Comparative Study On Human Capital And Economic Growth In Yunnan, Guizhou And Sichuan Provinces

From1978to2008, the annual average rate of economic growth in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces is9.77%、9.47%、9.95%respectively. There exist great similarities and also significant differences in human capital of three provinces. Is this the reason for the similarities and diversities in economic growth?According to the endogenous economic growth theory, the human capital theory and the concept of human capital put forward first by Theodore W. Shultz, we choose12indexes such as average salary, per capita educational expenditure to measure the human capital accumulation. In this paper we calculate the human capital accumulation by using the principal component analysis method and the factor analysis method of multivariate statistical analysis.We employ Lucas overflow model to reveal the relationship between local GDP and material capital and the relationship between the level of human capital and the human capital accumulation. We measure the contributions of different elements to economic growth and find out the similarities and diversities of economic growth in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces. We also analyze how the human capital accumulation influences their economic growth.The conclusions are as follow:Guizhou has the highest relative output efficiency of material capital, the second is Sichuan and the lowest is Yunnan. But the relative output efficiency of human capital is highest in Yunnan, and the next is Sichuan which is followed by Guizhou. The level of human capital and the human capital accumulation are not the main reasons for the economic growth in these three provinces. There are increasing returns to scale and the trend of endogenous economic growth in their economy. The contribution rates of human capital to their economy growth are increasing slowly. The material capital contributes most to economic growth in these three provinces and the contribution of material capital reduces the diversities in economic growth of these provinces. The human capital is the main reason leading to the differences of economic growth in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces.