The project entitled “Human capital and inequality during adolescence and the working life” has as its starting point that the income inequality has risen in most OECD countries over the last 30 years. Changes in income inequality have been associated with disparities in other dimensions of life, including education, health and family structure, all critical for the wellbeing of individuals and their families and can be transmitted across generations. Comparatively less attention has been paid to the specific ways human capital can shape inequalities across families, individuals and the life course. The project will be organized under three inter-related themes. First, we will examine the sorting of young people across education pathways during adolescence and how it contributes to disparities in educational attainment and early labor market inequalities. Second, we will study the interactions between different investments in human capital, labor supply and productivity over the life-course. Third, we will investigate the insurance role of human capital and how it shapes responses to employment and income shocks. We will study three European countries representative of three distinct policy paradigms, Norway, the UK and France. We aim to inform the design of public policy by studying the mechanisms underlying the measured effects of policy reforms and by constructing the tools needed to explore the potential effects of alternative policies.

The project leader is Professor Richard Blundell (UCL) and the project team includes Kjell G. Salvanes (NHH), Eric Maurin (PSE), Aline Bütikofer (NHH), Sissel Jensen (NHH), Ragnhild Balsvik (NHH), Marc Gurgand (PSE), Anna Vignoles (Cambridge University, IFS), and Monica Costa Dias (UCL).

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