Human Capital, by Gary S. Becker

Human Capital is Becker’s classic study of how investment in an individual’s education and training is similar to business investments in equipment. Becker’s research was fundamental in arguing for the augmentability of human capital – as something that one could invest in, that was associated with a certain rate of return, and so forth.

Gary S. Becker is a pioneer of applying economic analysis to human behavior in such areas as discrimination, marriage, family relations, and education. At the time when it was published (in 1964), Becker’s arguments were controversial. Many considered his line of argument as dehumanizing and debasing. However, Human Capital is today considered as one of the major works in labor economics as well as in the sociology of work and labor.

The most recent edition of Human Capital includes several chapters not included in the original – covering recent ideas about human capital, fertility and economic growth, the division of labor, economic considerations within the family, and inequality in earnings.

Gary S. Becker was recipient of the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economic Science.

Links to books by Gary S. Becker at amazon US and amazon UK.

Tagged as: book review, economics, Gary S. Becker, labor economics, rational actor, sociology of labor, sociology of work