Human Capital Investment In Women And Men

How are human capital investments allocated between women and men? What are the returns to investments in women's nutrition, health care, education, mobility, and training? In thirteen wide-ranging and innovative empirical analyses, Investment in Women's Human Capital explores the nature of human capital distributions to women and their effect on outcomes within the family. Section I considers the experiences of high-income countries, examining the limitations of industrialization for the advancement of women; returns to secondary education for women; and state control of women's education and labor market productivity through the design of tax systems and the public subsidy of children. The remaining four sections investigate health, education, household structure and labor markets, and measurement issues in low-income countries, including the effect of technological change on transfers of wealth to and from children in India; women's and men's responses to the costs of medical care in Kenya; the effects of birth order and sex on educational attainment in Taiwan; wage returns to schooling in Indonesia and in Cote d'Ivoire; and the increasing prevalence of female-headed households and the correlates of gender differences in wages in Brazil.

Women, Men, and Human Capital Development in the Public Sector: Return on Investments analyzes the gap in wages paid to women and men who work for federal, state, and local governments; factors that contribute to disparities in pay; and organizational strategies for narrowing the gap. The gender gap in wages and status is closing. Changes in public policies and social and organizational changes have facilitated the development of human capital. However, many systemic, sociopsychological, and social barriers still limit women's career advancement in the public sector. American women earn approximately eighty cents for every dollar earned by men. Women hold less than 30 percent of executive positions in the private sector as well as federal, state, and local governments. This study analyzes factors, both legal and illegal, that lead to inequities in the pay and status of men and women. In recent turbulent economic times many organizations have eliminated jobs, facilitated early retirements, and lost employees frustrated by the lack of opportunities for advancement. Proactive organizations prepare for the unexpected by fully developing their human capital. Public policies have been less than effective in closing the wage gap, due in part to American culture and individual women's choices. Women are more likely than men to complete lower levels of education, enter the workforce later in life, and occupy lower-level positions. For these reasons the gender-based wage gap may never close, but, as the author points out, investments in human capital development may facilitate women's career advancement and narrow the gap. The author develops specific strategies for narrowing the wage gap and explores avenues of implementation. Book jacket.

To promote gender equity, expansion of the services sector should be encouraged. But this runs counter to the World Bank and IMF policy of encouraging the production of tradable goods (produced mainly in agriculture and less so in industry) to service debt. So direct government intervention is needed to promote investment in women's human capital.

In this thought-provoking volume, scholars offer evidence, insights, and ideas on key policy questions affecting education--such as national exams, accountability, performance, and other vital issues, while detailing the importance of education to both the individual and society as a whole.

This paper develops a measure of the component of total wealth derived from the investments made in human development - commonly referred to as human capital - and provides an estimate of the value and composition of Canada's total wealth that includes produced capital, natural capital and human capital. Each of these produces streams of earning that are available to an economy for personal consumption, further investments and support of government programs. The paper focuses on: the sources of human capital growth in Canada; the compositional effect of the aging of the Canadian population on human capital stock; the level of human capital investment and stock relative to physical capital investment and stock; the growth of human capital investment and stock relative to the growth of physical capital investment and stock; and whether the growth and level of human capital investment and stock are sensitive to alternative assumptions adopted for the estimation.--Document.

Examines the ways in which expenses for secondary education determine whether parents will enroll their children in primary schools.

This paper develops a measure of investment in education from the literacy level of labour market entrants, using the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey.