Human Capital and the Managerial Revolution in the United States: Evidence from General Electric
通过将通用电气员工数据与1940年人口普查匹配，估计了美国大型企业时代人力资本积累的回报，发现高等教育通过层级晋升、控制幅度和收入带来显著收益，并利用赠地学院和大学的地理距离进行识别。
Abstract This paper estimates the returns to human capital accumulation during the first era of mega-firms in the United States by linking employees at General Electric—a canonical enterprise associated with the “visible hand” of managerial hierarchies—to the 1940 census. I find large returns to higher education through seniority in the hierarchy, span of control, earnings, and selection into management training, using the proximity of land-grant colleges and historical universities to birth states for identification. The findings highlight the human capital determinants of the managerial revolution at a prominent firm, driven by earlier public investments in the U.S. education system.