Human capital theory is accepted as one of the foundational theories of socioeconomic development. Although, according to founding scholars, any acquired qualities and abilities that help individuals and groups be economically productive can be considered as individual or group human capital, the classical human capital model focuses on schooling and training as the major factors comprising human capital on individual, group, and national levels. Consequently, current human capital measurement tools generally assess only educational attainment on these levels. Because of this overly simplified approach, the present manner in which human capital is commonly measured by national and international entities creates difficulty in accurately assessing the strengths and weaknesses of human capital within and between countries. A major challenge to improvement of human capital variables is identification and availability of data. The factors suggested to have significant impact on human capital are mostly intangible. Collecting such data is cost prohibitive for many developing countries. Consequently, national policy-makers, multinational corporations and international aid organizations use simplified estimates of human capital. The purpose of this dissertation is to construct and validate a more comprehensive human capital index. Study research questions include: 1) What are the significant factors that affect national human capital as revealed in the literature? 2) Can an expanded measure of national human capital be developed to reflect adequate content of HC identified in the literature? 3) What is the preliminary evidence supporting the validity of the newly developed human capital index? This analysis resulted in the formation of a new human capital index, which is expanded due to the incorporation of new variables together with the routinely used education measures. The sample panel data is from 163 countries for the years 2000-2005. Literature content analysis, factor analysis and regression analyses are used to support the exploration of the research questions. The results of the analyses suggest that a human capital model, which includes additional variables together with currently used education variables, predicts the level of national economic development significantly better than the model which includes only education measures. These results have implications for human resource development, corporate human capital management, national education, and international aid policies.

A venture capital firm runs its capital business through private shareholding. It is a high risk and high return business that achieves long term capital gain through developing and counseling other companies to start or to expand their businesses. Generally speaking, venture capital firms usually conduct the following critical tasks: investing in new and rapidly growing technology companies through shareholding, participating in the board meetings, getting involved in management decision making and providing add-on values. For example, to assist a new company in developing new products, to provide technical support and product marketing, to provide management consulting services and professional personnel staffing and to assist internal management and strategic planning, etc. Therefore the involvement of a venture capital firm in running its business includes not only financial capitals but also various kinds of support with add-on values. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the involvement of a venture capital firm influences the long term management performance and share price behavior of a newly traded company, and to understand whether it brings positive impact to the company¡¦s financial performance and finally to identify if it results in any change in the long term return of share price. The companies in the research sample are selected in the period during 87 and 92. This period is further classified into two sub periods. The first sub period is between 87 and 89. This period is considered a peak period of venture capital business. The second sub period is between 90 and 92. This period is considered the downturn of venture capital business. This paper selects from populations of newly traded companies in both periods samples with involvement of venture capital to compare with samples without involvement of venture capital. This study then analyzes financial performance with and without involvement of venture capital, and the difference in financial performance and share price return during the two periods. In terms of number of years between the start of a company and the date it starts to be traded in the share market, the study result shows that it is shorter for companies with involvement of venture capital in either the 87-89 venture capital peak period or in the 90-92 venture capital downturn. This implies that the professional knowledge and experience help invested companies to shorten the time in preparing themselves to be traded in the share market. In terms of profitability, this study finds that the influence of venture capital on profitability of invested company is insignificant. In terms of growth rate, companies in peak period and with venture capital involvement perform better. However in the downturn, companies with venture capital involvement actually perform worse than those without venture capital involvement except in the first season after being traded. The result shows that venture capital firms invest mostly in companies with quick return during downturn and only focuses on short term benefit. This leads to fast initial growth but rapid decline afterwards. Furthermore, asset flow and liability ratio are both better in companies with venture capital involvement than those without venture capital involvement. This reflects the value of financial support to newly traded companies provided by venture capital firms. However the effect declines as time goes by and the declining rate is faster in the downturn than that in the peak period. In terms of management capabilities, companies with venture capital involvement do not perform better than those without venture capital involvement. This fact is more obvious in the downturn period. Therefore venture capital firms do not seem to improve management capabilities of the invested companies. In terms of long term share price return, this study finds no significant difference between companies with venture capital involvement and those without venture capital involvement in returns after 30-180 days adjustment. After 360 days, risk adjusted Sharp index of companies with venture capital involvement is significantly better than those without venture capital involvement. The finding is very different in the 90-92 downturn period. The share price returns of companies with venture capital involvement are significantly lower than those without venture capital involvement. Although the risk adjusted index does not reach statistical significance, the difference remains big. Such result is probably due to the fact that venture capital firms want to avoid risk during downturn period by making a quick profit and then leaving the market. Venture capital firms sell their shares shortly after the invested companies are listed in the market and therefore make the share prices to be downwardly adjusted in the short term. Also the share price returns of companies with venture capital involvement at 30th day after they are traded in the market are significantly lower than those of companies with venture capital involvement.

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The research expands the scope of the World System and Dependency theories that emphasize the deleterious effects of the extent of external debt held by multilateral institutions (Chase-Dunn, 1975; Sell and Kunitz, 1986-87; Meldrum, 1987; Harsch, 1989; Bradshaw and Huang, 1991; Bradshaw et al., 1993) and the structure of capital formation (Chase-Dunn 1975;Bornschier, Chase-Dunn, and Rubinson 1978; Bornschier and Chase-Dunn,1985; Timberlake and Kentor, 1983; Bradshaw, 1987; Walton and Ragin, 1990; Dixon and Boswell, 1996; Firebaugh, 1996) on the growth and development of Third World Countries. This research primarily examines the relationship between external debt held by multilateral development institutions and central government debt. A major barrier to social and economic development in developing countries is malnutrition and the inability of individuals to maintain a healthy standard of living and be economically and socially productive. The major findings on the direct and indirect effect of external debt and the solvency of a domestic economy on the health and nutritional status of women and children were: External debt as measured as a percent of GDP did produce slight but statistically significant direct effects on under-five infant mortality. Central government debt as measured as a percent of GDP demonstrated a direct effect only with under-five mortality and it was modest at best. Gross domestic investment measured as a percent of GDP also exhibited a weak direct effect on under-five infant mortality and percent total immunized. As expected, external debt did demonstrate a substantial and statistically significant direct effect on central government debt. The results of the path analysis reveal that external debt consistently produced an indirect effect, operating through central government debt, on measures of under-five mortality, percent children immunized, and children wasting and stunting. However, the magnitude fluctuates considerably and their statistical significance drops to below acceptable levels on childhood immunizations and the nutritional measures.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-160). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-160). Also available on the Internet.

Disp., Uppsala universitet, 2008.

Thesis (Th. M.)--Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, 1990. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-99).