Essays on human capital

This thesis presents the results of my doctoral studies at Middlesex University. It contains three studies on human capital investment, education and cognitive abilities. The first study follows a macro approach and assesses the impact of various human capital measures on productivity. The main finding of this chapter is that human capital quality has a larger impact on economic growth than human capital stock, while the distribution of human capital also plays a role. The second chapter explores specific microeconomic issues of human capital by studying parental expectations in rural Peru. The main finding is that both time and risk preferences are important factors associated with expectations. Lastly, the third chapter deals with cognitive abilities by presenting the results of a meta-study on the Cognitive Reflection Test. The results suggest that males are likely to perform better on the test, while the monetary incentive have no significant impact on test performance. Furthermore, regarding the implementation of the test we find that overall students perform better, while having the test after an experimental session negatively impacts test performance.