التكامل الاقتصادي
Volume 13, Numéro 1, Pages 151-162
2025-03-31
Reassessing The Criticism Of Human Capital Theory
Authors : Zenagui Sid Ahmed .
Abstract
Despite widespread criticism, human capital theory (HCT) has remained central to the teaching and practice of economics for over six decades. This paper reinterprets the critique of HCT, focusing on two often overlooked aspects. The first is the pervasive presence of external learning effects, which are acknowledged in formal discussions of HCT but are marginalized in most empirical research and policy recommendations. Similarly, the social determinants of education demand are often neglected. We argue that the embedding of HCT in methodological individualism makes it impossible to incorporate key, non-peripheral factors that influence both the demand for and the effects of education. The tensions that arise from applying an individualistic methodology to inherently social phenomena have been ignored within HCT. This oversight leads to significant issues in various fields of socioeconomic inquiry, several of which are highlighted in this paper. We conclude by advocating for a new research agenda and an updated program for the training of economists concerned with learning, which includes behavioral economics, applications of the capability approach to education, and an expansion of empirical research on the external effects of education in both historical and contemporary contexts.
Keywords
behavioral economics ; capability approach ; education ; external effect ; hysteresis ; training
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