Human Capital and Economic Development
Human Capital and Economic Development
In the last few decades, there has been a massive expansion in studies relating these two variables in the most varied contexts of time and place. This project contributes to these debates through the study of mainly human capital in 19th century Portugal and its relation to the performance of the economy. One of the dimensions here has to do with the slow industrialization of Portugal during the 19th century and the role in this of the very high levels of illiteracy in the labour force. The results obtained thus far suggest that, as in other countries, non-school skills may have been more important than literacy in this respect. Scarce literacy may not have mattered so much since the level of technological development was low. A second part of the project studies the level and manner of acquisition of numeracy skills, another vital aspect of human capital for development. In this it follows the recent trend which uses "age-heaping" based on census data and calculates numeracy from this. The aim is to make micro estimates of this attribute and relate these findings to local determinants of the acquisition of this qualification. A third aspect has to do with the formation of "white-collar" labour. This is analysed in the context of our project on the history of the Bank of Portugal (P-156). The hypothesis is that in certain work environments with high skill requirements and a large and costly component of education and monitoring, "internal labour markets" are likely to emerge. These arrangements provide a stable supply of workers and mechanisms for watching over them which are both efficient and cheap. There presence can be tested forby checking whether such features of internal labour markets are present namely above average rates of pay, upward career progression and absence of lateral entry port above a certain level. Finally, this project includes section of anthropometric study, which relies on data from the military measurement of the statures of young men. These heights are a good proxy for human capital dimensions such as health and robustness. This approach has the advantage of permitting us to estimate indirectly the evolution of Portugal's per capita GDP and establishing comparisons with the many countries which have been assessed in this way.
In the last few decades, there has been a massive expansion in studies relating these two variables in the most varied contexts of time and place. This project contributes to these debates through the study of mainly human capital in 19th century Portugal and its relation to the performance of the economy. One of the dimensions here has to do with the slow industrialization of Portugal during the 19th century and the role in this of the very high levels of illiteracy in the labour force. The results obtained thus far suggest that, as in other countries, non-school skills may have been more important than literacy in this respect. Scarce literacy may not have mattered so much since the level of technological development was low. A second part of the project studies the level and manner of acquisition of numeracy skills, another vital aspect of human capital for development. In this it follows the recent trend which uses "age-heaping" based on census data and calculates numeracy from this. The aim is to make micro estimates of this attribute and relate these findings to local determinants of the acquisition of this qualification. A third aspect has to do with the formation of "white-collar" labour. This is analysed in the context of our project on the history of the Bank of Portugal (P-156). The hypothesis is that in certain work environments with high skill requirements and a large and costly component of education and monitoring, "internal labour markets" are likely to emerge. These arrangements provide a stable supply of workers and mechanisms for watching over them which are both efficient and cheap. There presence can be tested forby checking whether such features of internal labour markets are present namely above average rates of pay, upward career progression and absence of lateral entry port above a certain level. Finally, this project includes section of anthropometric study, which relies on data from the military measurement of the statures of young men. These heights are a good proxy for human capital dimensions such as health and robustness. This approach has the advantage of permitting us to estimate indirectly the evolution of Portugal's per capita GDP and establishing comparisons with the many countries which have been assessed in this way.
