Human capital as a main source of economic growth: problems and deficiencies of its quantification
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61357/sehs.v11i1.46Keywords:
human capital, growth theory, endogenous growth theory, functional literacy, educationAbstract
The aim of the paper is to come with different methods of quantifying human capital in the economic growth theory and to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of different approaches. The article provides an insight into the theory of economic growth as perceived in the research work of various past and contemporary authors and is in the form of a traditional review. It emphasizes the importance of human capital as a newly conceived source of economic growth. Human capital affects not only the prosperity of the individual, but also the development of the society as a whole. The text is based on general characteristics of human capital; it presents selected theories of economic growth and provides an overview of studies dealing with the validation of the theory on real data. Individual methods of measurement vary considerably as they include different attributes such as the quantity and quality of education, differences between education by degree, by gender, by social conditions, etc. The results of studies presented here confirm the hypothesis that human capital is among the main sources of economic growth. However, a common problem is the inconsistent definition of this term and its very problematic quantification.
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