100 books like Investment in Human Capital

I recommend this collection of articles because it gives a readable and clear view of the connection of the benefits of education to education finance and brings in for the first time the distribution of both the benefits and the costs of education.

Kern Alexander is well known as the father of equity as it relates to education and education finance. His article on the “Concept of Equity in School Finance” which is Chapter 10 in his book sets the stage for 9 additional articles that follow on essentially all of the key aspects of distribution of the benefits among children and families and of costs among families and taxpayers. 

This follows the nine Chapters on economic efficiency in education, which explore in greater depth many of the aspects already introduced above. These include the “Human Capital Approach” by Theodore W. Schultz, “The Social and Economic Externalities of Education”, “The… show more.

I strongly recommend this book because it is clearly written, explains the methods of estimation, and provides an excellent overview of the extensive worldwide research on the returns to education based on earnings.

It certainly influenced me. It had a massive impact on World Bank lending policies in support of economic development in developing countries. It replaced the kinds of Bank physical capital investment policies such as those supporting dam construction, projects that included educating only for a few people on how to operate dams, with education sector-wide loans that support primary and junior secondary education of the labor force.

Some of these dams later washed out, and forests were destroyed in support of development. The book shows how the returns to investment in primary and secondary education are higher in developing countries where the labor force is often nearly illiterate than they are to investing in other higher levels… show more.

This book is a classic. Gary Becker received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1992 for his work on Human Capital, (as had TW Schultz).

This book was near the beginning of Gary Becker’s very productive life and launched a well-known wave of research and innovation that has by now had major impacts on many branches of economics such labor economics, international trade, economic growth, home economics, and now economic development.

He received the Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush at the White House in 2007 where President Bush said “Professor Becker has shown that economic principles do not just exist in theory.” Gary Becker died in 2014. He was 83.

This is a ‘must read’ for any person seriously interested in Human Capital, Labor Economics, the Economics of Education, or other fields that have been or are being revolutionized by human capital theory and empirical research. For others… show more.

To understand why some workers are paid more than others, you have to understand how skills are valued and rewarded in the labor market, and how that has changed, as the economy has evolved.

Focused on the United States, Katz and Goldin provide a sweeping overview of how education leads to skills and income, drawing on the most well-established theories in economics. It misses some important causes of inequality, but is essential for understanding the one of the deepest economic forces governing wages: the supply and demand of human capital.

The book provides an excellent introduction to the philosophical foundations of economic analysis as a normative theory of human behavior and as a tool for public policy making.

It lucidly explains and criticizes the building blocks of welfare economics – the normative branch of economic analysis.

If you ask me, there is very little I agree with in this book, and in particular the idea that economic growth is irrelevant once you focus on the things that actually matter in life (access to water, education, housing, health, and so on) while respecting planetary boundaries.

Let alone the fact that a stylized chart of a doughnut is hardly going to change millennial economic and power dynamics. Nonetheless, Raworth wrote an extremely readable and erudite book, and crucially fostering reflection on the one issue that to my mind is central: how to turn economic growth into a force for good, addressing social needs without destroying nature.

A must read, if not to learn how to think like a 21st-century economist, at least to be aware of the challenges ahead. 

Tribe is a master of his subject, and this book has the feel of a magnum opus. It is densely packed and full of interesting tidbits, and you will be amazed at just how recent economics really is. The added bonus is all the insight into the development of the modern research university. I am in the middle of this book as it just came out, but the scale of the contribution (large) is already clear.

Today, economics is synonymous with measurement.

This book on measurement in economics was published in 1951. Stone discusses the link between theory and empirics in this book.

I like this slim book of Stone’s because it shows the strengths and weakness of empirical exercises in economics. It also raises foundational questions regarding empirical constructs.

Books like this allow us to ask foundational questions regarding the links between theory and empirics in economics as well as theory and applications in statistics.

This thin volume is subtitled 101 Lessons You Can Use Everyday and is jam-packed with simple-to-understand explanations about how economics can help you make better personal choices while also providing an understanding of the way the world works – or doesn’t work. 

Madariaga takes on important economics decisions like choosing a college or a career or getting married. He also tackles pervasive myths such as “economics is all about money” and “monopolies can charge any price they want and are always bad.” 

The most fun in this book are the thirty entries on economic riddles and mysteries, where Madariaga addresses topics ranging from why students get discount movie tickets to the intriguing question of why he voluntarily cut his salary in half to change careers. 

This is a lively and engaging book that bears its learning lightly. That stylistic presentation is coupled with a broad agenda to counter common assumptions and distortions about Smith, with the aim, as Muller himself declares, to recover Smith’s own intentions from subsequent misreadings.

While opinionated it is even-handed, neither bland nor strident. What singles out this book and what I found distinctively insightful was a lengthy discussion of the differing receptions of Smith’s work in the two-hundred years since his death.