Human Capital and the Managerial Revolution in the United States: Evidence from General Electric

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nicholas, Tom
• 署名单位: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01400
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: higher-education; automated linking; management; firm; early-20th-century; COMPENSATION; ORGANIZATION; hierarchies; INEQUALITY; KNOWLEDGE

摘要

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.