The Impact of Human Capital on Growth: Evidence from West Africa

BySonia Brunschwig, Emilio Sacerdoti, Jon Tang

November 1, 1998

Disclaimer: This Working Paper should not be reported as representing the views of the IMF.The views expressed in this Working Paper are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent those of the IMF or IMF policy. Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to further debate

Summary

This paper analyzes the impact of human capital on growth, on the basis of refined calculations of human capital, and with a focus on West Africa. Using a growth-accounting methodology, it distinguishes the sources of growth between the accumulation of factors of production and changes in production intensity or efficiency. Private capital is found to be particularly important to growth, but human capital appears not to be significant. The paper also identifies the terms of trade, trade openness, the government deficit, and the share of government investment in total investment as key policy variables affecting growth.

Subject: Capital accumulation, Education, Financial institutions, Human capital, Labor, National accounts, Production, Stocks, Total factor productivity

Keywords: Africa, capital, Capital accumulation, capital growth, capital output ratio, coefficient of determination, contribution to growth, country, growth, Human capital, initial capital output ratio, labor substitution, output ratio, physical capital, production function, Stocks, Total factor productivity, West Africa, WP

Pages:
34
Volume:
1998
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5089/9781451981148.001
Issue:
162
Series:
Working Paper No. 1998/162
Stock No:
WPIEA1621998
ISBN:
9781451981148
ISSN:
1018-5941

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