Does human capital contribute to economic growth in Mauritius?

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 248-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harris Neeliah ◽  
Boopen Seetanah

Purpose Real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for Mauritius has averaged more than 5 per cent since 1970 and GDP per capita has increased more than tenfold between 1970 and 2012, from less than $500 to more than $9,000. It has often been reported that human capital, along with other growth enablers, has played an important role in this development. The purpose of this paper is to study this nexus. Design/methodology/approach A human capital augmented Cobb-Douglas production function is used, where output is also a function of capital and labour. One of the innovations of the present paper is the use of a composite index to proxy human capital. The authors investigate the impact of human capital on economic growth in a dynamic vector error correction modelling (VECM) framework. Findings The general results here show that stock, labour and human capital are all significant growth determinants, with human capital having a long-run output elasticity of 0.36. The VECM results generally validated the long-run output elasticity, although a relatively lower elasticity of 0.1 is obtained. Both sets of results tend to point to the fact that human capital has significantly contributed to economic growth in Mauritius. Research limitations/implications The current paper paves the way for future work, which can build on the composite HCI developed here and aggregate it with relevant variables representing tertiary education and training, to better analyze and further understand the role of human capital on economic growth in Mauritius. Originality/value Here, the authors posit that human capital is an aggregate of health, education and nutrition, and the authors use a composite index along with other contributing factors to study its impact on economic growth, within a VECM framework.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-86
Author(s):  
Abubakar Aminu ◽  

This paper investigated the impact of education tax and investment in human capital on economic growth in Nigeria utilizing the Non-Linear Autoregressive Distributed Lag Model of cointegration covering the period of 25 years from 1995 to 2019. The findings reveal that education tax and investment in human capital have positive and significant effect on the growth of the Nigerian economy over the sampled period. The paper recommends that in order to boost the economy, Nigeria would need to, among other policy frameworks, provide a suitable environment for ensuring macro-economic stability through effective utilization of income from education tax that will encourage increased investment in human capital in the public sector. In addition to income from education tax, for effective and speedy economic growth and development in Nigeria, the government, beneficiaries (students/parents), employers of labor and other stakeholders in the society should share the responsibility for financing primary, secondary and tertiary education, so as to provide a solid foundation for human capital development. However, as revealed in this paper, the contribution of education tax and investment in human capital is most likely to be realized over a long-run period than in the short term. Keywords: Education Tax; Investment; Human capital; Economic growth


2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (11) ◽  
pp. 1506-1521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhu Sehrawat ◽  
A.K. Giri

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of female human capital on economic growth in the Indian economy during 1970-2014. Design/methodology/approach The paper employs Ng-Perron unit root test to check the order of integration of the variables. The study also used ARDL-bounds testing approach and the unrestricted error-correction model to investigate co-integration in the long run and short run; Granger’s causality test to investigate the direction of the causality; and variance decomposition test to capture the influence of each variable on economic growth. Findings The study constructed a composite index for both male and female human capitals by taking education and health as a proxy for human capital. The empirical findings reveal that female human capital is significant and positively related to economic growth in both short run and long run, while male human capital is positive but insignificant to the economic growth; same is the case for physical capital, it implies that such investment regarding female human capital needs to be reinforced. Further, there is an evidence of a long-run causal relationship from female human capital, male human capital and physical capital to economic growth variable. The results of variance decomposition show the importance of the female human capital variable is increasing over the time and it exerts the largest influence in change in economic growth. Research limitations/implications The empirical findings suggest that the Indian economy has to pay attention equally on the development of female human capital for short-run as well as long-run growth of the economy. This implies that the policy makers should divert more expenditure for developing support for female education and health. Originality/value To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to study the relationship between female human capital and economic growth in the context of the Indian economy.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Nandom Yakubu ◽  
Aziza Hashi Abokor ◽  
Iklim Gedik Balay

PurposeThis study seeks to investigate the impact of financial intermediation on economic growth in Turkey using annual data spanning 1970–2017.Design/methodology/approachBased on the results of the augmented Dickey–Fuller and Phillips–Perron unit root tests for stationarity, the authors employ the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) bounds testing to cointegration to establish the long-run impact of financial intermediation alongside other control factors on economic growth. The study also examines the short-run relationship between financial intermediation and economic growth by estimating the Error Correction Model (ECM).FindingsThe authors’ findings indicate that financial intermediation significantly influences economic growth in both short and long run. However, the effect is positive only in the short run, lending support to the supply-leading hypothesis. Regarding the control variables, the authors observe that while financial openness shows a positive significant impact on economic growth in the long run, gross fixed capital formation matters only in the short run. The results further infer that regardless of the time period, inflation impedes economic growth.Originality/valueIn the empirical analysis of the relationship between financial intermediation and economic growth, financial intermediation is always measured using a single variable. The authors argue that such studies could produce bias and misleading results given that a single proxy does not adequately reflect financial intermediation activities. Likewise, such findings may delude policy implementation. To provide a more vivid and robust analysis, the authors employ the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to construct a composite index for financial intermediation based on three broad measures. The researchers’ are unaware of any study on the financial intermediation–economic growth nexus using a composite index of financial intermediation. Thus, this paper fills this lacuna in the literature.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brayan Alexander Baron Ortegon

This article analyzes the relation between GDP per capita (CPIBpc) and access to tertiary education, seen from the perspective of growth rate of the number of enrollments (TCMes) in higher education in Colombia for the period (1971-2016). By using a VEC model and assuming everything else constant, it is concluded that TCMes Granger caused the Colombian GDP per capita and vice-versa, therefore, the existence of a long run relation between both variables is verified. This result helps to explain the dynamics of Colombian economic growth per capita of the last forty-five years and the impact of the accumulation of human capital on it.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (10) ◽  
pp. 1439-1452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kashif Munir ◽  
Maryam Sultan

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of taxes on economic growth in the long run as well as in the short run. Design/methodology/approach The study uses simple time series model, where real GDP is dependent variable and different forms of taxes are explanatory variables under ARDL framework from 1976 to 2014 at annual frequency for Pakistan. Findings Direct taxes have positive relation with economic growth in the long run. Sales tax, tax on international trade (tariffs) and other indirect taxes have positive impact on economic growth of Pakistan in the long run as well as in the short run. However, sales tax and other indirect taxes impact negatively on economic growth in the short run after one year because people realize decline in their real income. Practical implications Government should increase direct taxes by increasing tax base. Indirect taxes usually indicate negative impact after one and two years; therefore, government should decrease its reliance on indirect taxes. Government should promote tax awareness among the people which increase the tax morale of people and increase the tax base. Originality/value Taxes are disaggregated into direct and indirect taxes, while indirect taxes have been further disaggregated into excise duty, sales tax, surcharges, tax on international trade and other indirect taxes. This study provides useful insight for policy makers in designing taxes and their effect on growth.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1205-1220
Author(s):  
Luís Miguel Marques ◽  
José Alberto Fuinhas ◽  
António Cardoso Marques

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on global energy consumption using the economic growth nexus, the prevalent energy hypothesis at a global level and the impact of the main historical events assessed for the period from 1965 to 2015. Design/methodology/approach Given the confirmed presence of endogeneity and cointegration between energy consumption and economic growth, a vector error correction with structural dummies model was used. Furthermore, the impulse-response functions and variance decomposition were computed to evaluate the variables’ dynamics. Findings Bi-directional causality running from energy consumption to economic growth was found, both in the short and long-run, supporting the feedback hypothesis. It is proved that the 2008 crisis impacted on the global energy–growth nexus. Furthermore, there is evidence of the impact of the 1990s oil price shock on the nexus. Innovations in energy consumption have a positive impact on economic growth; however, this impact tends to be null in the long run. Practical implications The results suggest that at a global level, any energy policy should be carefully designed in order not to hamper economic growth. Countries should not remain indifferent to the policies that other countries might follow. Very few historical crises impacted on the global energy–growth nexus. Originality/value This paper offers a different approach to the study of the energy–growth nexus. The energy–growth nexus is analysed in the major macroeconomic aggregate. Global variables reveal their relevance as a benchmark in the energy–growth nexus. Furthermore, this paper arrives at some conclusions about how historical crises impact on global relationships.


2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 887-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Narayan Sethi ◽  
Bikash Ranjan Mishra ◽  
Padmaja Bhujabal

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate whether market size and its growth rate, along with financial development indicators, affect human capital in selected south Asian economies over the time period from 1984 to 2015. Design/methodology/approach The stationarity of the variables are checked by LLC, IPS, ADF and Phillips–Perron panel unit-root tests. Pedroni’s and Kao’s panel co-integration approaches are employed to examine the long-run relationship among the variables. To estimate the coefficients of co-integrating vectors, both PDOLS and FMOLS techniques are used. The short-term and long-run causalities are examined by panel granger causality. Findings From the empirical results, the authors found that both the market size and financial development play an important role in the development of human capital in the selected south Asian economies. It is evident that a large market size and faster degree of financial development in the selected countries result in better human capital formation. Originality/value There are a number of studies on the impact of financial development indicators on human capital and economic growth, but there is hardly any study that considers market size and its growth rate along with financial development indicators with human capital in the context of south Asian economies. The study fills this research gap.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1143-1159
Author(s):  
Roseline Tapuwa Karambakuwa ◽  
Ronney Ncwadi ◽  
Andrew Phiri

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the impact of human capital on economic growth for a selected sample of nine SSA countries between 1980 and 2014 using a panel econometric approach.Design/methodology/approachThe authors estimate a log-linearized endogenous using the fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and the dynamic ordinary least squares (POLS) applied to our panel data time series.FindingsThe empirical analysis shows an insignificant effect of human capital on economic growth for our selected sample. These findings remain unchanged even after adding interactive terms to human capital, which are representatives of government spending as well as foreign direct investment. Nevertheless, the authors establish a positive and significant effect of the interactive term between urbanization and human capital on economic growth.Practical implicationsThe results emphasize the need for African policymakers to develop urbanized, “smart”, technologically driven cities within the SSA region as a platform toward strengthening the impact of human capital-economic growth relationship.Originality/valueThis study becomes the first in the literature to validate the human capital–urbanization–growth relationship for African countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (6) ◽  
pp. 1192-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muazu Ibrahim

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the interactive effect of human capital in financial development–economic growth nexus. Relative to the quantity-based measure of enrolment rates, the main aim was to determine how quality of human capital proxied by pupil–teacher ratio influences the relationship between domestic financial sector development and overall economic growth. Design/methodology/approach Data are obtained from the World Development Indicators of the World Bank for 29 sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries over the period 1980–2014. The analyses were conducted using the system generalised method of moments within the endogenous growth framework while controlling for country-specific and time effects. The author also follows Papke and Wooldridge procedure in examining the long-run estimates of the variables of interest. Findings The key finding is that, while both human capital and financial development unconditionally promotes growth in both the short and long run, results from the interactive terms suggest that, irrespective of the measure of finance, financial sector development largely spurs growth on the back of quality human capital. This finding is also confirmed by the marginal and net effects where the interactive effect of pupil–teacher ratio and indicators of finance are consistently huge relative to the enrolment. Statistically, the results are robust to model specification. Practical implications While it is laudable for SSA countries to increase access to education, it is equally more crucial to increase the supply of teachers at the same time improving on the limited teaching and learning materials. Indeed, there are efforts to develop rather low levels of the financial sector owing to its unconditional growth effects. Beyond the direct benefit of finance, however, higher growth effect of finance is conditioned on the quality level of human capital. The outcome of this study should therefore reignite the recognition of the complementarity role of human capital and finance in economic growth process. Originality/value The study makes significant contributions to existing finance–growth literature in so many ways: first, the auhor extend the literature by empirically examining how different measures of human capital shape the finance–economic growth nexus. Through this the author is able to bring a different perspective in the literature highlighting the role of countries’ human capital stock in mediating the impact of financial deepening on economic growth. Second, the author makes a more systematic attempt to evaluate the relative importance of finance and human capital in growth process while controlling for several ancillary variables.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 666-682 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madhu Sehrawat ◽  
A K Giri ◽  
Geetilaxmi Mohapatra

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of financial development, economic growth and energy consumption on environment degradation for Indian economy by using the time series data for the period 1971-2011. Design/methodology/approach – The stationary properties of the variables are checked by ADF, DF-GLS, PP and Ng-Perron unit root tests. The long-run relationship is examined by implementing the Autoregressive Distributed Lag bounds testing approach to co-integration and error correction method (ECM) is applied to examine the short-run dynamics. The direction of the causality is checked by VECM framework and variance decomposition is used to predict exogenous shocks of the variables. Findings – The empirical evidence confirms the existence of long-run relationship among the variables. Financial development appears to increase environmental degradation in India. The main contributors to environmental degradation are: economic growth, energy consumption financial development and urbanization. The results also lend support to the existence of environmental Kuznets curves for Indian economy. Research limitations/implications – The present study suggests that environmental degradation can be reduced at the cost of economic growth or energy efficient technologies should be encouraged to enhance the domestic product with the help of financial sector by improving environmental friendly technologies from advanced economies. Originality/value – This paper proposes to make a contribution to the existing literature through examining the relationship between financial development and environmental degradation in Indian economy during 1971-2011 by employing modern econometric techniques.


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