Capital humano e crescimento econômico: o caso da economia paranaense no início do século XXI

Abstract

The aim of this research is to analyze the influence of human capital in regional concentration of Parana s State economical growth, at the beginning of the 21st century. To do so, the panel method has been used, from Least Squares Dummy Variables Estimator (LSDV) method, with 399 Parana s State municipalities as a sample between 1999 and 2006. Hence, the data used was the Gross National Product (GNP) as a dependent variable, as well as Human capital (HC), Physical capital (PC), Social Capital (SC), Natural Capital (NC) and municipal socio-human investment (SHC I), segmented by region, as explanatory variables. In order to determine these variables, the following proxies have been used: the GNP that represents economical growth (dependence variable); the average number of years of study for the 25 year-old-population and above for HC; the level of electrical energy consumption in industry, for PC, the number of cooperatives, syndical entities and other kinds of non-profit organizations for every 1000 inhabitants, for SC; the added value in agriculture, for NC; and public municipal investments in health, sanitation, education and culture, for SHC-I. The reported results stress a high level of explanation of the proposed variables to justify economical growth and, except social-human investment, all of them have an impact on the level of economical growth of the regions. Even so, it has been proved that the human capital is one of the main factors to determine economical growth, working as a catalyzing mechanism of regional development. However, its full performance occurs from its interaction with the other factors, especially the physical and the social capital. Before that, the study innovates because it is one of the first studies regarding analysis of regional disparities, as of the set of municipalities of the whole State in panel data. On the other hand, this study moves forward in the understanding of the interaction among natural, human and social capital, allowing a new analysis to determine the economical growth. Therefore, the development of human capital is one of the alternatives to stimulate economical growth of Parana s regions, working as a tool to reduce regional economical disparities of the State.