ABSTRACT
This chapter explains that individual's decisions about investing in human capital are affected by the ease and speed with which they learn, their aspirations and expectations about the future, and their access to financial resources. Workers undertake three major kinds of labor market investments: education and training, migration, and search for new jobs. The model of human capital investment assumes that people are utility maximizers and take a lifetime perspective when making choices about education and training. The issue of education as a social investment has been of heightened interest in the United States in recent years, especially because of three related developments: product markets, product and labor demand. The human capital theory analyzes the decision to undertake a formal educational program on a full-time basis. It also predicts that recent changes in the labor force participation of women, especially married women of childbearing age, are causing dramatic changes in the acquisition of job training and formal schooling by women.
