A new database on human capital stock : sources, methodology and results

Abstract

The authors describe the techniques and data adopted for the construction of a new series of estimates of the stock of education in 85 countries over 28 years (1960-87). It covers all the important developing regions except the republics of the former Soviet Union. The International Economics Department (IEC) continues a well-established trend in growth research of using educational stock (measured as mean school years of education of the labor force) as a proxy for human capital. The series are built from enrollment data using the perpetual inventory method, adjusted for mortality. Estimates are corrected for grade repetition among school-goers and country-specific drop-out rates for primary and secondary students. Enrollment data series used start as far back as 1930 for most countries, and even earlier for others. This reduces the need for backward extrapolation of enrollments to provide the initial estimates of the investment inventory.