Human capital in Spain: an estimate of educational attainment

Abstract

In this paper an alternative methodology is proposed for obtaining long time-series data for a human capital indicator based on the average number of years of education of the working-age population. In contrast to previous studies, we use Labour Force Survey microdata relating to the level of education actually completed, in order to construct temporal profiles of educational attainment and thus avoid the need to interpolate from censuses. To illustrate the method proposed, we evaluate the number of average years of education of the Spanish working-age population for the period 1910-2000.