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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-3148 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Verkhohlyad, Olha |
| Contributors | Egan, Toby, Rolle, Anthony |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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