Human capital theory originated with a neo-Keynesian, not Chicago neoliberals

Evidence

In the late 1950s and 1960s, however, the concept of human capital was much more closely associated with the name of Theodore Schultz, an economist who worked alongside Friedman and Becker at the University of Chicago but who would be more accurately described as a neo-Keynesian of the likes of Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and Richard Musgrave. It was Schultz who first popularized the idea that spending on human services such as education should be considered an investment rather than an act of consumption—and therefore that education itself should be considered a form of capital or interest-bearing asset. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 248

Categorization

• XREF: Shakes the caricature of human capital as purely a Chicago School invention — precisely the kind of intellectual genealogy revision the reader’s austerity purpose prioritizes. — connects to: Human capital theory logically extends to genetic self-investment — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 271; Contemporary homo oeconomicus has become financialized human capital — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s…, 52; Human capital theory was born solving Solow’s unexplained-growth residual — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 249 (+4 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the pre-Foucault genealogy of human capital, distinguishing Schultz’s neo-Keynesian framing from Friedman/Becker.

Broader Connections

• Human capital theory was born solving Solow’s unexplained-growth residual #qualifies (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 249
• Human capital theory originally justified free public education as collective investment #qualifies (0.90) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 250
• Contemporary homo oeconomicus has become financialized human capital #expands (0.85) — Wendy Brown, Undoing the Demos, 52
• Neoliberalism redefined human being itself as human capital. #qualifies (0.85) — Anna Kornbluh, Immediacy, or The Style of Too Late…, 134
• The Reagan-Thatcher era redistributed wealth from poor to rich rather than abandoning Keynesianism #contradicts (0.75) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 601