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EVALUATING THE IMPACTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL STOCKS AND ACCUMULATION ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: SOME NEW EVIDENCE †
Author(s) -
Gemmell Norman
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
oxford bulletin of economics and statistics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.131
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1468-0084
pISSN - 0305-9049
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0084.1996.mp58001002.x
Subject(s) - human capital , economics , stock (firearms) , measure (data warehouse) , capital deepening , econometrics , physical capital , macroeconomics , monetary economics , capital formation , financial capital , economic growth , geography , archaeology , database , computer science
Various hypotheses have been put forward in recent years concerning the contribution of human capital to economic growth. This paper argues that school enrolment rates — by far the most commonly used human capital measure in growth regressions attempting to test these hypotheses — conflate human capital stock and accumulation effects and lead to misinterpretations of the role of labour force growth. An alternative educationrelated human capital measure is constructed which is capable of distinguishing between stocks and flows. Applying this measure to samples of developed and less developed countries during the 1960–85 period suggests not only that there are important growth effects associated both with ‘initial’ stocks of, and subsequent growth in, human capital, but also that this new measure out‐performs the simple school enrolment rates used in previous analyses.