Intension, Characters And Economic Function Of Human Capital

Schultz (1960), the American economist puts forward the concept of human capital firstly, and passing Becker and other economists setting up the theory of human capital. In the eighties, Lucas and Rumor Introduced the theory of the human capital to the new increasing theory, he pointed that the knowledge and human capital are key production elements as the physical resources, because knowledge products and human capital have utility of overflowing, therefore, they have increasing marginal productivity, which can improve the long-term developing rate of one country.As to the intension of human capital, different scholars have different opinions, but they all acknowledge that human capital is the colligation of education, knowledge, technology and etc., which can bring increase to the future income. Its concept includes three aspects: firstly, it embodies, coagulates and stores in the human body in a potential form, which cannot be separated from its carrier or natural owner—human; secondly, it is transformed from some investment, if there is no investment, the human capital cannot be formed; thirdly, it can bring future benefit.Comparing with the other capitals, besides some common characters, there are some special characters for human capital, which are shown in the four aspects, such as material, value, investment and property right. As for the aspect of material, human capital has the following characters, such as immateriality, exterior, sociality, time limitation, arrangement, adherence, and wear; as for the aspect of value character, human capital has the following characters, such as self-increment, changeable, intangible and difficult to measure, and transmissibility; as for the aspect of investment, human capital has the following characters, such as income increasing by degrees, multi-investors, and multi-beneficiaries; as for the property right, the characters of human capital are shown as adherence to human bodies, depreciation when "property right is deformity", and spontaneity for realizing its value.The development history of world economy has shown that the economy development is sustainable only based on the enhancement of the human capital. Every economic time has its own scarce resources, for example, in agricultural economy and industrial economy, material capital is the main resource of the economy development, and then in the coming knowledge economy, human capital will become the main resource of the economy development. The researches of the economic theory and...