Human capital and its effect on economic growth :: A case study of selected coutries in East and Southeast Asia

TAUFIK, Dr. Yoichi Okita

2009 | Tesis | S2 Magister Ekonomika Pembangunan

The role of human capital in stimulating economic growth is well recognized in growth literature. It has been acknowledged not only as a main determinant of growth and poverty alleviation, but also as a critical factor for human development. The main objective of this research is to investigate the effect of human capital on economic growth using two different proxies, which are average years of educational attainment and government expenditure on the educational sector as a percentage of gross domestic products (GDP) in Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Korea. Using the data attained from the Penn World Table Data 6.2, World Development Indicators (2008), UNESCO’s Education Time Series Data and the Barro and Lee Data Set (2000), the regression results show that human capital give a positive impact on economic growth. However, the government expenditure on the educational sector as a percentage of gross domestic products shows a statistically significant effect, while average years of educational attainment shows unsignificant effect.

Kata Kunci : Human capital,Economic growth,Gross domestic product