We assess empirically the changes in returns to education at the subnational level in Uganda using the Uganda National Household Surveys for 2002/2003 and 2005/2006. Our results indicate that average returns to schooling tended to converge across regions in the last decade. The overall trend in convergence of returns to schooling took place at all levels of educational attainment and this behaviour in returns to education is mostly driven by the dynamics of returns to schooling in urban areas. We analyse subnational convergence in returns to education and unveil deviant dynamics in Northern Uganda. We discuss the potential challenges to inclusive economic growth in Uganda which are implied by our results. (authors' abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

This thesis contributes to the fields of Public Economics and Development Economics by studying human capital formation under three scenarios. Each scenario is represented in an individual paper between Chapters 2 to 4 of this thesis. Chapter 2 examines the effect of child care financing, through human capital formation, on growth and welfare. There is an extensive literature on the benefits of child care affordability on labour market participation. The overall inference that can be drawn is that the availability and affordability of appropriate child care may enhance parental time spent outside the home in furthering their economic opportunities. In another front, the endogenous growth literature exemplifies the merits of subsidizing human capital in generating growth. Again, other contributions demonstrate the negative implications of taxes on the returns from human capital on long run growth and welfare. This paper assesses the long run welfare implications of child care subsidies financed by proportional income taxes when human capital serves as the engine of growth. More specifically, using an overlapping-generations framework (OLG) with endogenous labour choice, we study the implications of a distortionary wage income tax on growth and welfare. When the revenues from proportional income taxes are channelled towards improving economic opportunities for both work and schooling investments in the form of child care subsidies, long run physical and human capital stock may increase. A higher level of growth may ensue leading to higher welfare. Chapter 3 answers the question of how child care subsidization works in the interest of skill formation, and specifically, whether child care subsidization policies can work to the effect of human capital subsidies. Ample studies have highlighted the significance of early childhood learning through child care in determining the child’s longer-term outcomes. The general conclusion has been that the quality of life for a child, higher earnings during later life, as well as the contributions the child makes to society as an adult can be traced back to exposures during the first few years of life. Early childhood education obtained through child care has been found to play a pivotal role in the human capital base amongst children that can benefit them in the long run. Based on this premise, the paper develops a simple Overlapping Generations Model (OLG) to find out the implications of early learning on future investments in human capital. It is shown that higher costs of child care will reduce skill investments of parents. Also, for some positive child care cost, higher human capital obtained through early childhood education can induce further skill investments amongst individuals with a higher willingness to substitute consumption intertemporally. Finally, intervention that can internalize the intra-generational human capital externalities arising from parental time spent outside the home - for which care/early learning is required to be purchased for the child - can unambiguously lead to higher skill investments by all individuals. Chapter 3 therefore proposes policy intervention, such as child care subsidization, as the effect of such will be akin to a human capital subsidy. The objective of Chapter 4 is to understand the implications of inter-regional mobility on higher educational investments of individuals and to study in detail the impact of mobility on government spending for education under two particular scenarios – one in which human capital externalities are non-localized and spill over to other regions (e.g. in the form of R&D), and another in which the externalities are localized and remain within the region. It is shown that mobility enhances private investments in education, and all else equal, welfare should be higher with increased migration. The impacts on government educational expenditures are studied and some policy implications are drawn. In general, with non-localized externalities, all public expenditures decline under full-migration. Finally under localized externalities, the paper finds that governments will increase their financing of education to increasingly mobile individuals only when agglomeration benefits outweigh congestion costs from increases in regional population.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the growth performances of regions in Turkey and the role of human capital in this process within the framework of new growth theory. For this aim, it firstly attempts to investigate the evolution of regional income growth differences in Turkey in the period 1980-2000 and the tendency of provinces in Turkey towards income growth convergence. Secondly, by taking a detailed account of human capital, it aims to explore the contribution of human capital differences towards explaining income growth disparities among Turkey&rsquo / s provinces. In this framework, human capital is defined in terms of education, entrepreneurship and innovation.

This thesis analyzes the pecuniary aspects of education in Turkey. It consists of three essays. The first essay deals with the demand for education, focusing on private tutoring expenditures of households. The study investigates the determinants of private tutoring expenditures of households using a Tobit model as the estimation method. It is found that wealthier households with higher levels of parental education are more likely to participate in private tutoring. The second essay concerns the wage inequality in the male wages in 1994 and 2002. The study found that the differences in the educational attainment levels are a major determinant of wage inequality. However, returns to education declined at each school level from 1994 to 2002. Wage inequality is also found to exist within the same educational categories. The study shows that differences in returns to the same level of education at distinct points of wage distribution became more pronounced in 2002 compared to 1994. Secondary schooling is found to benefit the least able more compared to those positioned in the middle quantiles of ability distribution. The last study in this thesis attempts to elucidate the determinants of self-employment versus wage employment choice and earnings in the two employment states. The study concludes that financial wealth and risk factor are important determinants of self-employment activity. As the educational attainment levels of individuals increase, the likelihood of becoming self-employed decrease. Education increases the earnings of both self-employed and wage earners. However, education returns are higher for the sub-group of wage employees compared to self-employed.

Immigration is a topic that has experienced an evolution of social importance across centuries. While the United States has welcomed individuals seeking lives of promise and opportunity, its neighboring border with Mexico has also encouraged significant migration into the United States Therefore, immigration into Texas was not a new and unusual development. However, the flood of Mexican citizens trying to escape the regime of Porfirio Diaz was noteworthy and left San Antonio residents struggling to accept their new neighbors. The purpose of this dissertation is to study a historically Mexican middle class neighborhood in San Antonio, in order to identify factors that made it possible for some residents to experience socioeconomic prosperity while others were less successful. I believe that positive socioeconomic success resulted from two important factors: high levels of human and social capital and the synergistic interactions of sociopolitical elements. I begin by presenting an overview of the shared turbulent history between Mexico and the United States, the rise and fall of President Porfirio Diaz, and the role that the Mexican Revolution played in San Antonio's 1910 immigration flux. Since this research focuses on the Mexican middle class, I explore the literature pertaining to racial/ethnic definitions, the middle class, and human/social capital, as well as the relevance of each concept within the context of my research question. This research utilizes comparative/historical, qualitative, and quantitative methodologies. I present a quantitative analysis of Prospect Hill's residents, particularly those of an anomalous nature. Of the cases identified, I discuss the case of Romulo Munguia, a native-born Mexican who presented as the third anomalous Mexican resident. Munguia moved to the U.S. in 1926 and established himself as a successful, middle class printer who became heavily involved with San Antonio's Mexican community. Ultimately, Munguia's success indicates a dependency on two specific factors. First, he possessed considerable human and social capital that afforded him social, economic, and political advantages. Secondly, he settled into a community that desperately needed his skills and expertise. Munguia's case supports the hypothesis that immigrant prosperity requires both human/social capital and specific synergistic interactions to achieve success.

This doctoral thesis discusses the competence structures and the development of human capital in the graphic arts and media sector. The study has focused on exploring the new media landscape and in particular the structural changes that influence the sector, the print-versuselectronic- media debate and the future of print media. The influence of new technologies and management concepts on the graphic arts and media sector has also been investigated, as has the role and the importance of people in new societal and industrial settings as well as new ways of managing and developing people in changing media environments. The primary research objective was to identify the competence requirements and characteristics for existing and potential employees in the graphic arts and media sector and, in particular, the areas of digital printing and cross-media publishing. The second objective was to elucidate the various actions and strategies established and applied for the professional development of people in the graphic arts and media sector, such as further training, recruitment policies and the evaluation and certification of competence. The third objective of the study was to suggest the formation of a strategy for the professional development of people in the graphic arts and media sector – namely the creation of a human capital development strategy. An important issue was to identify the various components (or substrategies) of the strategy and determine if it was possible to integrate them under a common platform. The work has been based on literature studies, industry reports and observations, market analyses and forecasts, and empirical studies. Participatory research methods have also been used. In addition, case-study research has been performed at the company and sector levels. Human resource management and development concepts have been surveyed to determine whether they are efficient for the professional development of people in the entire spectrum of an industry sector. The graphic arts and media sector – including print media – will remain active for the foreseeable future; however, the results presented here show that the sector has been significantly influenced by structural changes that have taken place over the last decade, affecting organizations, companies and people involved in the sector, and this process of change will continue. The study shows that there is indeed a need for new competence in people employed in or to be recruited to the graphic arts and media sector. The initial identification and description of the competences for the new structure of the graphic arts and media industry is proposed. Various actions for the development of people in the sector, mainly regarding education, further and continuous learning, and recruitment, are also identified. However, these activities have been established mainly at the national level by various organizations (educational institutes, industrial partners and the governmental/European Union authorities). Finally, the principal characteristics of a human capital development strategy are described, and components (or substrategies) that form a strategy that could be introduced for the graphic arts and media sector in Europe are proposed. Keywords: Graphic arts and media sector, digital printing, cross-media publishing, human capital, intellectual capital, human resource management and development, human capital development strategy.

This research has examined the personal capital investments and returns of a group of TAFE Diploma of Community Work graduates through the use of qualitative research methodology. Recognising that the concept of personal capital is distinct from human capital in that it considers the intrinsic reasons, impetus and values that individuals ascribe to their motivation to undertake and complete a course of study. Personal capital is not quantifiable within the present human capital outcomes paradigm, however the personal capital paradigm allows for a deeper exploration of a range of further tangible and valid outcomes not addressed in the human capital approach. There is a gap in the current research literature regarding evaluation of TAFE outcomes and it stems from a predominant human capital focus. The existing paradigm of human capital, which values the acquisition of knowledge and skills for their economic value, has been of primary interest and significance, particularly in terms of government policy in relation to vocational education and training By using an interpretivist approach comprising in-depth interviews, the researcher was able to explore the intrinsic drives, motivations and aspirations and impetus that brought the TAFE graduates to initially undertake their studies in the diploma program. This approach also allowed for an examination as to whether the graduates perceived that they had obtained a return on this personal capital investment in the study program. Through the conceptual framework, the research established a set of predetermined personal capital investments and returns, although the research was not constrained by these pre-determined themes. The use of grounded theory data analysis procedures in the study allowed for the evolution and analysis of emergent categories or themes relating to personal capital investments and returns. Consequently, the qualitative analysis of the in-depth interviews has revealed a broader range of themes relating to personal capital investments and returns than otherwise might have been discovered if the research had been limited to the pre-determined themes arising from the conceptual framework. It is the author's contention that this qualitative study of TAFE diploma graduate's personal capital investments and returns gives insights about the notion of personal capital and its importance to decision-making as to why individuals undertake the Diploma of Community Work. This study also reveals what they personally and professionally expect from study in such a program. Neither of which the current quantitative data about TAFE graduates, namely the Student Outcomes Surveys; by design and intent are as yet capable of acknowledging or exploring.

[Truncated abstract] This research investigates social capital within the everyday space and actions of sociability on Christmas Island. The theory of social capital as proposed by Robert Putnam (1995) provides the framework for this investigation which was conducted in two phases. Quantitative and qualitative approaches and a mixed methods concurrent nested strategy were used in both phases of the investigation and the analyses. The analyses also incorporated multiple perspectives of both social capital and physical activity processes. In the first phase, I sought to: (a) uncover the determinants of social capital within the Christmas Island community; (b) develop a social capital typology; and (c) establish the relationship between the determinants of social capital and adults’ physical activity involvement. In all, 212 participants took part in the study . . . Overall, several factors affected women’s social capital and physical activity. These included: (a) women’s societal roles and positions; (b) household and cultural norms relating to gender-based time and space negotiations; (c) ideologies surrounding ethic of care; and (d) role commitment. These factors also influenced women’s recruitment into becoming active in their community. Network embeddedness and autonomy, assimilation and acculturation as well as language and knowledge competency further distinguished the community and physical activity status of European and Asian women. Analysis related to the two physical activity programmes in part 3 showed how various forms of latent social capital within the community can be synergized to produce physical activity benefits and empower inactive and minority-group women. Findings in this study also support trust as an important element in the establishment of relatedness in a physical activity setting.

Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögskolan, 2007.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.