Human capital and economic growth in OECD countries: some new insights

Muhammad Tahir, Arshad Hayat (), Kashif Rashid, Muhammad Asim Afridi and Yasir Tariq

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences, 2020, vol. 36, issue 4, 367-380

Abstract: Purpose - The new growth literature in general is very optimistic about the positive impact that human capital has on the economic growth of countries. Based on this argument, the current paper focusses to investigate the impact of different types of human capital on economic growth. Design/methodology/approach - The paper utilizes data for the period 1998 to 2017 and employs suitable econometric techniques. Findings - It is found that it is not the stock of human capital rather its utilization in terms of average working hours that matters for higher growth. Other than human capital, trade openness and investment are positively associated with growth. On the other hand, inflation has an insignificant impact while employment level has a negative impact on growth. Moreover, for developing countries, the study also revealed that stock of human capital has negatively and average working hours has positively impacted economic growth. Finally, domestic investment and employment level appeared to be the main growth determinants in developing countries. Research limitations/implications - Policymakers are suggested to ensure the maximum utilization of working hours, trade openness and domestic investment in improving economic growth in OECD countries. Originality/value - This study has visualized the impact of human capital on economic growth from a new perspective and hence would be useful for policymakers.

Keywords: Human capital; Economic growth and OECD; Panel data (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:jeaspp:jeas-07-2019-0073

DOI: 10.1108/JEAS-07-2019-0073

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences is currently edited by Associate Professor Ghulam A Arain and Dr Rebecca Abraham

More articles in Journal of Economic and Administrative Sciences from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().