Human Resources Development and Research Capacity and Their Impact on Economic Growth

The goal of this research is to provide an analysis of the development of the Republic of Croatia and 110 selected countries in terms of human resource development index components and the components of the Technological Achievement Index. Developmental lags of the Republic of Croatia were determined by the bird's eye view method in terms of the observed developmental indicators, and suggestions were provided for their development. The impact of the analysed indicators and their components on the economic growth of the Republic of Croatia and the selected countries was established by regression analysis. The paper provides possible developmental guidelines for certain components. The results of the research proved that the Human Resources Development Index is insufficient in the analysis of economic development, as well as the existence of the expected correlation between trained human resources, which enable technological progress, and economic growth of a country. Taking into consideration the correlation between the growth of the Human Resources Development Index, Research Capacity Index, Technology and Innovation Index, and the Ability to Absorb Knowledge and Technology Index and economic growth, which was determined by the application of a model, Croatia has to make additional investments in the growth of human capital and labour productivity in order to reduce developmental lags