Role of Human Capital in Economic Development: an Empirical Study of Nigerian Case

In this individual assignment I have chosen “HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT” as my topic. In this assignment I discussed human capital development as it is related to Human Resource Management.

Economic Development: Growth is associated with structural, social change and change in the important institutions of the economy.

The economy will grow if the necessity of getting a higher education is reinforced. Education is the foundation of a country’s economic growth and the key to rid a nation of poverty. To illustrate, Japan is a country with no resources, but since it has a good educational system; Japan has the second richest economy worldwide. On the other hand, Nigeria is a country that is rich in resources, but low in education; as a result, the majority of people there are poor. A higher education creates a quality workforce,; besides it will promote economic stability by growing and training students for success. Such training will capacitate hard working people, which will do well to The United States economy. The government should invest more of its money on helping those students that cannot afford college. It will capacitate people who will

Several studies have supported human capital as a significant source of economic growth. Barro(2004) ,empirical analysis, based on 98 countries from 1960-1985, uses school-enrolment rates as representations for human capital, supported the convergence hypothesis of neoclassical growth models, and says; if poor countries have high human capital than they tend to catch up with rich countries, but only in relation to level GDP per capita. Further stated; ‘As a related matter, countries with high human capital have low fertility rates and high ratios of physical investment to GDP’.

Economic growth is fundamental for sustainable development. It is not possible, for a developing country, to ameliorate the quality of life of its growing population without economic growth. The relationship between government expenditure and economic growth has continued to generate series of debate among scholars. Government performs two functions- protection (and security) and provisions of certain public goods (Abdullah, 2000) and (Al-Yousif, 2000). Protection function consists of the creation of rule of law and enforcement of property rights. This helps to minimize risks of criminality, protect life and property, and the nation from external aggression. Under the provisions of public goods are

Economic growth, put simply, is “an increase in the amount of goods and services produced per head of the population over a period of time”; development is inextricably linked with this economic growth. By utilising theories of economic growth and development we can see how the Chinese and Sub-Saharan African economies have emerged, but, more notably, we can use these to look at patterns from past and present to show their experience and the implications of this growth for the future.

Before we begin, let’s take a look at the country and its environs. Nigeria a former British Colony, located in the western part of Africa, it shares borders with Benin, Cameroun, and Niger. A growing population of 150million, labour force of 51million (70% Agriculture, 10% industry and 20% service), urbanisation is less than 40%, GDP is over $300billion, Per capita income is $2300. Nigeria is blessed with different cultures, languages and ethnic groups (252 in total); this was due to the colonization of the British in the early 19th century (Columbia Encyclopaedia). The British amalgamated its protectorates in 1914 to enable stable control and governance which made them create one Nation of Nigeria formed from all the groups, community and empires around the Niger area under their control. Nigeria had her independence on the 1st of October 1960 and since then various civil wars, political and religious unrest in the country to share power and resources amicably.

As noted, the growth model is facing its limits, with growth slowing and vulnerabilities rising, successful development in the past relied on high investment, relatively inexpensive labor, productivity- enhancing foreign direct investment, and strong global demand. Along the way, the government played an important role in the allocation of resources, both through state-owned enterprises and local governments, especially in infrastructure.

Raising peoples’ living levels, i.e. incomes and consumption, levels of food, medical services, education through relevant growth processes. 2. Creating

Human development refers to Ranis (2004) is the final target of a nation through economic growth process and as an indicator of general welfare. In addition, human development is an essential element for driving the

Algier’s economy is dominated by the public sector, which redistributes hydrocarbon revenues via subsidized prices, welfare programs and employment opportunities. The private sector is small and suffers from outdated regulation, bureaucracy and weak competitiveness.

This essay will be discussing on some government (mainly Singapore) policies that can be implement to achieve economic growth and the author’s opinion as to how beneficial these policies are to the economic growth of the country.

Though the term development usually refers to economic growth, it can apply to political, social structure as well. It is true that economic growth may produce greater income in a country. But history offers a number of example, by increasing nation’s wealth, without improving the average living standard. This happened in oil-producing

This paper seeks to compare and contrast various trends in the capital and recurrent expenditure on human capital development in Nigeria between the years 1981 and 2010. The data used for the study are from secondary sources: Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) publications, Statistical Bulletins and CBN Annual Reports (various issues). The paper employed a descriptive statistical analysis of trends of government capital and recurrent expenditure on human capital development as well as economic growth using data on Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) as proxy. The findings reveal that government places higher premium on its recurrent expenditure compared to capital expenditure in the education and health sectors. The study recommends government increased funding to the education and health sectors by allocating more to capital expenditures than to recurrent expenditures in order to improve the quality of facilities, materials and equipment in the education and health sectors adequately, and enhance their role in the growth process.

I. Introduction a. Statement of the problem One of the most critical and gigantic problem which most of the developing countries have been facing is that of poverty and special backwardness. These countries tend to be very anxious to overcome these problems. During the last two decades these developing countries have been initiating a number of development programmes and projects under their development plans aiming at increasing production, adopting technologies for modernization and social change, optimizing use of scarce resources, and above all raising the standard of living of the millions of people condemned to poverty, inequality and unemployment. Thus the public sector growth is one of the natural consequences of planned economy. It is the public enterprises which constitute the most important Institutional framework for achieving these objectives. The problem of poverty, inequality and stagnation in the developing countries to be as daunting as ever in spite of massive programme of modernisation and social change were undertaken by these countries. This has happened due to unsuccessful implementation of development projects. Existence of a plan does not by any means ensure its effective implementation. Effective management is vital for the development of any economy because development itself is the effect of a series of