Thesis (MPA) --University of Limpopo, 2011

This dissertation consists of two chapters. In the first chapter, I explain changes in the life-cycle earnings profile for different birth cohorts. The second chapter assesses the quantitative importance of federal aid for college education in explaining college premium. In the first chapter, I document the life-cycle earnings profile for the 25-year- old college- and high school-educated white men in 1940, 1950, 1960 and 1970. I find that later cohorts have flatter average life-cycle earnings profile. Using a version of the Ben-Porath model, I propose an explanation based on the composition effect. In my model, all individuals have a high school diploma and are differentiated by their ability. They must decide whether to work or go to a four-year college. There is a threshold ability above which individuals choose to attend college and below which they work. All cohorts face the same ability distribution and an exogenous sequence of wage rate per unit of human capital that grows at a constant rate. A higher initial level of wage rate increases college attainment implying that the average ability is lower for both college- and high school-educated individuals. From the Ben- Porath model, lower ability individuals have less steep increment in their earnings. This implies that the average college (and high school) life-cycle earnings profile for the 1970 cohort will be flatter than that of the 1940 cohort. My model is able to quantitatively explain 67 and 35 percent of the flattening in the average life-cycle earnings profile for college and high school-educated individuals, respectively. Since the late 1970s, there has been a strong increase in the college premium. While most papers focus on skill-biased technical change, the second chapter explores the role of federal aid as a possible source of inequality. I build a model where all individuals have a high-school diploma but are heterogeneous with respect to their innate abilities and initial human capital. They decide whether to attend college to accumulate more human capital before working, or to start working right away. The production function for human capital in college requires two inputs: human capital and goods. In this context, two mechanisms are key for the behavior of the college premium. First, federal aid makes it easier to afford the goods input in the human capital technology. This induces college students to accumulate more human capital and consequently, they have higher earnings. Second, as more individuals attend college due to rising income, the composition of college graduates changes: more low- ability individuals attend college, implying a decrease in average college earnings. A calibrated version of the model accounts fully for the rise in the college premium. Federal aid alone accounts for about 70 percent of the rise.

@ 四十餘年來，臺灣在經濟建設及發展各方面的成就，都是非常令人引 以為傲的，但值得注意的是，在追求經濟發展的同時，均富亦是不可忽略 的目標之一。由我歷年家庭所得分配的結構來看，除了民國53年以外，受 雇人員的薪資所得一直都是其中所佔比例最大的一項，因此薪資所得分配 愈平均，愈有助於我國所得分配趨向平均化。根據以往的文獻，我們可以 發現臺灣地區教育普及率的提升以及平均教育水準的提高，均具有改善我 國所得分配不均的功能。 @ 本文旨在以民國79年行政院主計處的人力 資源運用調查資料為研究樣本，並以人力資本理論為基礎，來探討臺灣地 區教育投資對個人薪資所得分配之影響。人力資本理論的一個基本假設為 ，透過人力資本投資的累積，可以提高個人生產力，而在勞動報酬與個人 邊際生產力成正比的假設下，則可使薪津報酬提高，所以薪資分配是否平 均，亦會受人力資本各變數所影響。本文的實證部份係參考Chiswick和 Mincer(1972)一文之模型，以薪資對數變異數表示衡量薪資不均度之指標 ，並以變異數分解方式，來分析教育以及其他變數對於此不均度之解釋能 力。經由實證分析，我們可知每人所受教育年數的增加，不但可提升個人 薪資，亦可透過教育離散度之減少，使薪資分配不均的程度隨之下降，因 而延長12年國民義務教育，改善城鄉間的教育差異，應為改善薪資分配不 均度的可行方法之一。

<p>Fast changes and external demands have made companies to continuously needing to improve their performance. Banks in particular have come to make a complete changeover to keep up with the competition. They have gone from bureaucratic structures to become more sales oriented.</p><p>This has come to affect the management model banks use, meaning that the tools to control and navigate the company had to be modernized and adapted to measure new activities. Before the structure change, it was usually enough for a bank to use financial measurements only focusing on indicators such as ROI, when measuring performance. Today, banks have realized the value of the company’s employees, they are a crucial factor for reaching success. Therefore the banks have realized that they need to measure the employees performance. By measuring the employees the bank will be able to know how to improve their performance in order to reach greater success. However, measuring the employees performance has backsides, in some cases it has created unwanted behavior.</p><p>My problem definitions goes: How are the Swedish banks motives to reach sales goals, creating a conflict between employees actions towards customer relations and banks results? My purpose is to increase my and banks understanding in how sales goals affect the employees and their actions in a bank. I will increase my and banks understanding by finding what factors with the sales goals foster a certain behavior. I am also interested in finding a way to prevent certain behavior that occurs with sales goals.</p><p>In order to answer my purpose I have conducted seven qualitative un-structured interviews with bank employees. I believe that I can take part of their reality by interpreting their answers. Therefore I argue for a hermeneutic view. The theoretical framework includes theories which I believe are relevant in order to increase my understand about the situation. The theoretical framework will be brought together with the seven interviews and together they will act as a platform for my analysis.</p><p>I have conducted unstructured interviews, consisting of one sales manager and six bank employees. The interviews were conducted in one company, the purpose was to understand the actions in one context. During these interviews I used an interview guide as an aid. I found that employees are affected by the sales goals due to the fact that they have not participated in deciding them. Meaning that the goals are not of much value for them. Furthermore I found that the employees perceive that the bank is neglecting them, which I found was a result of how the manager values the management model. The behavior of the employees is affected by what parts of the management model the manager chooses to communicate.</p>

<p><strong>Problem:      </strong>Vad anser arbetsgivare om vikten av att investera i humankapital genom att anställa välutbildad personal?</p><p>Vilka kunskaper har rekryterare om ekonomiutbildningarnas innehåll och examensnivåer?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Syfte:            </strong>Syftet med denna uppsats är att utreda arbetsgivarnas policy vad gäller investering i humankapital vid anställning, examensnivåns betydelse vid anställning till ekonomitjänster samt rekryterarnas kunskaper om ekonomiutbildningarnas innehåll.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Metod:          </strong>En kvalitativ studie som bygger på sekundärdata genomfördes med fem personer som rekryterar ekonomer inom olika branscher. Dessa personer ansågs kunna bidra med relevant information för att besvara studiens syfte. Primärdata sammanställdes vilket sedan ledde till analys och studiens slutsats.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Slutsats:        </strong>Högskoleutbildning är grundkravet för att få ett arbete som ekonom men examensnivån har en mindre betydelse. Personlighet och erfarenhet är viktigare och det som premieras är prestationer och ansvarstagande. Arbetsgivare tycker att det är viktigt att investera i humankapital. Graden av hur insatta rekryterare är i ekonomiutbildningarnas innehåll skiljer sig åt.</p> / <p><strong>Problem:      </strong>What do employers think about the importance of investment in human capital by hiring well-educated staff?</p><p>Which knowledge do recruiters have about the content of economy education and degree levels?</p><p> </p><p><strong>Purpose:       </strong>The purpose of this study is to investigate employer’s policy when it comes to investment in human capital when hiring, the importance of degree level when hiring employees to economy jobs and the recruiters’ knowledge about the content of economy education.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Method:       </strong>A qualitative study, based on secondary data, was carried out with five persons who recruit economists to different industries. These people were believed to be able to contribute to answer the purpose of the study. Primary data were compiled which then lead up to the analysis and the conclusions of the study.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Conclusion:  </strong>University education is the basic request to get a job as economist but the degree level has a minor significance. Personality and experience are more important and what’s rewarded is performance and responsibility taking. Employers think that it’s important to invest in human capital. The degree of how much the recruiters are informed about the content of economy education varies.</p>

A unique approach is developed for evaluating Human Capital (workforce) requirements. With this approach, new ways of measuring personnel availability are proposed and available to ensure that an organization remains ready to provide timely, relevant, and accurate products and services in support of its strategic objectives over its planning horizon. The development of this analysis and methodology was established as an alternative approach to existing studies for determining appropriate hiring and attrition rates and to maintain appropriate personnel levels of effectiveness to support existing and future missions. The contribution of this research is a prescribed method for the strategic analyst to incorporate a personnel and cost simulation model within the framework of Human Resources Human Capital forecasting which can be used to project personnel requirements and evaluate workforce sustainment, at least cost, through time. This will allow various personnel managers to evaluate multiple resource strategies, present and future, maintaining near “perfect” hiring and attrition policies to support its future Human Capital assets.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universiẗat Heidelberg, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 211-225).

This research addresses the question of what factors lead Mexican-origin individuals living in the U.S. to seek a new residence outside their Southwestern state of residence. The analysis examines three hypotheses: (1) the human capital hypothesis that college graduates have higher odds of migrating out of the core region than those with less than a high school education; (2) the household social capital hypothesis that posits that the presence of a household member born outside the core increases the odds of migration; and (3) the community social capital hypothesis which states that householders residing in an area with community social capital will have higher odds of leaving the core than those living in areas with no community social capital. These hypotheses are investigated using three models: (1) a full model that includes both native- and foreign-born Mexican-origin householders; (2) a native-born model which includes only native-born Southwest householders; and (3) a foreign-born models that includes only foreign-born Mexican-origin householders. By using the Saenzian region-concepts of core, periphery, and frontier, I find: (1) limited support for the human capital hypothesis; (2) consistent support for the household social capital; and (3) no support for the community social capital. The analysis is important to sociological theory and demography because it specifically endeavors to explain how the connections between three kinds of capital?human, household, and community?shape the decision to leave the Southwest for other regions of the country. By computing statistical and theoretical particulars, the thesis ascertains that migration-selectivity theories regarding the general population are useful in theorizing Mexican-origin interregional migration. Findings expand existing sociological literature by theorizing how human, household, and community capital operate under the Saenzian regions to shape the interregional migration of the growing Mexican-origin population of the U.S.

Chapter 1: The Determinants of the Production of Research by US Universities Chapter 2: Investment in Vocational and General Human Capital: A Theoretical Approach Chapter 3: Urban Migrations and the Labor Market Chapter 4: Local social capital and geographical mobility Chapter 5: Social Supervision and Electoral Stability on the Geographical Scale in Belgium

The primary contribution of the thesis is to extend our knowledge about the channels through which these different agents -the schools, the parents and the individual himself- influence human capital investment, in particular investment in higher education. In addition to this primary contribution, I apply and develop econometric methods adapted to the special features of educational data with respect to other research areas./ La principale contribution des travaux présentés dans cette thèse est d'approfondir notre connaissance sur la manière dont différents agents - l'école, les parents et l'individu lui même- influencent l'investissement en capital humain, en particulier au niveau de l'enseignement supérieur. Le deuxième apport de la thèse est l'application et le développement de méthodes adaptées aux particularités des données en éducation par rapport à d'autres domaines de recherche.