Research On The Impacts Of Human Capitalon Economic Growth In Guangdong Province

As one of the producing factors, human capital has great impact on the stable and sustainable development of economy of a region or country, and it is the source of economic growth. Especially with the development of the knowledge economy and the informatization time, such impact will be greater. Since the concept and theory of human capital was presented by the American economist Schultz in1960s, the theory of human capital and economic growth have been greatly developed by scholars in western countries, which has provided more effective theoretical frame to analyze real economic situation. Based on the western theories of human capital, Chinese scholars have enriched the research on the relationship between human capital and the economic growth in order to explain the effect and contribution of human capital to the economic growth in view of the large population of China. On the basis of Cobb-Douglas production function, Lucas outside endogenous production function was used in the paper, in which the human capital was considered as a kind of independent producing factor. Regression analysis is conducted in the contribution of the quantity and quality the human capital to the high-speed economic growth, and how to enhance the function of human capital in the economic growth is also put forward.Since1980s, the economy of Guangdong Province has developed quickly and has ranked first in China in more than20years. In a long period, the economy of Guangdong has been increased in scale and optimized in structure. The second industry plays a leading role and the third industry develops fast, which show that the Guangdong economy has entered the post-industrial era. The jobholders in the second and third industries and in towns and cities have increased. The percentage of the town and city jobholders in the state-owned economic organizations decreases and the employment structure lags behind the industrial structure. About the investment structure, the domestic investors are the main ones, and the basic industries and the infrastructure are the main invested fields, which has improved the investment environment. Heavy industries feature the industrial structure, joint-stock enterprises are the main forms of the enterprise organization. Although the percentage of output value of the state-owned enterprises decreases, they still have great impact.In the nine main industries, the emerging and the potential industries replace the traditional industries and become the developing priorities. Foreign capital plays an important role in the rapid economic growth in Guangdong province. The export and import value of Guangdong has ranked first in26years, and the balance of trade is increasing. Processing with imported materials is the main trade pattern. In the exported and imported products, mechanical and electrical products take up the largest share. Asia is the biggest import and export market and the largest foreign capital source. Although the economic structure adjustment is conducted smoothly, challenges still exist in the industry upgrade, coordinated development of the regional economy, the carrying capacity of resources and environment and the adjustment after loss of the policy priorities.As an important coastal province in eastern China, Guangdong is not only a province of large population, but also a region where large floating population live. The result of the sixth population census shows that Guangdong has become the first large population province, which means Guangdong has large labor source. But the structural shortage of labor is increasingly serious, the employment structure and the industrial structure conflict. Human capital is one of the important producing factors, the quantity and the quality have great impact on the economic growth. Since the opening and reform policy, the quality of the human capital in Guangdong have been improving and higher than the average level in China, but there is distance compared with the developed provinces (cities) in eastern China. And the difference inside the human capital in Guangdong is very obvious and is increasing. The average education time of Perl River Delta region is2years longer than the eastern and western districts and the northern mountain district. The education, science, and medical treatment are the important ways to improve the quality of human capital. The percentage of the expenditure of education, science, and medical treatment in Guangdong is increasing year by year, although the percentage is higher than the average level, it is going down in the aggregated fiscal expenditure all over the country.Based on the econometric analysis of the function of the material capital and the human capital in the economic growth in Guangdong, it is found that the output elasticity of material capital is higher than that of the human capital elasticity. Thus, the conclusions are as follows:in the economic growth of Guangdong from the year of1978to2009, the contribution of the material capital takes up80.68%, the contribution of human capital takes up11.91%, during which the contribution of the human capital stock and of the human capital quality is8.44%and3.47%respectively.It shows that the economic growth of Guangdong in the past mainly depends on the investment of material capital, and is featured as extensive mode of growth. The upgrade of the industrial structure is the focus of the economic development in the future, and it is also the basis whether the Guangdong economy can develop sustainably and soundly. In view of this point, it not only requires the government to increase the investment in education, science and medical treatment, the vocational training should also be emphasized, the skills of the labor should be improved, the investment in human capital should be strengthened in various ways, so the quality of the human capital can be improved, the contribution of human capital to the economic growth can be increased, and the Guangdong economy can develop sustainably.