Human capital base and employment in Punjab

Abstract

There has never been restraint on the part of the economists through ages as to find out the factors of economic development. Smithian economists enquired the nature and causes of the wealth of the nation. The mercantilists were of the view that foreign trade is the magic wand for growth. Economists of the eighteenth century concentrated on capital formation as the way that an economy can grow. Marx formulated a labour theory of value for growth. Development of entrepreneurial ability was the key for development in Schumpeter's writings. It has been a consensus among a large chunk of economists that the growth in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has never trickled down to the masses. Rather, the unanimous agreement has been to address the basic human capital development and poise for a growth model with a human face. It was only in the twentieth century that the term human capital has been considered as a growth engine and has been developed in more systematic manner. This approach defines developed in more systematic manner. This approach defines people as a capital asset which yields a stream of economic benefits over their working life. During the past two decades or so, our perspective of the goals of development has gone under a sea change. Income levels, growth and distribution of income, are no more the sole objectives of development. Education, health and quality of life have become equally respectable objectives of development. Significantly, education and health are not only taken to be the end objectives of development, they are universally recognized as crucial means to development as well. Human capital is already surging ahead to replace physical capital as the sole mover of the growth process.