Racial disparities and neoclassical economies: The poverty of human capital explanations

The ascendency of capitalism and the market mechanism have elevated the ind ividual and the assumption of individual responsibility to paramount consid eration in policy discussions. Our view of racial disparities has moved mor e toward a philosophy of individual culpability and away from a social resp onsibility, at least in part, because of the dominance of neoclassical econ omics and its adherence to assumptions of individual choice and rationality . This article explored the explanatory power of neoclassical economics, in particular the human capital model.