Symposium on human capital and economic development: an introduction

In recent decades, human capital has emerged as a key area of research for economic development and growth. The increase in economists' interest in human capital reflects theoretical and empirical advances. A theoretical breakthrough appeared in models where schooling and training involved a sacrifice of current time and resources to gain higher future earnings (Becker, 1964, 1993, Becker and Barro, 1988 and Ben-Porath, 1967). Empirically, there has been mounting evidence that schooling and other forms of human capital significantly increase earnings (Mincer, 1974), suggesting that low levels of school attainment may be partially responsible for low levels of income in developing countries. Research on human capital has also been facilitated by the development of longitudinal panel data sets on school attainment (Barro and Lee, 1993).