Economic beliefs and institutional politics: Human capital theory and the changing views of the World Bank about education (1950–1985)

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Nuno Teixeira
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Institutional Politics ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Beliefs

Cognitive abilities and income: preliminary evidence from a developing country

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raufhon Salahodjaev ◽  
Ziyodakhon Malikova
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
Unconditional Model ◽  
The World

Purpose Related literature finds that human capital proxied by cognitive abilities is an important antecedent of numerous specific life outcomes. The purpose of this study is to extend existing evidence by investigating the link between cognitive skills and income in Tajikistan. Tajikistan is a landlocked low-income country situated in Central Asia. Its population is 9.1 million people and gross domestic product per capita of US$822. According to the World Bank, Tajikistan has made significant progress in decreasing poverty levels from 83% in 2000 to 29.5% in 2017. Design/methodology/approach The data for this study comes from the 2013 Jobs, Skills and Migration Survey conducted by the World Bank and the German Society for International Cooperation. The main explanatory variable of the study is the cognitive abilities index of the respondents. The survey used item response theory (IRT) approach to estimate the ability of respondents. IRT is a method or a set of statistical frameworks, used to explore assessment item data, such as cognitive abilities assessment data. The wage function was estimated using the ordinary least squares method because the results are easier to interpret (Jencks, 1979; Bowles et al., 2001; Groves, 2006). Findings The baseline results are reported in Table 2. The results in Column 1 demonstrated the link between cognitive abilities and income without control variables (unconditional model). As expected, cognitive abilities are positively and significantly related to income (a1 = 0.0715, p < 0.01). The results from the unconditional model suggest that one standard deviation increase in cognitive abilities is associated with a nearly 17% increase in income. Research limitations/implications However, the study has a number of limitations. First, the dependent variable measures the overall income of the respondent, which includes the profit from other businesses. The survey does not provide data on monthly wages of respondents. Second, the sample may not perfectly represent the overall population of Tajikistan. To partially resolve this issue, this paper re-estimated out results for various sub-samples. Another important limitation of this study is the lack of respondent’s family background, which is an important correlate of human capital and income. Practical implications The results in the study offer preliminary evidence on the link between cognitive abilities and income in Tajikistan. However, the results of the study also suggest that both measures of human capital are positively related to income. Therefore, policymakers in Tajikistan should invest greater resources to health care, education and training programs as cognitive skills can be built in particular in the early stages of the life cycle. Indeed, Tajikistan has a significant potential for economic growth model driven by human capital. According to the World Bank, the adult literacy rate in Tajikistan is 100%, which is significantly above of what is observed in other developing countries. This may imply that the human potential in this country is considerable, and further investment in soft and hard skills would have a positive impact on economic growth. Originality/value This paper offers new evidence on the link between cognitive abilities and income, using data from Tajikistan. First, this paper finds that cognitive abilities are positively and significantly correlated with income. Second, this paper finds that this link remains robust even when this paper control for a large set of personal and job-related characteristics. The results from the unconditional model suggest that one standard deviation increase in cognitive abilities is associated with nearly a 17% increase in income.

On the Brain Drain of Africans to America: Some Methodological Observations

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Nii-Amoo Dodoo ◽  
Baffour Takyi ◽  
Jesse Mann
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Brain Drain ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Accounting System ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Relative Comparisons ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

AbstractRecurring debates about the impact of the brain drain— the developing world's loss of human capital to more developed countries—has motivated estimation of the magnitude of the phenomenon, most recently by the World Bank. Although frequently cited as a key contributor to Africa's wanting development record, what constitutes the "brain-drain" is not always clearly defined. Today, in the absence of an accounting system, resolution of the definitional and measurement question depends on relative comparisons of measurement variants, which will identify definitional shortcomings by clarifying the merits and demerits of these variants, and thereby suggest corrective imputations. This paper compares the World Bank's approach to a chronological precedent (Dodoo 1997) to clarify the value of variant comparisons. The resultant implications for corrections are also discussed.

Developing and Spreading a Social Investment Perspective

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Jenson
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Policy Instrument ◽  
Capital Investments ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Human Capital Investments ◽  
Capital Development

In the mid-1990s, the practice of international organizations began to cohere around the social investment perspective, with strategies that were child-centred and advocated human capital investments for economic growth and social development. This chapter examines the World Bank, which endorsed the policy instrument of conditional cash transfers (CCT) to allow very poor families to invest in children’s health and education—a stock-plus-buffer strategy. Then it scans the OECD, which recommended early childhood education to ensure human capital development and the labour-market activation of parents—a stock-plus-flow strategy. Both organizations developed anti-poverty positions with attention to the intergenerational transfer of disadvantage and investments in human capital. This similarity has declined in recent years, as the World Bank incorporated the social investment perspective into its new inclusive growth frame, while the OECD turned its attention to problems of inequality rather than poverty and thereby associated itself less with the social investment perspective.

World Bank Directives, Domestic Interests, and the Politics of Human Capital Investment in Latin America

2000 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-143 ◽  
Author(s):  
WENDY HUNTER ◽  
DAVID S. BROWN
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Capital Investment ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World

Recent studies underscore the importance of international organizations in transmitting norms, ideas, and values to developing countries. But has this diffusion influenced government policy in less developed countries? During the past two decades, the World Bank has emphasized the need for Third World governments to increase the stock of human capital by investing in education and health. Specifically, it has encouraged developing countries to shift an increasing share of their resources toward primary education. The authors examine 13 Latin American countries between 1980 and 1992 to establish the relationship between World Bank project lending and government investment in human capital. They combine time-series cross-sectional analysis with field research to evaluate the World Bank's influence on government spending on education and health. Although the World Bank may be successful in convincing developing country technocrats to “invest in people,” this research suggests that it is less successful in convincing the politicians who control the purse strings.

scholarly journals Funding acquisition drivers for new venture firms: Diminishing value of human capital signals in early rounds of funding

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Snehal Shetty ◽  
Ranjany Sundaram
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
New Ventures ◽  
Human Capital Theory ◽  
New Venture ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Capital Theory ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
The World ◽  
Empirical Demonstration ◽  
Venture Firms

Multiple factors such as human capital, amount raised in the first round, innovation etc. have an impact on the funding prospect of new ventures. This paper explored the influencing factors that drive multiple rounds of funding for new venture firms and provided a much broader perspective of funding drivers during the early stages of the new venture firm. Using signalling theory and human capital theory, this paper analyzed signals that influence the acquisition of funds in the first round and whether those signals persisted for the second and third rounds of funding when information asymmetries between the investors and new venture firms reduce. This study disentangled the signalling effects of the human capital factors across three funding rounds and proved the diminishing value of signals across each subsequent round of funding. Finding showed that the signal effect from premier institution education was the only human capital signal that persisted across each round of funding, while other signals did not persist beyond the first round of funding. In addition, new venture firms with founders educated from premier educational institutions were able to attract more investors and close more funding rounds. This study also proved that the amount raised in the first round of funding positively impacted the amounts raised in the second and third rounds stressing its importance for new venture firms. Empirical demonstration of the propositions was done with 156 new venture firms in India, the fastest growing and third largest startup ecosystem in the world.

scholarly journals Do Human Resources Run Economic Growth? Empirical Evidence From Pakistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-213
Author(s):  
Bilal Alam ◽  
Muhammad Niamat Ullah
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
World Bank ◽  
Education And Health ◽  
The World Bank ◽  
The World ◽  
Economic Survey ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Econometric Technique

This study analyzes the role of human capital in economic growth using data from 1981 to 2017. The data were taken from the World Bank (WDI) and the Economic Survey of Pakistan (Various Issues). It was scrutinized for stationarity of variables through ADF and an appropriate time series econometric technique of ARDL is applied for empirical analysis. The results suggest that both proxies of human capital, education, and health have positive impacts on the economic development of Pakistan. The study findings also suggest that government machinery may divert enough resources for the improvement of education and health services to accumulate human capital for achieving the desired goal of higher growth and development.

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