The accumulation of human capital in developing countries

我将研究发展中国家贫困家庭的人力资本积累过程。最近在许多学科进行的研究已经确定，人力资本，即使个人具有生产能力的一套身体能力（健康、营养状况）以及认知和非认知技能，在个人和社会一级的发展过程中都是关键。从微观角度看，人力资本是多维的，其积累是一个复杂的动态过程，从人类生命的早期就开始了。确实，有越来越多的证据表明，从受孕到5岁所发生的事情会产生长期的影响，部分原因是最初几年的发展水平会影响个人在以后的生活中进一步发展的能力。这种动态现象就是经济学家所说的人力资本投资的动态互补性。越来越明显的是，最初几年的可塑性特别强。这意味着，一方面，生活在困难环境中的儿童可能特别容易受到伤害，另一方面，早期阶段对政策干预尤为重要。早期目标明确、设计良好的干预措施可以在干预结束后很长一段时间内产生持久的效果。我打算回答发展中国家贫困儿童早期人力资本积累研究中的一些突出问题。我的研究围绕着三个相关的主题：(i)经济学家所说的人力资本生产函数的研究；虽然对影响人力资本增长的因素了解很多，但仍然存在许多悬而未决的问题（关于动态互补性的大小、关于人力资本不同组成部分的相互作用以及关于某些投入的效果）。（二）研究发展中国家贫穷父母对其子女人力资本的投资决策。父母在孩子的发展上投入时间和金钱。对这些选择进行建模并确定影响这些选择的因素是设计旨在促进人力资本积累的政策的关键。父母的选择对政策和激励措施的反应可能会阻碍或增强其效果。查明贫穷父母对人力资本生产职能和具体投资的回报可能存在的误解。父母扭曲的信念可能导致错误的选择。在特定的干预措施（提供给人口的随机子集）通过改变信息改变行为的情况下，通过观察父母的选择，人们可以识别父母可能拥有的“扭曲”感知和人力资本的实际生产函数，并将它们进行对比。这种扭曲的认知也可以通过直接测量个人信仰来实现。无论使用何种方法，识别个人信念及其可能的扭曲是政策设计的关键。提议的研究源于我过去几年一直在从事的几个项目，这些项目涉及发展中国家早期儿童发展干预措施的设计和评估（或评估）。这些活动使我有可能设计调查问卷，并根据具体研究问题的需要定制数据。我将使用的许多数据集来自几个发展中国家（哥伦比亚、马拉维、印度），这些数据集是在随机对照试验中收集的，用于评估具体的干预措施。因此，数据包含了外生结构的变化，可以用来估计我研究的模型。我将使用的大多数数据集都有纵向维度，包含儿童发展的许多方面的测量。

I will study the process of human capital accumulation among poor families in developing countries. Recent research in many disciplines has established that human capital, the set of physical capabilities (health, nutritional status) and cognitive and non-cognitive skills that make individuals productive, is key in the process of development, both at the level of the individuals and of societies. From a micro perspective, it is well established that human capital is multidimensional and its accumulation is a complex dynamic process that starts very early in the life of human. Indeed, there is mounting evidence that what happens from conception to 5 has long run consequences, in part because the level of development in the first few years affects the ability individuals have to develop further later in life. This type of dynamic phenomena is what economists call dynamic complementarities of investment in human capital. It is also increasingly clear that the first few years are particularly malleable. This implies that, if on the one hand children in difficult environments might be particularly vulnerable, on the other, the early years are particularly salient for policy interventions. Well- targeted and well-designed interventions in the early years can have long lasting effects sustained long after the intervention is concluded. I intend to answer some of the outstanding issues in the study of human capital accumulation during the early years of poor children in developing countries. My research is articulated around three related themes: (i) the study of what economist call the production function of human capital; While much is known about the factors that affect the growth of human capital, many outstanding issues (about the size of dynamic complementarities, about the interaction of different components of human capital and about effect of certain inputs) remain. (ii) The study of the investment decisions poor parents in developing countries make about their children's human capital. Parents invest time and money in their children's development. Modeling these choices and identifying what are the factors that affect them is key for the design of policies aimed at fostering human capital accumulation. Parental choices will react to policies and incentives in ways that might hinder or enhance their effects.(iii) The identification of distortions in the perceptions that poor parents might have of the human capital production function and of the returns to specific investments. Parent's distorted beliefs might induce wrong choices. By looking at parents choices in contexts where specific interventions (provided to a random subset of the population) change behaviour by changing information, one can identify both the 'distorted' perception parents might have and the actual production function of human capital and contrast them. The identification of such distorted perceptions can also be pursued by measuring directly individual beliefs. Regardless of the method used, the identification of individual beliefs and their possible distortion is key for the design of policy. The proposed research grows from several projects that I have been pursuing in the last few years and that have involved the design and evaluation (or the evaluation) of early childhood development interventions in developing countries. These activities have put me in the position of having the possibility of designing survey questionnaires and tailoring data to the needs of specific research questions. Many of the data sets I will use from several developing countries (Colombia, Malawi, India) have been collected within Randomized Control Trials to evaluate specific interventions. Therefore, the data contain variation that is by construction exogenous and that can be used to estimate the models I study. Most of the data sets I will use have a longitudinal dimension and contain measures of many aspects of children development.