2072-64142411-140610.17059/ekon.reg.2023-2-7THE EFFECT OF HUMAN CAPITAL ON ECONOMIC GROWTH: EVIDENCE FROM KAZAKH REGIONSВЛИЯНИЕ ЧЕЛОВЕЧЕСКОГО КАПИТАЛА НА ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЙ РОСТ (НА ПРИМЕРЕ РЕГИОНОВ КАЗАХСТАНА)https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0042-9929Turganbayev Yerken M. Турганбаев Еркен Муксунович yerken.turganbayev@nu.edu.kzNazarbayev UniversityНазарбаев Университет192385396Copyright © 2023 Yerken M. TurganbayevCopyright © 2023 Еркен Муксунович Турганбаев2023Yerken M. TurganbayevЕркен Муксунович ТурганбаевCC BY 4.0https://www.economyofregions.org/ojs/index.php/er/article/view/606https://www.economyofregions.org/ojs/index.php/er/article/download/606/201

The importance of human capital for economic growth is now widely recognised and has been studied extensively. However, the influence of human capital on economic growth of Kazakhstan has not yet been studied fully enough. In particular, to the best of the knowledge, there are no studies that use various approximations of human capital and utilise both direct and indirect approaches. Using educational and health indicators, this paper tests empirically how human capital influences economic growth of Kazakh regions over the period 1994-2019 both as a production function and through total factor productivity (TFP). The analysis revealed that human capital is insignificant as a production factor but has significant indirect effect on the TFP growth rate. The latter is realised through the ability to imitate and introduce new technologies from outside rather than through the domestic innovation. The scientific novelty of this research is as follows. Firstly, it uses both educational and health approximations of human capital. Secondly, it studies how human capital influences economic growth of the Kazakh regions both directly as a production factor and indirectly through TFP. Thirdly, it checks for the presence of spatial dependence in data across Kazakhstan regions. Fourthly, it constructs average years of schooling data across the regions of the country. The results of the study are important for designing policies to increase economic growth of the country and its regions. As a further development of this work, it seems interesting to use other approximations of human capital.

В настоящее время значение человеческого капитала для экономического роста становится предметом многих исследований. Однако его влияние на экономический рост Казахстана еще недостаточно исследовано. В частности, отсутствуют работы, в которых использованы различные аппроксимации человеческого капитала, а также прямой и косвенный подходы к изучению данного вопроса. В статье с опорой на показатели в сферах образования и здравоохранения анализируется влияние человеческого капитала на экономический рост регионов Казахстана за 1994-2019 гг. как в качестве фактора производства, так и через совокупную факторную производительность (СФП). Проведенный анализ показал, что человеческий капитал незначим как фактор производства, но оказывает существенное косвенное влияние на темпы роста СФП через способность имитировать и внедрять новые технологии извне, а не за счет внутренних инноваций. Основные результаты данного исследования заключаются в следующем. Во-первых, проанализированы и показатели образования, и показатели здравоохранения человеческого капитала. Во-вторых, изучено влияние человеческого капитала на экономический рост казахстанских регионов как непосредственно в виде фактора производства, так и косвенно через СФП. В-третьих, протестирована пространственная зависимость данных по регионам Казахстана. В-четвертых, представлены данные о средней продолжительности обучения в регионах страны. Результаты исследования могут быть использованы для разработки политики ускорения экономического роста Казахстана и его регионов. В будущих исследованиях предполагается оценить другие аппроксимации человеческого капитала.

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