YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZİ - Çukurova Üniversitesi

ABSTRACT
THE ROLE AND IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN CAPITAL IN THE ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT: AN APPLICATION FOR ADANA
Bilgehan GÖKÇEN
M.A. Thesis, Department of Economics
Supervisor: Professor Nejat ERK
August 2006 111 pages
In the analysis of the 21st century economies, the socio-economic indicators of
countries have gained more significance. As a result, human capital, which has not received
the attention it deserves until the last quarter century, has started to attract more attention.
Thus, the increasing importance of human capital, in addition to classical production factors,
such as labor, capital, natural resources, and entrepreneurship, in recent years has necessitated
reconsideration of growth and development policies. In this regard, whether a meaningful
relationship exists between human capital and competition is investigated in the following
thesis. Specifically, an inquiry which consists of 14 questions was developed and used as a
measure of human capital of selected firms in manufacturing in the Adana area. On the
dependent variable side, the tax bases of the firms were used as a proxy for competitiveness.
In particular, the firms were divided into two groups consisting of firms reporting profits and
firms reporting losses. Such a binary division was needed since no tax base was available for
the firms, reporting losses. Finally, a Probit Model was constructed and used to assess the
impact of human capital indicators on the firms' profit probabilities. The results reveal that of
all the human capital indicators only seniority and female participation increase the profit
probabilities significantly. Also, a textile dummy indicates that the firms in the textile industry
have lower profit probabilities than others.
Keywords: Human Capital, Economic Growth, Economic Development, Probit Model.
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