Human Capital and Institutions
A Long-Run View

Human Capital and Institutions brings to the fore the role of political, social, and economic institutions in human capital formation and economic growth. Written by leading economic historians, the chapters in this text offer a broad-based view of institutions and human capital in economic development.

David Eltis (Edited by), Frank D. Lewis (Edited by), Kenneth L. Sokoloff (Edited by)

9780521769587, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 August 2009

352 pages, 29 b/w illus. 1 map 45 tables
23.4 x 15.5 x 2.5 cm, 0.6 kg

Human Capital and Institutions is concerned with human capital in its many dimensions and brings to the fore the role of political, social, and economic institutions in human capital formation and economic growth. Written by leading economic historians, including pioneers in historical research on human capital, the chapters in this text offer a broad-based view of human capital in economic development. The issues they address range from nutrition in pre-modern societies to twentieth-century advances in medical care; from the social institutions that provided temporary relief to workers in the middle and lower ranges of the wage scale to the factors that affected the performance of those who reached the pinnacle in business and art; and from political systems that stifled the advance of literacy to those that promoted public and higher education. Just as human capital has been a key to economic growth, so has the emergence of appropriate institutions been a key to the growth of human capital.

Introduction David Eltis and Frank D. Lewis
Part I. Health and Living Standards: 1. Biotechnology and the burden of age-related diseases Robert W. Fogel
2. Extending the reach of anthropometric history to the distant past Richard H. Steckel
3. Insecurity, safety nets, and self-help in Victorian and Edwardian England George R. Boyer
Part II. Institutions and Schooling: 4. The evolution of schooling institutions in the Americas, 1800–1925 Stanley L. Engerman, Elisa V. Mariscal, and Kenneth L. Sokoloff
5. Why the United States led in education: lessons from secondary school expansion, 1910 to 1940 Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz
6. The production of engineers in New York colleges and universities, 1800–1950: some new data Michael Edelstein
Part III. Human Capital Outliers: 7. The life-cycle of great artists from Masaccio to Jasper Johns David W. Galenson and Robert Jensen
8. An elite minority: Jews among the richest 400 Americans Peter Temin
Part IV. Constraints in Labor and Financial Markets: 9. Suffrage and the terms of labor Robert J. Steinfeld
10. Prodigals and projectors: an economic history of usury laws in the United States from colonial times to 1900 Hugh Rockoff.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000 [HBLW]