知识资本外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 Intellectual Capital Material Source: / Author: Clint B. Fondo, Darren B. Wright 1. The history of valuing human capital What is the value of a human being? The idea of comparing measurable wealth to the intangible value of a human being is attractive, but elusive. The recent widespread interest in the subject could lead to the erroneous conclusion that the question and theories on the subject are new. They are not. In 1691, Sir William Petty postulated that labor should be included in any estimate of national wealth. He used the concept of human capital to explain various economic conditions and phenomenon, including the economic effects of migration, the value of a human life destroyed in war, and the power of England (Wykstra, 1971). Petty estimated the value of the stock of human capital by capitalizing the wage bill to perpetuity, at the market interest rate; the wage bill he determined by deducting property income from national income! (Wykstra, 1971). Not only was this method one of the first used to estimate the value of human capital, it is a method that has displayed exceptional staying power. In 1776 Adam Smith discussed the value of labor extensively in what is perhaps the seminal work on economics in modern times, The Wealth of Nations. He went as far as to assign an exact value to a human in North America (￡100) (Smith, 1991). He also clearly demonstrated that the value of human capital in one area is not equal to the value of human capital in another; pointing out that while having children in industrialized England would drain the resources of a family; a large family in the largely agrarian society of North America marked an increased capacity for wealth creation (Smith, 1991). William Farr used a method similar to Petty‘s to value human capital in 1853. He attempted to determine the net present value of a human by estimating all future income, using actuarial tables to approximate future earnings. Farr“advocate the substitution for