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Human Resource Investment and Early-Stage Career Choice: Evaluating Work–Life Income Paths in 21st-Century Canada

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  • Gordon Anderson

    (Department of Economics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1, Canada)

Abstract

Of necessity, people make many investment decisions regarding their human resource stock early in their life cycle, long before outcomes predicated upon those choices are realized. Different choices involve very different initial effort and financing outlays and issues arise as to how these alternative paths can be compared and evaluated. Here, techniques for the cardinal comparison of human resource contingent work–life-cycle income value profiles under alternative income valuation function assumptions are outlined and instruments for examining potential ambiguities in comparison developed. All are applied in an analysis of the impact of different levels of investment of human resources in 21st-century Canada. The results, with one notable exception (the choice for boys between a trade or a bachelor-level degree), indicate unambiguous life-cycle benefits to higher levels of human resource stock investment for both girls and boys. Within gender, best–worst relative magnitudes are increasing over time for both genders but more so for girls. Boys are enjoying a universal but diminishing premium over time, reflective of male–female income convergence.

Suggested Citation

  • Gordon Anderson, 2024. "Human Resource Investment and Early-Stage Career Choice: Evaluating Work–Life Income Paths in 21st-Century Canada," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-19, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:17:y:2024:i:1:p:36-:d:1320166
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Pedro Carneiro & Karsten T. Hansen & James J. Heckman, 2003. "2001 Lawrence R. Klein Lecture Estimating Distributions of Treatment Effects with an Application to the Returns to Schooling and Measurement of the Effects of Uncertainty on College Choice," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 44(2), pages 361-422, May.
    2. Dwyer, Peggy D. & Gilkeson, James H. & List, John A., 2002. "Gender differences in revealed risk taking: evidence from mutual fund investors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 151-158, July.
    3. Gordon Anderson & Thierry Post & Yoon-Jae Whang, 2020. "Somewhere Between Utopia and Dystopia: Choosing From Multiple Incomparable Prospects," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(3), pages 502-515, July.
    4. Anderson, Gordon, 1996. "Nonparametric Tests of Stochastic Dominance in Income Distributions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 64(5), pages 1183-1193, September.
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