A national accounts satellite for human capital and education

摘要

The official national accounts statistics do not show the role of human capital in the nationaleconomy. A set of satellite tables supplementing the standard national accounts statisticscould serve this data need. In this satellite account, expenditure on education and training arerecorded as human capital formation. This includes not only the expenditure on primary,secondary and tertiary education, but also expenditure on training and courses by employersand the earnings foregone by students. Consumption of human capital is allocated to variouspersons and industries as a charge on their income; it is not part of final consumptionexpenditure. The satellite shows more comprehensively than OECD Education at a Glancewho pays for human capital formation. It also shows how education and training areemployed in the national economy. In line with calculations of private and social rates ofreturn, taxes and subsides on labour income and the relative prices of various types of labour(high-skilled, medium-skilled, low-skilled) are also shown. Links could be made with labouraccounts broken-down by level of education, productivity and growth accounts and tables onexpenditure by function of government, households and corporations. A simpledecomposition analysis can show the role of demography and participation rates in thedevelopment of public expenditure on education. The satellite could be regarded as a macroeconomicframework supplementing the OECD-statistic Education at a Glance.