Human Capital and Public Policy

Human capital is the knowledge, skills, competencies, and attributes that reside in people. Higher levels of human capital bring economic growth and better quality of life to a society. Government investments in such services as health, workforce readiness, and especially education pay off in greater human capital and greater economic growth. Students learn what economic research says about the best use of dollars to produce human capital outcomes. They study and evaluate examples of various quantitative research designs used by economists and draw out implications of research for policy.