Human Capital and Growth: What Can we Learn from Micro-data? Evidence from Taiwan (1976-95)

This paper uses micro-data to define aggregate human capital stock indicators and proposes various specifications to test for the role of human capital accumulation on economic growth. An empirical evaluation on the Taiwanese experience over the 1975-96 period suggests that: (i) the use of alternative human capital measures does not allow for the identification of significant differences with usual indicators when estimating the direct contribution of human capital accumulation to economic growth, (ii) specifying indirect channels through which human capital accumulation may affect economic growth allows for a clear identification of external effects arising through intersectoral interactions.