economists T. Schultz and G. Becker (representatives of the "Chicago School"), who
were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics (T. Schultz in 1979, G. Becker in the year
of 1992). Later, B. Weisbrod, D. Mincer, L. Thurow, W. Bowen, M. Blaug, E. Denison,
S. Daisy, R. Solow, J. Kendrick, S. Kuznets, S. Fabrikant, R. Lukas, and others also
contributed to the development of this category.
Among national authors who devoted their scientific works to the problem of the
human capital, it should be mentioned: V.I. Basova, V.S. Goylo, A.I. Dobrynina, S.A.
Dyatlova, R.I. Kapelyushnikova, V.P. Korchagin, S.A. Kurgan, etc. Initially, the
human capital was considered to be a cost factor of development, meaning a set of
investments in a person, increasing its ability to work - education and professional
skills.
In the following, this concept significantly expanded. According to one of the
Russian scientists - Yu. A. Korchagin, in general, in the development of the category
of human capital, three main stages can be traced. Initially, he was identified only with
education (narrow definition of the HC). At the second stage, the HC (extended
definition) gradually included (in particular, World Bank experts), including education,
science, people's health, information services, culture and art. In the third stage,
investments were made in the components ensuring human security (singled out from
the quality of life of the population because of the special importance, especially for
developing countries), the training of an effective elite, the formation and development
of civil society, the improvement of institutional services, and investments in
improving quality of the life of the population and in the inflow of capital from without
to a given country or region.
In other words, the evolutionary development of the concept of the human capital
clearly led to its complication and intersection with other categories, such as the level
and quality of life; expenditure on scientific, research and development work, health,
job and information search; the index of economic freedom, the index of economic and
institutional regime, the index of development of innovation activity, the index of ICT
development, etc.
In addition, the concept of the human capital gradually developed purely
investment criteria: it also included the final results of the activities of "educated
people", both in the form of revenue generated and in the form of other useful benefits;
the environment in which the HC "is formed and works"; used toolkit (means of work
of the human capital).
Meanwhile, to the basic assets of the human capital, so far, despite its "broad"
interpretations, all those elements that correspond (only) to the basic forms of
investment in it include: general and special education; health, birth and upbringing of
children; migration; search of economically significant information; spiritual stability;
intellectual mobility of man.
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