This panel will explore recent marketplace developments in how human activity is financed and will discuss recent scholarship on the topic of investments in human capital.
In the past year, there have been significant developments both in the marketplace and in academic thinking about the ways in which human activity might be financed. New structures for human financing have arisen across a number of sectors, including business, education, and professional sports. For example, private companies have started offering “income-share agreements” (equity-like investments in people in which investors take an upside in the funding recipient’s future earnings) to finance business ventures or education costs. On the government side, various income-based repayment plans in higher education are now available alongside standard repayment options. Scholars, too, have proposed risk-based financing for education, swap-like transactions for law school financing, and other human financing innovations.
These new developments raise important legal, regulatory, and ethical questions. Our panel explores this new wave of human capital arrangements and the issues they raise.