Human Capital, Unequal Opportunities and Productivity Convergence: A Global Historical Perspective, 1800–2100

This paper constructs a new global historical database on public expenditure and revenue and their components—particularly education and health expenditure—covering all world regions over the 1800-2025 period. We document a large rise of human capital expenditure (as % of GDP) in all parts of the world in the long run, but with enormous and persistent inequality between regions. Public education expenditure per school-age individual in Sub-Saharan Africa is about 3% of the level observed in Europe and North America in 2025 in PPP terms (versus 6% in 1980 and 4% in 1950). We also find a large impact of human capital expenditure on productivity growth over the 1800-2025 period, especially for public education and for poor countries. Estimated returns using our macro-historical database are around 10% or more, in line with micro studies. Finally, we present simulations based on alternative human capital expenditure trajectories over the 2025-2100 period. In particular, we analyze the conditions under which convergence in human capital expenditure could lead to global productivity convergence by 2100 (around 100€ per hour in all regions in our benchmark scenario).

Bharti, Nitin, Amory Gethin, Thanasak Jenmana, Zhexun Mo, Thomas Piketty and Li Yang (2025), Human Capital, Unequal Opportunities and Productivity Convergence: A Global Historical Perspective, 1800–2100, ZEW Discussion Paper No. 25-049, Mannheim.