Rates of Return on Capital: An International Comparison

Estimated stocks of capital per worker differ by fifty-fold between the ten richest and ten poorest nations. The stock of human capital per adult at the lower levels of schooling differs by 4.7 times between these two groups of countries, and by 56 times at the third level. Estimated marginal rates of return on capital are 15, 24, and 21 percent for the high, middle, and low income countries respectively. Development assistance capital is estimated to yield a 47 percent rate of return for the low income countries, over three times the return on domestically produced capital in these countries. Copyright 1989 by WWZ and Helbing & Lichtenhahn Verlag AG