Human Capital Depreciation and Returns to Experience
利用希腊教师分配中的准随机变化，研究发现失业一年会使学生成绩下降0.05个标准差，估算出技能折旧率为4.3%，经验回报率为6.8%。
Human capital can depreciate if skills are unused. But estimating human capital depreciation is challenging, as worker skills are difficult to measure and less productive workers are more likely to spend time in nonemployment. We overcome these challenges with new administrative data on teachers’ assignments and their students’ outcomes, and quasi-random variation from the teacher assignment process in Greece. We find significant losses to output, as a one-year increase in time without formal employment lowers students’ test scores by 0.05 standard deviations. Using a simple production model, we estimate a skill depreciation rate of 4.3 percent and experience returns of 6.8 percent.