ERIC Number: ED319862
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1989-Sep
Pages: 57
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Financing Human Capital.
Juffras, Jason; Sawhill, Isabel V.
This paper examines the government's role in financing human capital investments. It first examines why private investments in education, training, and other forms of human capital are likely to fall short of socially desirable levels. It then reviews past trends in public support for human resource investments. Finally, it discusses current fiscal constraints that inhibit new public spending on human capital programs and considers some innovative financing strategies that could ease these budgetary limits. Part 1 contains the following sections: (1) "The Rationale for Government Intervention"; (2) "Trends in Public Investment in Human Capital"; and (3) "Implications of Current Government Efforts to Promote Investment in People." Part 2 contains the following sections: (1) "The Conventional Budget Process: Human Resource Programs Are Vulnerable While the Federal Budget Crisis Persists"; (2) "Alternatives to Normal Budgeting: Creative Funding Schemes Proliferate"; and (3) "Investing the Social Security Surplus in Human Resources: An Earmarked Financing Plan That Would Serve Broad Public Goals." This investigation indicates that the nation faces an impasse in human resources policy as it enters the 1990s, and concludes that the problem is clearly financial. Two tables and five figures are included. A list of 62 references is also included. (JS)
Descriptors: Educational Economics, Educational Improvement, Educational Needs, Federal Government, Financial Support, Fiscal Capacity, Government Role, Human Capital, Investment, Labor Force Development, Private Financial Support, Public Support, Retrenchment, State Government
Urban Institute, 2100 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037.
Publication Type: Reports - Evaluative; Numerical/Quantitative Data
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, IL.; Ford Foundation, New York, NY.
Authoring Institution: Urban Inst., Washington, DC.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: This paper is a Chapter in David W. Hornbeck and Lester M. Salamon, editors, "Investing in People: An Economic Strategy for the Nineties", forthcoming.