Comparing Macroeconomic Returns on Human and Public Capital: An Empirical Analysis of the Portuguese Case (1960-2001)
JOURNAL
YEAR
Sep 21, 2005
TYPE
Articles in journals
AUTHORS
St. Aubyn, M., Pina, A.
VOL Nº
27
PAGES
13
ABSTRACT
The impact of human and public capital on growth is a major issue in economic theory and in policy evaluation. Using a cointegrated vector autoregression (VAR), we estimate a Cobb-Douglas production function for Portugal with public and human capital. Return rates are then computed with and without dynamic feedbacks. Without these, human capital yields a return comparable to private investment, and smaller than public investment. Considering dynamic feedbacks, private capital responds positively to a shock in public capital, but negatively to a shock in human capital. Consequently, the dynamic feedbacks return on human capital is much lower than on public capital.
JEL CLASS
KEYWORDS
Human capital, Public capital,Economic growth,Portugal