out of poor neighborhoods and school districts and to move into resource-rich neighborhoods (Parke & Bhavnagri, 1989; South & Crowder, 1997) with positive consequences for social and cognitive development. These differential effects of migration suggest two possible hypotheses. One, migration detracts from social integration. Two, migration enhances social integration. This research bridges the traditional concerns of international migration with the contemporary orientation of research on U.S. migration by examining the over-time association between childhood and adolescent migration and social integration in adulthood. BACKGROUND Social Integration The positive consequences of social integration are well documented. Higher levels of social integration in adulthood promote higher levels of social, psychological, and physical well-being. (See House, Umberson, & Landis, 1989, for a review.) Social integration, in terms of social support, is important as a resource to be tapped during stressful life events or transitional periods (Thoits, 1995). A general distinction often is made between structural and social-psychological or emotional integration (Moen, Dempster-McClain, & Williams, 1989). …

Human capital, committee power and legislative outcomes *

This paper presents a model in which legislators use informational asymmetries to engage in rent-seeking behavior. Previous work in the informational and distributive traditions could not explain deviations from the median preference without reference to “committee power”. Integration of these forces demonstrated that legislative outcomes need not correspond to the median preference regardless of the extent to which committee power is present in a legislature. While deviations from the median preference are consistent with committee power, recent empirical evidence suggests that observed deviations in Congress are in fact caused by human capital differentials rather than committee power.

Endowments and the Allocation of Schooling in the Family and in the Marriage Market: The Twins Experiment

03 We show how comparisons between the within-twin correlations of human capital outcomes across identical and nonidentical twins can be used to identify the variability in the individual-specific component of endowments and the responsiveness of schooling to individual-specific endowments in the family and in the marriage market even when schooling is measured with error. Estimates from two twins samples indicate that 27 (42) percent of the variance in log earnings (obesity) is due to variability in individual-specific endowments, allocations of schooling reinforce specific endowments, and individual-specific earnings endowments of men and their wives' schooling are negatively associated.

The Determinants and Consequences of the Placement of Government Programs in Indonesia

Most estimates of the consequences of public programs rely on the cross-sectional association between region-specific programs and program outcomes. Such estimates assume that the spatial distribution of programs is random. This article reports estimates of the effects of public programs on basic human capital indicators and the biases in conventional cross-sectional estimates of program effects due to non-random program placement. The estimates are obtained from pooled observations on human capital outcomes, socioeconomic variables, and program coverage at the kecamatan (subdistrict) level. The observations are based on successive sets of Indonesian cross-sectional household and administrative data during 1976-86. The determinants of the spatial allocation of programs in Indonesia in 1976-86 are also estimated. The empirical results indicate that the presence of grade and middle schools in villages has a significant positive effect on the school attendance rates of teenagers. The presence of health clinics in villages also positively affects the schooling of females ages 10-18. However, no evidence is found of any significant effects of the presence of family planning and health programs on either the survival rates of children or on cumulative fertility. The estimates also suggest that the use of cross-sectional data results in substantial biases in the estimates of program effects because of the evident nonrandom spatial allocation of public programs.