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Human Capital Composition and Economic Growth

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Abstract

The objective of this paper is to analyze the effect of various compositions of human capital on economic growth. We construct alternative measures of human capital composition using five fields of study. In each instance, the measure represents the number of graduates in the respective field as a percentage of all graduates. The measures are as follows: agriculture human capital (AGR); high-tech human capital (TECH); business and service human capital (SERVICE); the humanities human capital (HUMAN); and health and welfare human capital (HEALTH). This paper uses the OLS and System-Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) models to explain differential rates of growth among developed and developing countries. The evidence indicates the significant effects of education and high-tech human capital on growth.

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Notes

  1. We do not estimate the effect of primary education on economic growth here, since the average gross enrolment rate is 103.85% for our samples between year 1999 to 2006. That is, primary educations are almost fully established.

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Acknowledgments

We are particularly gratefully to the anonymous referees and the editor (A. C. Michalos) whose insightful and constructive comments have substantially improved this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, National Cheng-Kung University, #1 University Rd, Tainan, 701, Taiwan

    Chun-Li Tsai & Ming-Cheng Hung

  2. Competition Bureau, Fair Trading Commission, 52-60 Grenada Crescent, Kingston 5, Jamaica

    Kevin Harriott

Authors
  1. Chun-Li Tsai
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  2. Ming-Cheng Hung
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  3. Kevin Harriott
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Correspondence to Chun-Li Tsai.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 6 and 7.

Table 6 Country list
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Table 7 Data resources
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Tsai, CL., Hung, MC. & Harriott, K. Human Capital Composition and Economic Growth. Soc Indic Res 99, 41–59 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-009-9565-z

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