Human Capital in the Twenty First Century
6 Pages Posted: 15 May 2015
Date Written: March 13, 2015
Abstract
Mankiw, Romer, and Weil’s (1992) seminal paper on growth empirics memorably begins with “this paper takes Robert Solow seriously”. In a similar way, this paper takes Thomas Piketty seriously. Mankiw, Romer, and Weil argued that Solow’s (1956) simple growth model maintained relevance in the decades following its publication, but that it could be improved (particularly in empirical applications) by including human capital. This paper makes precisely the same claim about Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty First Century. He has made a valuable contribution to the economics of inequality, but the contribution would be strengthened by more serious consideration of the role of human capital in income and wealth inequality.
Keywords: human capital, inequality, Piketty
JEL Classification: J24
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation