Organizations and Markets

| Nicolai Foss |

Although human capital theory goes back to at least the 1950s, and is a thriving area that has yielded at least two Nobels, the field hasn’t had a dedicated journal. That is, until two days ago when Chicago Journals announced the inaugural issue of the Journal of Human Capital. The papers look controversial and therefore interesting, such as Todd and Wolpin’s finding that the main determinant of differences in educational performance is the home environment, as measured by the mother’s score on the Armed Forces Qualification test. Here is the blurb:

Journal of Human Capital is dedicated to human capital and its expanding economic and social roles in the knowledge economy. Developed in response to the central role human capital plays in determining the production, allocation, and distribution of economic resources and in supporting long-term economic growth, JHC is a forum for theoretical and empirical work on human capital — broadly defined to include education, health, entrepreneurship, and intellectual and social capital — and related public policy analyses.

JHC encompasses microeconomic, macroeconomic, and international economic perspectives on the theme of human capital. The journal offers a platform for discussion of topics ranging from education, labor, health, and family economics, to income distribution, social mobility, entrepreneurship and wealth creation, immigration and economic globalization, aging and value of life saving, politics and institutions, crime and corruption, technological innovation and transfer, productivity and structural change, and economic growth and development.