Human Capital

Joop Hartog is Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam. Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink is Professor of Economics at the University of Amsterdam.

• Prologue Joop Hartog and Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink; Part I. Measuring the Benefits from Human Capital: 1. What should you know about the private returns to education? Joop Hartog and Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink; 2. The social returns to education Mikael Lindahl and Erik Canton; 3. Returns to training Edwin Leuven; 4. Human capital and entrepreneurs Justin van der Sluis and Mirjam van Praag; 5. The effects of education on health Wim Groot and Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink; 6. Are successful parents the secret to success? Erik Plug; Part II. Applying and Extending the Human Capital Model: 7. Overeducation in the labour market Wim Groot and Henriëtte Maassen van den Brink; 8. Underinvestment in training Randolph Sloof, Joep Sonnemans and Hessel Oosterbeek; 9. Human capital and risk Joop Hartog and Simona Maria Bajdechi; Part III. Policy Interventions: 10. Using (quasi-) experiments to evaluate education interventions Hessel Oosterbeek; 11. Unemployment duration: policies to prevent human capital depreciation Bas van der Klaauw; 12. Can we stimulate teachers to enhance quality? Ib Waterreus; 13. Optimal tax and education policies and investments in human capital Bas Jacobs; Epilogue: some reflections on educational policies; A note on econometrics; Index.

Review of the hardback: 'This is a magnificent book showing how a creative and sophisticated research group can address some of the most pressing theoretical and policy issues using sophisticated empirical approaches. The book is highly readable and should be useful in both courses in the economics of education and labour economics as well as in assisting policy-makers to understand the latest insights on matters that are paramount on the policy agendas of most industrialised countries.' William Heard Kilpatrick, Columbia University and David Jacks, Stanford University