Knowledge Capital and Aggregate Income Differences: Development Accounting for US States
通过测量各州工人的认知技能，发现知识资本差异可解释美国各州人均GDP差异的20-30%，其中学校教育年限和认知技能贡献大致相当，支持通过改善学校教育促进州经济发展。
Improvement in human capital is often presumed to be important for state economic development, but little research links better education to state incomes. We develop detailed measures of worker skills in each state that incorporate cognitive skills from state- and countryof-origin achievement tests. These new measures of knowledge capital permit development accounting analyses calibrated with standard production parameters. Differences in knowledge capital account for 20–30 percent of the state variation in per capita GDP, with roughly even contributions by school attainment and cognitive skills. Similar results emerge from growth accounting analyses. These estimates support school improvement as a strategy for state economic development.