Resumen de Capital humano, inversión educativa y crecimiento económico: Revisión y actualización de la asimetría económica regional en España (1980-2012)

Antonio Rafael Peña Sánchez, Mercedes Jiménez García, José Ruiz Chico

• español

  Uno de los temas más controvertidos dentro de la teoría económica es el papel productivo que el capital humano ejerce sobre el desarrollo regional, y, por ende, en la determinación de las disparidades económicas territoriales. Aunque los resultados obtenidos al respecto difieren, pues dependen en gran medida de los datos y la metodología utilizada, la conclusión común es que parece existir un efecto positivo del capital humano en el desarrollo económico. En este sentido, los objetivos propuestos en este trabajo han sido los siguientes: en primer lugar, se trata de analizar el proceso de convergencia experimentado por el Producto Interior Bruto per cápita (PIBpc) en el periodo 1980-2012, así como los factores determinantes de dicho proceso; y en segundo lugar, se estudia el papel desempeñado por el capital humano en la dinámica de las disparidades económicas regionales.

• English

  One of the most controversial issues in economic theory is the productive role that human capital has on regional development, and therefore, on determining the regional economic disparities. Although the results obtained in this regard differ because they depend heavily on data and methodology, the common conclusion is that there seems to be a positive effect of human capital on economic development.

  The recent economic theory holds that human capital has a positive impact on economic development and growth in productivity. This positive relationship is obtained through three ways.

  First, the education enables the evolution of knowledge through the training of scientists; and it becomes feasible thanks to the preparation of technical application of this knowledge, improving the adaptation of the system to the changes performed in products, processes and productive organization. Second, education also increases the skills of workers to process information and to make decisions, which significantly affects their productivity. And third, the imperfections in the process of accumulation of human capital are produced by positive externalities, or by the difficulties of the access to the credit in order to finance this kind of investment. It implies the responsibility of the provision of education belongs to the Public Administration, in parallel with the political decisions in this field, which should also take into account distributional issues such as equal opportunities, or effects on the quality of life of workers.