The Robustness of the Conditional CAPM with Human Capital

An empirical evaluation is provided of the robustness of theconditional capital asset pricing model (CAPM) with human capitalto explain the cross-sectional variability of security returns.This model has been evaluated in the literature using the growthrate in per capita labor income. This article looks at richermeasures of human capital returns. It develops measures thatincorporate the costs and benefits of educational investment,skill premiums, worker experience, and other relevant featuresof human capital markets. It also considers variables that helpto forecast future human capital returns. We find that someof these richer measures help improve substantially the performanceof the model.