人力资本与经济增长——兼论经济增长贫困陷阱

Human Capital and Economic Growth—A Discussion about Poverty Trap of Economic Growth

人力资本是经济增长的源泉,人力资本不足会损害经济的长期稳定增长。文章通过构建人力资本经济增长模型,说明人力资本在经济增长中的重要作用,并提出人力资本不足引起的经济增长"贫困陷阱"假说。文章还研究了中国1978-2007年的人力资本与物质资本的积累状况,发现相对于物质资本积累的迅速增长,中国人力资本积累严重不足,人力资本存量与物资资本存量的比率连年下降,这必然会影响经济的长期稳定增长,必须增加人力资本投资来提高人力资本积累。

Human capital is a source of economic growth, and inadequate human capital will undermine long-term economic growth. This paper constructs a human capital economic growth model to indicate the important role that human capital plays in economic growth and gives a poverty trap hypothesis of economic growth resulting from human capital deficiency. This paper also examines China＇s human capital and physical capital growth from 1978 to 2004, and finds that human capital accumulation is highly deficient comparing to the rapid growth of physical capital. The ratio of human capital stock to physical capital stock declines year after year, which will certainly affect the long-term economic growth. It is urgent to increase investment in human capital.