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The "farthest" need the best. Human capital composition and development-specific economic growth

Author

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  • Fabio Manca

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Barcelona)

Abstract
We provide robust and compelling evidence of the marked impact of tertiary education on the economic growth of less developed countries and of its the relatively smaller impact on the growth of developed ones. Our results argue in favor of the accumulation of high skill levels especially in technologically under-developed countries and, contrary to common wisdom, independently of the fact that these economies might initially produce low(er)-technology goods or perform technology imitation. Our results are robust to the different measures used in proxying human capital and to the adjustments made for cross-country differences in the quality of education. Country-specific institutional quality, as well as other indicators including legal origin, religious fractionalization and openness to trade have been used to control for the robustness of the results. These factors are also shown to speed up technology convergence thereby confirming previous empirical studies. Our estimates tackle problems of endogeneity by adopting a variety of techniques, including instrumental variables (for both panel and cross-section analyses) and the two-step efficient dynamics system GMM.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabio Manca, 2011. "The "farthest" need the best. Human capital composition and development-specific economic growth," IREA Working Papers 201117, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2011.
    • Handle: RePEc:ira:wpaper:201117
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. repec:prg:jnlpep:v:preprint:id:689:p:1-16 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Sara Barcenilla & Gregorio Gimenez & Carmen López-Pueyo, 2019. "Differences in Total Factor Productivity Growth in the European Union: The role of Human Capital by Income Level," Prague Economic Papers, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2019(1), pages 70-85.
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    9. Esther Goya & Esther Vayá & Jordi Suriñach, 2012. "“Do intra- and inter-industry spillovers matter? CDM model estimates for Spain”," AQR Working Papers 201207, University of Barcelona, Regional Quantitative Analysis Group, revised Sep 2012.
    10. Javier Campos & Juan Luis Jiménez & Ancor Suárez-Alemán, 2012. "“Not always sunny in paradise: prices and brand diversity in touristic areas supermarkets”," IREA Working Papers 201211, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised May 2012.
    11. Juan Jung, 2012. "Externalities and Absorptive Capacity in a context of Spatial Dependence: The case of European Regions," Documentos de Trabajo (working papers) 2212, Department of Economics - dECON.
    12. Ana María Osorio & Catalina Bolancé & Manuela Alcañiz, 2011. "Measuring early childhood health: a composite index comparing Colombian departments," IREA Working Papers 201122, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2011.
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    15. Miguel Santolino & Catalina Bolancé & Manuela Alcañiz, 2011. "Factors affecting hospital admission and recovery stay duration of in-patient motor victims in Spain," IREA Working Papers 201119, University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics, revised Oct 2011.
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    19. Sara Barcenilla-Visús & Carmen López-Pueyo, 2018. "Inside Europe: human capital and economic growth revisited," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 45(4), pages 821-847, November.

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    Keywords

    Economic growth; human capital; imitation; innovation; convergence. JEL classification:I20; O30; O40;
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