Human Capital and Economic Growth: Pakistan, 1960-2003

This paper investigates the relationship between human capital and economic growth in Pakistan with time series data. Estimated with the Johansen (1991) approach, the aggregate production function rejects one version of the endogenous growth formulation. But the fitted model indicates that the output elasticity of human capital may be expected to increase with foreign technical progress. Higher productivity of secondary schooling than in OECD economies is consistent with the low levels so far attained in Pakistan. High returns to health spending compare very favourably with industrial investment. Human capital is estimated to have accounted for just under one fifth of the increase in GDP per head, a figure that is probably biased downwards because of the unmeasured dimensions of human capital.