Opportunity Cost Term Paper

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Human Capital - Opportunity Cost

"Human Capital." Gary S. Becker. Human Capital. 1975. The Library of Economics and Liberty web site: (http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/HumanCapital.html).

Purpose of Article: Gary Becker's article establishes that investment in human capital through education and training leads to increases in the standard of living and overall productivity of both the economy and the individual.

At the individual level, Becker uses the concept of opportunity cost to analyse the trends in higher education among various segments of society and at the macro level, Becker establishes the benefits of investing in human capital.

Economic Concepts Discussed: There are a whole range of economic concepts implicit in "Human Capital": human capital as an important resource, opportunity cost, cost-benefit analysis, long run cost, the 'creation of wealth,' subsidy, and wage discrimination.

The principal concept in "Human Capital" is the importance of an educated workforce in economic growth in creating increases in productivity through specialization of labor and discoveries of new technologies: "...
investment can be a source of growth. The discovery of... is called 'technical progress'...all countries... experienced rising standards of living over long periods of time... progressive, technological change" (McCain III, Roger Ashton. Essential Principles of Economics: A Hypermedia Text. Chapter 1.iii).

Becker also uses the principle of opportunity cost to point out how decisions on 'investing in education' are made: "The benefits..."opportunity cost" is the income...could earn by working full-time. And during the eighties this forgone income, unlike tuition, did not rise in real terms." Linked to this is the concept of Long Run Cost or investment planning and cost-benefit analysis: "Many studies...education...greatly raise a person's income, even after netting out direct and indirect costs of schooling." In other words, investing in education reaps long-term benefits, even if it means an opportunity cost in the short run,….....

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