2009-06-05 10:47 Source: Author: User Comments 0 Views 223

Abstract: Human capital theory is the theoretical basis of western educational economics, which has a wide influence in western developed countries. The relationship between education and economy is closely related. From the perspective of human capital theory, this paper discusses the role of education in promoting economic development in improving labor productivity, promoting scientific and technological development, optimizing industrial structure and popularizing management methods.

Keywords: human capital; Education; economic development

First, an overview of human capital theory

1. The emergence and development of western human capital theory

The concept of human capital originated from William 1676, the founder of British classical political economy. Patty's words, followed by the famous classical political economist Adam? In The Wealth of Nations, Smith clearly stated that knowledge is the result of investment [1]. The concept of human capital was first put forward by Walsh in 1935. By the mid-1950s and early 1960s, human capital gradually formed a theoretical system and theory, which had a great impact on western educational economics. The main representatives are Schulz, Denison, Becker and others. The characteristic of theoretical research on human capital in this period is to comprehensively analyze the meaning, formation and "knowledge effect" of human capital. After 1980s, under the background of "knowledge economy", Romer, Lucas and others put forward the "new economic growth theory", thus bringing human capital into the economic growth model as an independent factor, making it internalized and concrete, and establishing an economic growth model with human capital as the core.

2. Basic viewpoints of human capital theory

Human capital refers to the knowledge, skills and abilities condensed on workers. This ability is the main factor of production growth and a kind of capital with economic value. If analyzed from the perspective of individuals, it refers to the sum of quality factors such as knowledge, skills, ability and health that exist among individuals and are obtained with economic value.

The basic viewpoints of human capital are: first, the quality of population is more important than the number of population; Secondly, both human capital investment and material capital investment are indispensable productive investments for economic development, but under modern economic conditions, the role of human capital investment is greater than that of material capital investment. Third, education investment is the core of human capital. Fourth, the rate of return on education investment is higher than that on material investment. Therefore, the focus of capital accumulation should shift from material capital to human capital and increase the total investment in education. Fifth, the return on investment in education can be measured. [2]

3. Basic characteristics of human capital theory

With the introduction of the concept of human capital theory, capital can be divided into material capital and human capital. Compared with material capital, human capital has its remarkable characteristics. First, human capital exists in human body and cannot be separated from its bearer. Second, the ownership of human capital cannot be directly transferred or bought or sold, nor can it be inherited. Third, human capital has both capital and profitability, and it needs investment to form and accumulate. Fourthly, the formation of human capital and the degree of its function are closely related to human life cycle, so it also has the characteristics of finiteness. Fifth, human capital is not only an economic resource, which can bring economic benefits, but also a social resource, which can bring overflow social benefits.

Second, the relationship between human capital and education and economic development

1. The relationship between human capital and education

The main elements of human capital include education capital, knowledge and technology capital, health capital, immigration and liquidity capital and training. Among them, educational capital is the most basic element of human capital, and human capital obtained through education, especially factor education, is capital.

There are four main forms of human capital investment: education, training, medical care and immigration. Among them, education investment is an important source of human capital. Education investment is a kind of productive investment, and it will make a contribution in the future, so the income of education investment will happen in the future, which is indirect and lagging. However, although education investment takes a long time to get benefits, the benefit period is longer. Due to the improvement of human capital stock, it can constantly play a creative role in the work.

Education improves the quality of population and reserves human capital. Education has increased the intangible accumulation of human capital in terms of knowledge, skills and experience, and developed people's potential ability. From the perspective of improving population quality, education is the key to improve population quality. People's acquired ability is mainly the result of education, which is reflected in knowledge, skills, cultural level, management ability and so on. [3]

2. The relationship between human capital and economic development

Human capital is the key factor of economic growth and development. Among the capital needed for social and economic development, human capital contributes the most to economic growth, and human capital is the primary capital. According to Schultz's calculation, during the period of 1929~ 1957, the contribution rate of human capital to American economic growth reached 33%; By 1990s, the contribution rate of human capital to a country's national income growth has reached 60%~80%. [4]

Human capital can make up for the shortage of resources. The scarcity and non-renewability of material resources urge people to change the mode of economic development and strive to tap the potential of human capital. Human capital can absorb and combine various factors of production, make up for the shortage of resources, and thus overcome the economic operation mode of over-reliance on material resources. If a country doesn't realize that the knowledge and skills it must possess in order to effectively use advanced production technology are its most valuable resources, and the workers lack both knowledge and skills, then the effect of increasing material capital investment on economic growth is extremely limited. Therefore, we should pay attention to the formation and accumulation of human capital, so as to promote the change of capital structure.

Economic development promotes the optimization of human capital. Economic development is inseparable from the investment of human capital, and economic development will promote the optimization of human capital. In modern society, in the process of economic growth and social wealth creation, with the progress of science and technology, the dependence on human capital will become greater and greater, and the role of human capital will become more and more prominent. Therefore, increasing human capital investment and optimizing human capital have become important factors for sustainable economic development.

Third, from the perspective of human capital, the role of education in economic development

1. Education improves labor productivity

Education aims to improve labor productivity by cultivating high-level professionals. The improvement of labor productivity means the saving of living labor or materialized labor or the increase of output consumed by unit labor, so it is the decisive condition for production development and economic growth. The level of labor productivity first depends on the quality and means of labor, and on the performance and quality of the labor object. Laborers are creators and users of production tools, and their average proficiency and cultural and technical level are important conditions for giving full play to efficiency and improving production tools. [5] The dependence of modern scientific and technological knowledge on intelligence is on the rise, and the workers needed for modern economic growth are educated and master modern science and technology.

Education can improve workers' labor skills by training people's skills and imparting scientific and technological knowledge, so as to improve labor productivity and adapt to the continuous development of social economy. According to the statistical data in the World Bank 199 1 Development Report, the gross domestic product (GDP) in developing countries will increase by 9% every year when the average education level of workers is improved. [6]

2. Education promotes the development of science and technology

In modern social economy, science and technology are the primary productive forces. Science and technology are transformed into direct productive forces, and the scope of labor objects is expanded and the quality of labor objects is changed and improved by materializing into production tools. After education, it is mastered by laborers and transformed into their knowledge and skills, thus creating higher labor productivity and huge social productivity. Education is the basic way to spread science and technology effectively on a large scale. It is passed down from generation to generation through systematic teaching, purposefully and systematically screening, processing and optimizing science and technology, knowledge and skills through school education, and then passing it on to students through scientific methods. This is an effective way to spread and transmit science and technology with economies of scale. Education, especially higher education, has trained scientists and engineering experts in various fields. [7]

Higher education has made great contributions to China's scientific and technological progress and social and economic development. According to statistics, in 2002, colleges and universities received 4,497 projects from the National Natural Science Foundation, accounting for 77.43% of the total projects. 11key projects, accounting for 53.37% of the total number of projects; 3,500 freely declared projects, accounting for 77.73% of the total number of projects; Received 203 regional science funds, accounting for 84.23% of the total number of projects; 55 international cooperation funds were obtained, accounting for 69.62% of the total funding. Received 95 national science funds for outstanding young scholars, accounting for 59.38% of the total funding; 794 projects won by the Youth Science Fund, accounting for 74.62% of the total projects; In 2002, institutions of higher learning won the second prize of National Technological Invention Award 14, accounting for 77.8% of the total number of awards. Universities won the second prize of National Natural Science Award 10, accounting for 43.5% of the total number of awards; Colleges and universities won two first prizes for national scientific and technological progress, accounting for 25% of the total number of announced awards; Colleges and universities won 43 second prizes for national scientific and technological progress, accounting for 29. 1% of the total announced prizes. [8] It can be seen that higher education can greatly promote the development of high-tech industries, promote social progress, and play the role of science and technology as the primary productive force.

3. Education, especially higher education, promotes the optimization of industrial structure and realizes the transformation of economic growth mode.

As pointed out by the theory of human capital, human capital is not only an economic resource, but also a social resource. Education can not only show the significance of directly promoting economic development, but also produce "ripple effect", release the comprehensive effect and indirectly promote economic development. Higher education promotes the continuous optimization of industrial structure from low to high and the optimization of industrial internal structure, which is one of its manifestations. Industrial structure refers to the combination and composition of various material production departments (including sub-departments within departments) in the national economy, and their proportion in the whole social production, which is essentially the proportional distribution of production materials and labor among various industrial departments. Establishing a reasonable industrial structure is an objective requirement to maintain the coordinated development of the national economy and improve social benefits; It is also the requirement of the development of the new technological revolution in the world for the change of industrial structure. At present, China is still dominated by primary and secondary industries, and the tertiary industry has made great progress, but it is still lower than developed countries and many developing countries. The continuous optimization of industrial structure requires the continuous improvement of the quality of workers, especially those engaged in the fourth industry (knowledge industry and information industry). If they have not received higher education, it is difficult for them to become qualified employees. In the process of economic transformation in China, the key to economic development lies in changing the mode of economic growth and increasing the proportion of knowledge-based industries in the economic structure. In order to realize the transformation from extensive economic growth mode to intensive economic growth mode, China must improve the quality of labor force, increase the stock of human capital through education and promote the optimization of industrial structure.

With the coming of knowledge economy era in China, education has become the central link of economic development. Technological progress has become the most important factor of economic growth, and education is the most important factor of technological progress. "Knowledge economy" embodies that knowledge, human capital and technology are the core of economic development. Under the background of knowledge economy, education undoubtedly promotes the optimization of industrial structure, emphasizes the role of knowledge and skills, and promotes the transformation of economic growth mode from labor-intensive to knowledge-intensive.

4. Update the management methods of education promotion.

Since the last century, management has become an important condition for economic growth and development. Modern management is scientific management and has become a comprehensive science, which requires systematic management science education to cultivate and improve the cultural education and management science level of management team and play a role in managing economic growth. In other words, under the condition that technology has not changed, we can also improve productivity and achieve economic growth through institutional innovation. This is what we often call "asking for benefits from management". Incorporating institutional analysis into the study of economics and economic history, North, the representative of "New Economic History", pointed out in the article "Reasons for the change of productivity of marine transportation during 1600~ 1850" that the marine transportation technology did not change much during this period, but because the marine transportation system was more perfect, the cost of marine transportation was reduced and the productivity was improved [9]. It can be seen that the innovation of management methods and systems can also promote economic development, and education promotes the renewal of management methods.

References:

Qin Weiping, Chen Siming. On the Theory of Human Capital and Its Development [J]. Guide to Economic Research, 2006 (06).

[2] Jin Xibin. Economics of education [M]. People's Education Press, 2005.

[3] Wang Liang and Zhao Dingtao. On the Development of Education and Economy from the Perspective of Human Capital Theory [J]. Future and Development, 2005 (02).

[4] [6] Qin, On the role of human capital investment in economic growth [J]. Exploration of economic problems, 2005 (10). [5] Feng Yanfei. On the Basic Relationship between Education and Economy [J]. Scientific and Technological Progress and Countermeasures, 2000 (06).

[7] Xiao Nanzi, Zhao Xiuyu. On the role of education in the development of human resources in western China [J]. Journal of Chongqing University (Social Science Edition), 2002 (02). [8] [9] Yang Yajun, Li Hongtian. Review on the Mechanism of Higher Education on Economic and Social Development [J]. Heilongjiang Higher Education Research, 2006 (06).