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Human Capital Formation (human + capital_formation)
Selected AbstractsEconomic Growth, Health and Poverty: An Exploratory Study for IndiaDEVELOPMENT POLICY REVIEW, Issue 2 2004Indrani Gupta This article analyses the possible links between economic growth, poverty and health, using panel data for the Indian states. The findings indicate that, though growth tends to reduce poverty, significant improvements in health status are also necessary for poverty to decrease. Also, economic growth and health status are positively correlated and have a two-way relationship, suggesting that better health enhances growth by improving productivity, and higher growth allows better human capital formation. Health expenditure is an important determinant of both higher growth and better health status, and is therefore a key tool available to policy-makers. Among other exogenous variables, literacy and industrialisation seem to improve both health outcomes and growth, and to reduce poverty. [source] Operations Research and public policy for Africa: harnessing the revolution in management science instructionINTERNATIONAL TRANSACTIONS IN OPERATIONAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2008Jonathan P. Caulkins Abstract Operations Research (OR) has made major contributions in the developed world to public policy domains that are of great relevance to Africa. Inasmuch as OR has failed to live up to its potential for addressing such issues in Africa, a principal barrier may have been distance between OR analysts and decision makers. However, the revolution in management science instruction and potential to train end-user modelers has democratized OR. This makes training for policy makers and managers in the public and non-profit sectors in Africa both feasible and highly beneficial. Existing management science courses for public and non-profit leaders, such as those taught at Carnegie Mellon's Heinz School, could be adapted to fit the needs of educators and policy makers in Africa and disseminated via a "train the trainers" approach. A plan is sketched whereby 800,000 end-user modelers might be trained in Africa (one for every 1000 people) at an annual cost of about $5 million/year. Such budgets are well within the range of investments in human capital formation currently being made in Africa. [source] ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE, SKILL FORMATION, HUMAN CAPITAL MEASUREMENT: EVIDENCE FROM ITALIAN MANUFACTURING FIRMSJOURNAL OF ECONOMIC SURVEYS, Issue 2 2010Gilberto Antonelli Abstract This paper emphasizes the role of labour demand as a determinant of human capital formation. After a section in which the alternative conceptions on the functioning of labour markets are presented and different ways of measuring human capital are compared, an applied analysis is carried out in which we provide a labour-demand-oriented measure of human capital, as defined by the amount of specific skills firms generate through work-based training (WBT) activities. By merging three rich firm-level datasets, we estimate the impact of a set of variables supposed to affect both the propensity to invest in WBT and the intensity of training within the Italian manufacturing industry over the period 2001,2005. Special attention is devoted to the variables characterizing within-firm organization of knowledge, organizational change and the formation of competence pipelines: among them, innovation, internationalization commitment, out-sourcing and new hirings. The estimates show that the effect of innovation on WBT is higher when the introduction of new technologies is supported by organizational innovations. When looking at the nature of WBT, we investigate the different determinants of the firms' propensity to provide both in-house and outside training. We measure training intensity in terms, respectively, of the number of provided training activities, private and total training costs and share of trainees. [source] The Impact of Intelligence and Institutional Improvements on Economic GrowthKYKLOS INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, Issue 3 2002Erich Weede Standard indicators of human capital endowment , like literacy, school enrollment ratios or years of schooling , suffer from a number of defects. They are crude. Mostly, they refer to input rather than output measures of human capital formation. Occasionally, they produce implausible effects. They are not robustly significant determinants of growth. Here, they are replaced by average intelligence. This variable consistently outperforms the other human capital indicators in spite of suffering from severe defects of its own. The immediate impact of institutional improvements, i.e., more government tolerance of private enterprise or economic freedom, on growth it is in the same order of magnitude as intelligence effects are. The senior author is responsible for picking a ,politically incorrect' topic, i.e., analyzing the impact of IQ or average intelligence. The junior author has done the data compilation and the computations. [source] Severance Payments and Firm,specific Human CapitalLABOUR, Issue 1 2003Jens Suedekum What effect does employment protection through severance payments have on the behaviour of employed workers? We analyse this issue within a stochastic two,period framework where workers decide on human capital investments and find two competing effects: severance payments imply higher job security that fosters human capital formation. At the same time, a lay,off is perceived by the workers to be a weaker penalty if severance payments are provided. This incentive lowers their optimal amount of firm,specific investments. Which effect prevails on balance depends on the distribution of investment returns among firm and workers. For strong positive reactions, employment protection is also in the interests of the firm. [source] Democracy and Social Policy in Brazil: Advancing Basic Needs, Preserving Privileged InterestsLATIN AMERICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2009Wendy Hunter ABSTRACT Has democracy promoted poverty alleviation and equity-enhancing reforms in Brazil, a country of striking inequality and destitution? The effects of an open, competitive political system have not been straightforward. Factors that would seem to work toward this goal include the voting power of poor people, the progressive 1988 Constitution, the activism of social movements, and governance since 1995 by presidents affiliated with center-left and left parties. Yet these factors have been counterbalanced by the strong political influence and lobbying power of organized interests with a stake in preexisting arrangements of social protection and human capital formation. An analysis of four key federal sectors, social security, education, health care, and public assistance, illustrates the challenges for social sector reforms that go beyond raising basic living standards to enhancing socioeconomic inequality. [source] | |||||||||||||