The risk and return of human capital investments

B-Tier
Journal: Labour Economics
Year: 2014
Volume: 30
Issue: C
Pages: 154-163

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

Human capital investments increase lifetime income, but may involve substantial risk. In this paper we use a Finnish panel spanning 22years to nonparametrically predict the mean, the variance and the skew of the present value of lifetime income, and to calculate certainty equivalent lifetime income at different levels of education. We find that university education is associated with about a half a million euro increase in discounted lifetime disposable income compared to vocational high school. Accounting for risk does little to change this picture. By contrast, vocational high school is associated with only moderately higher lifetime income compared to compulsory education, and the entire difference is due to differential nonemployment.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:labeco:v:30:y:2014:i:c:p:154-163
Journal Field
Labor
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25