Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation
Interpreting the Evidence on Life Cycle Skill Formation
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DOI：
10.3386/w11331
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发表时间：
2005-05
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
F. Cunha;J. Heckman;L. Lochner;Dimitriy V. Masterov
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
F. Cunha;J. Heckman;L. Lochner;Dimitriy V. Masterov
本文提出了儿童发展的经济模型，捕捉了技能形成实证文献中最新研究结果的精髓。本文的目的是提供一个理论框架来解释大量实证文献中的证据，指导下一代实证研究和制定政策。我们分析的核心是童年有多个阶段的概念。我们将自我生产力和人力资本投资互补性的概念形式化，并用它们来解释技能形成的证据。他们共同解释了为什么技能通过乘数过程产生技能。技能形成是一个生命周期过程。它从子宫开始并持续一生。家庭在这个过程中发挥的作用远比学校的作用重要。多种技能和能力对于成人的成功非常重要。能力既是遗传的，也是后天培养的，关于先天与后天的传统争论在科学上已经过时了。人力资本投资具有自我生产力和互补性。生命周期某一阶段的技能水平会提高生命周期后期的技能水平（自我生产力）。早期投资有利于后期投资的生产力（互补性）。如果早期投资没有后续投资（互补性的另一个方面），那么早期投资就不会产生效益。这种互补性解释了为什么早期投资不存在股权效率权衡。在生命周期早期进行投资的回报率很高。由于自我生产力和互补性的原因，早期投资不足的补救措施非常困难且成本高昂。
This paper presents economic models of child development that capture the essence of recent findings from the empirical literature on skill formation. The goal of this essay is to provide a theoretical framework for interpreting the evidence from a vast empirical literature, for guiding the next generation of empirical studies, and for formulating policy. Central to our analysis is the concept that childhood has more than one stage. We formalize the concepts of self-productivity and complementarity of human capital investments and use them to explain the evidence on skill formation. Together, they explain why skill begets skill through a multiplier process. Skill formation is a life cycle process. It starts in the womb and goes on throughout life. Families play a role in this process that is far more important than the role of schools. There are multiple skills and multiple abilities that are important for adult success. Abilities are both inherited and created, and the traditional debate about nature versus nurture is scientifically obsolete. Human capital investment exhibits both self-productivity and complementarity. Skill attainment at one stage of the life cycle raises skill attainment at later stages of the life cycle (self-productivity). Early investment facilitates the productivity of later investment (complementarity). Early investments are not productive if they are not followed up by later investments (another aspect of complementarity). This complementarity explains why there is no equity-efficiency trade-off for early investment. The returns to investing early in the life cycle are high. Remediation of inadequate early investments is difficult and very costly as a consequence of both self-productivity and complementarity.