Management functions by stages of human capital reproduction. Formation and development of human capital

Human capital- assessment of the potential ability embodied in the individual to bring income. Includes innate abilities and talents, as well as education and acquired qualifications. The concept of human capital was developed by American scientists, Nobel Prize winners in economics Gary Becker and Theodor Schultz. They showed that investing in human capital can give a high economical effect and that in recent decades they have increasingly determined the development of the economy, especially in industrialized countries.

Human capital- a set of knowledge, abilities, skills used to meet the diverse needs of a person and society as a whole. The term was first used by Theodor Schultz, and his follower, Gary Becker, developed this idea by substantiating the effectiveness of investments in human capital and formulating economic approach to human behavior.

Initially, human capital was understood only as a set of investments in a person that increases his ability to work - education and professional skills. In the future, the concept of human capital has expanded significantly. The latest calculations made by the World Bank experts include consumer spending - the cost of families for food, clothing, housing, education, health care, culture, as well as government spending for these purposes.

Human capital in broad sense is an intensive productive factor economic development, the development of society and the family, including the educated part labor resources, knowledge, tools of intellectual and managerial work, environment and labor activity that ensure the efficient and rational functioning of human capital as a productive development factor.

Briefly: Human capital- this is intelligence, health, knowledge, high-quality and productive work and quality of life.

Human capital - main factor formation and development of innovation economy and knowledge economy as the next highest stage of development.

One of the conditions for the development and improvement of the quality of human capital is a high index of economic freedom.

The classification of human capital is used:

1. Individual human capital.

2. The human capital of the firm.

3. National human capital.

In national wealth, human capital in developed countries is from 70 to 80%. In Russia, about 50%.

The concept of human capital is a natural development and generalization of the concepts of the human factor and human resource, however, human capital is a broader economic category. The founders of the theory of human capital (HC) gave it a narrow definition, which has expanded over time and continues to expand, including all new components of HC. As a result, human capital has become a complex intensive factor in the development of the modern economy - the knowledge economy.

Currently, on the basis of the theory and practice of human capital, a successful paradigm for the development of the United States and leading European countries is being formed and improved. Based on the theory of the Cheka, which was lagging behind, Sweden modernized its economy and returned its leadership position in the world economy in the 2000s. Finland, in a historically short period of time, has managed to move from a predominantly resource-based economy to an innovative economy. And to create their own competitive high technologies, without giving up the deepest processing of their main natural wealth - the forest. Managed to reach the first place in the world in terms of the competitiveness of the economy as a whole. Moreover, the Finns created their innovative technologies and products on the income from timber processing into goods with high added value.

All this took place not because the theory and practice of the Cheka implemented a kind of magic wand, but because it became the answer economic theory and practice to the challenges of the time, to the challenges of the emerging in the second half of the 20th century innovation economy (knowledge economy) and venture scientific and technical business.

The development of science, the formation of the information society to the fore as components of a complex intensive development factor - human capital - have brought forward knowledge, education, health, the quality of life of the population and the leading specialists themselves, who determine the creativity and innovation of national economies.

In the context of the globalization of the world economy, in the conditions of free flow of any capital, including HC, from country to country, from region to region, from city to city in the conditions of intense international competition, the accelerated development of high technologies.

And huge advantages in creating stable conditions for the growth of the quality of life, the creation and development of the knowledge economy, the information society, the development of civil society have countries with accumulated high-quality human capital. That is, countries with an educated, healthy and optimistic population, competitive world-class professionals in all types of economic activity, in education, science, management and other areas.

The understanding and choice of human capital as the main development factor literally dictates the systemic and A complex approach when developing a development concept or strategy and linking all other private strategies and programs with them. This dictate follows from the essence of the national Cheka as a multicomponent development factor. Moreover, this diktat emphasizes the conditions of life, work and the quality of the tools of specialists that determine the creativity and creative energy of the country.

The core of the Cheka, of course, was and remains a man, but now he is an educated, creative and initiative man, possessing high level professionalism. Human capital itself determines in the modern economy the main share of the national wealth of countries, regions, municipalities and organizations. At the same time, the share of unskilled labor in the GDP of developed and developing countries, including Russia, is getting smaller, and in technologically advanced countries it is already vanishingly small.

Therefore, the division of labor into unskilled labor and labor requiring education, special skills and knowledge is gradually losing its original meaning and economic content when defining human capital, which the founders of the human capital theory identified with educated people and their accumulated knowledge and experience. The concept of human capital as an economic category is constantly expanding along with the development of the global information community and the knowledge economy.

Human capital, broadly defined, is the intensive productiveeconomic development factor, society and family, including the educated part of the labor force, knowledge, tools for intellectual and managerial work, the environment and labor activity that ensure the effective and rational functioning of the human capital as a productive development factor.

Human capital is formed through investments in improving the level and quality of life of the population, in intellectual activity. Including - in upbringing, education, health, knowledge (science), entrepreneurial ability and climate, in the information support of labor, in the formation of an effective elite, in the security of citizens and business and economic freedom, as well as in culture, art and other components. The Cheka is also formed due to the influx from other countries. Or it decreases due to its outflow, which is observed so far in Russia.

AT composition of human capital includes investments and returns from them in the tools of intellectual and managerial work, as well as investments in the environment for the functioning of the human capital, ensuring its effectiveness.

What is the essence of the concept of "human capital"?

No matter how developed the state was, no matter what level its economy and scientific and technical progress were, all this would not have been possible without the most important element of all processes - a person. In the advanced countries of the world, there is more and more development in the economic and social spheres life is accompanied

strengthening the role of the human factor. When the resource base is exhausted, the human resource becomes the key moment that provides further development economy. AT scientific literature a huge number of interpretations of this category are presented, which can be reduced to one: human capital is the totality of all acquired knowledge, experience, skills and health of a person that he uses in his professional activity. This concept does not mean the number of people involved in production, as many people think.

Realizing the importance of this factor, many scientists of the world decided to understand the main provisions on which the theory of human capital should be based. many various options, each of which had the right to exist. The modern understanding of the concept of human capital is based on the provisions put forward by the Nobel Prize winner G. Becker. They come down to this:

• human capital turns into capital when applying for a job due to knowledge, skills, creativity, innovativeness of a person;
• the growth of this factor should be the key to the success of the growth of the main indicators of the company;
• the proper use of capital rightly leads to an increase in the well-being of workers;
• the growth of well-being is an incentive to invest in yourself, in your skills, improving skills and professionalism, in order to further use them in your work.

Becker emphasized the need for a purely individual approach when choosing an option to improve their skills and abilities, so that human capital subsequently pays for itself and contributes to the development of the company and the country as a whole.

Human capital is part of one large developing system, so its development is a natural process. Of course, the person himself must realize the usefulness of his own development in the professional, spiritual and other areas of his life. Without the desire to achieve something, the desire to know oneself and the world, the very idea of ​​development is impossible. An important role in this process is played by motivation and the conditions created for this development. Many firms consider investing in human capital along with investing in high-yield assets. It mainly means investing in the education and health of its employees. That is, conditions must be created for continuous training in new techniques, techniques, the possibility of obtaining a higher education. vocational education. In addition, measures to maintain and care for the health of an employee contribute to an increase in the use of his useful knowledge and skills, which again increases his human capital.

Human capital is a set of competencies, knowledge, abilities, skills used to meet the diverse needs of a person and society as a whole, as well as social attributes of an individual, including creative, cognitive abilities, embodied in labor abilities.

Human capital is seen as an activity that cannot be delegated to third parties. Human capital cannot be sold or transferred to others.

The term "human capital" was first proposed by Theodor Schultz.

According to Theodor Schulz, “one of the forms of capital is education, it is called human because this form becomes part of a person, and it is capital because it is a source of future satisfactions or future earnings, or both together.” Later, Schultz added to his theory as follows: "Consider all human abilities either as innate or as acquired properties ... which are valuable and which can be developed with appropriate investments, will be human capital."

Classification of human capital:

• individual human capital - individual level;
• human capital of an organization (firm) – micro level;
• regional human capital - mesolevel;
• national human capital - macro level;
• supranational (global) human capital – global level.

Human capital provides for a multi-level model of development. Lower-level human capital originates in the knowledge, learning, skills, behavior and other characteristics of individuals. Individual human capital produces knowledge and innovation. Then, individual human capital is enhanced by interaction with the environment, and manifests itself as human capital of a higher level as a collective phenomenon - human capital of an organization, national human capital, supranational human capital. At the same time, the collective phenomenon of human capital is manifested and at the same time remains a part of individual human capital.

Individual human capital, unlike collective human capital (organizational human capital, national human capital), is a non-renewable source.

Individual human capital it is an economic kind of talent that includes the inherent personal qualities of a person, tied to his body and accessible only through his own free will, for example:

• physical and mental health;
• knowledge, skills, abilities;
• natural abilities, ability to moral examples;
• education;
• creativity, inventions;
• courage, wisdom, sympathy;
• leadership, inexpressible personal trust;
• labor mobility.

In a narrow sense, the value of individual human capital can be described through the formula:

where,
Zi - human knowledge;
Ui - human skills;
Oi - human experience;
AI - human initiative.

The intellectual, emotional and motivational skills that individuals possess determine their potential and value in a society or organization. Each of these elements of individual human capital contributes to success not only in professional life, but also in a person's personal life.

The skills that a person acquires are a form of capital - individual human capital. Skills are acquired through deliberate investment in education. The theory of human capital considers education as a commodity that must be used to obtain economic benefits. Individual human capital includes expenditures and investments for education and health maintenance, which leads to an increase in the productivity of the carrier of this human capital.

The connection between knowledge and individual human capital can be understood if a person realizes that capital is formed through investment. Investments in human resources are designed to increase productivity, the ability to earn more.

The cost of individual human capital in a broad sense is determined by the formula:

where,
CHKi - the cost of individual human capital;
PSi - the initial cost of individual human capital;
SUZi=γ1× PSi – cost of obsolete knowledge of individual human capital;
SPZi=γ2× Psi – cost of acquired knowledge, skills of individual human capital;
Cii - the cost of investment of individual human capital;
СЗНi=γ3× PSi - the cost of implicit knowledge, abilities of individual human capital;
γ1, γ2, γ3, γ4 - weight coefficients determined by expert.

Knowledge quickly becomes obsolete, so it is important for a person to constantly receive and apply useful knowledge. People accumulate knowledge and skills, which are considered one of the main forms of capital in the modern economy. Analyzing the components of formula 2 of individual human capital, we come to the conclusion that the value of human capital depends on the production of knowledge.

1. knowledge embodied in physical tools, machines, developments, research, that is, accumulated knowledge that becomes obsolete over time;
2. knowledge embodied in individuals for the purpose of obtaining education, qualifications, acquiring skills;
3. non-embodied (implicit) knowledge, for example: books, textbooks, instructions, manuals.

The transfer of knowledge contributes to the increase of human capital. Knowledge transfer includes such components as the source (sender) of knowledge, the recipient of knowledge, the relationship between the source and recipient of knowledge, the transmission channel, and the general context. Knowledge transfer occurs at the individual level, micro level, meso level, macro level and global level.

Organization human capital (enterprises, firms)

Knowledge within an organization is used to drive innovation, productivity, quality and is a critical ingredient for winning the competition for customers, technologies, technical solutions, special knowledge, financing, which creates an intangible advantage. The knowledge economy, the dynamics of the development of organizations and local systems are based on the exploitation of cognitive and intangible resources and intangible objects. The intangible advantage is formed by the assortment of attributes of the enterprise's intangible assets.

Human capital refers to the intangible assets of an organization, which do not have a physical form, but at the same time have a certain value for the organization. Human capital is converted into organizational assets. Human capital is not fungible. In an organization, individual human capital forms corporate culture, Wednesday. Human capital is inherent in people and cannot be owned by the organization.

The concept of human capital of an organization (firm) can be interpreted in different ways. It can be a resource that belongs to the organization - ideas, technologies, know-how, equipment, Scientific research, job descriptions etc. . On the other hand, human capital is the wealth of the organization in relation to the qualifications of the staff. The human capital of an organization is created with the help of employees, their innate and acquired knowledge, skills, abilities, talents and competencies. Therefore, the human capital of an organization is the total value that the company's employees create in accordance with their knowledge, skills, capabilities, using the organization's resources.

The formation of the human capital of the organization is carried out by the following methods:

• acquisition (selection and hiring);
• attraction and retention;
• development and training;
• merger and/or acquisition.

Ways to increase the human capital of an organization:

• trainings;
• performance monitoring;
• direct communication;
• certain job responsibilities;
• motivation.

The most common tool for professional development is training provided by the employer.

The cost of the human capital of an organization (firm) depends on the category of employee (unskilled and skilled workers, creative specialists, managers, etc.). The cost of human capital of an organization is affected by: high professional competence, intellectual and creative potential, the ability to perceive innovations and be a participant in innovations, adaptability to rapidly changing production conditions, possession of several specialties, professional mobility, responsibility, personal characteristics. The value of the human capital of an organization is probabilistic.

The human capital of an organization has a value that should only be understood in economic terms. The value of this type does not take into account the value of the individual to the family, society, or other aspects of one's social network. The focus of an organization's human capital value is strictly on the skills, knowledge, and experience an individual possesses and how much these assets are worth in relation to a particular employer. The human capital of an organization creates other forms of capital.

An example of how a person acquires human capital is the professional training of athletes. Often, an athlete begins the process of preparing for a sports career by learning the basics of this sport: getting an education, participating in sports events gaining experience in a particular sport. Assuming that the combination of knowledge, talent and experience is sufficient, then the athlete is offered the opportunity to play professionally where he gets additional experience. This whole process has economic value because the athlete's human capital is this species sports increases, and this leads to sports achievements (results) in various competitions. The value of the human capital of such an athlete grows from performance, and he becomes a salable "brand".

The human capital of an organization (CHC) can be represented as the sum of the individual human capital of the employees of this organization:

The human capital of an organization is a source of competitive advantage, it includes collective competencies, know-how, innovations, organizational procedures, intelligent technologies, corporate culture and relational capital. Armstrong identifies the three most important factors in achieving competitive advantage: innovation, quality and cost of leadership, but all of this depends on the quality of the organization's human resources. In the modern economy, the very existence and development of an organization depends on its innovativeness.

Human capital, as an asset of an enterprise, needs accounting.

The reputation of the organization, the brand of the employer affects the attraction of human capital to the company. Human capital may leave the organization in search of better opportunities for the working environment, learning and development, for better appreciation and recognition.

Regional human capital

Currently, human capital is the main factor in the socio-economic development of the region.

The economic development of the regions should provide for the formation of a "portfolio of resources" that ensures the growth of the competitiveness of the regional economy through (see Figure 1):

• investments;
• innovation and technology;
• accumulated funds.

Figure 1. Stages of growth in the competitiveness of the regional economy.

The economic success of a region depends on the population living in a given territory, the possibilities of regional human capital, and the level of unemployment. There is an outflow in regions with high unemployment work force, and as a result, a decrease in regional human capital. At the same time, dynamically developing regions are experiencing a shortage of labor resources. On January 1, 2015, a labor mobility program for Russians is being launched, for which it is planned to allocate 6 billion rubles from the federal budget over the next three years.

The property of human capital mobility is used in regional labor markets for intra-regional movement of human capital. The mobility of the population of the regions is due to economic and social reasons. In most families, households at the regional level support the migration of their grown children to large cities for study, search for more high paying job and labor mobility.

Intra-regional migration of human capital does not require the cost of moving the whole family, reduces tension in the labor markets of underdeveloped and depressed territories, single-industry towns in the region. Educational and labor migration of human capital within the region reduce the pressure on the regional labor market. AT modern conditions Labor migration of highly skilled workers is an important source of human capital accumulation that ensures prosperity and economic growth in the region. The mobility of the population modernizes the economic space of the region. With an increase in the mobility of the population, the unemployment rate decreases, and this leads to a change in the demographic structure of the region.

The human capital of the region is based on public consciousness, socio-political development. Regional human capital is measured by the proportion of the population with a certain level of education to total economic activity, income or output per capita. The knowledge and skills of the region's population are a key contributor to the region's business competitiveness and its ability to grow in the future. The importance of the human capital of the region is reflected in the depth and breadth of education, vocational training, qualifications and professions of the population of the region.

The effect of human capital at the regional level depends on economic indicators:

• the impact on the productivity of the region of the sphere of employment of the population;
• expansion of employment opportunities for persons endowed with a certain level of individual human capital.

The effect of regional human capital depends on the level of wages in the region, the migration of university graduates to economically developing regions, the migration of students, the creation of local developing agglomerations, and the development of the region's infrastructure.

The pattern of student migration is observed from places of permanent residence to places with a higher level of education and the subsequent first employment after receiving higher education. The flow of applicants to universities, universities largely depends on the economic or innovative characteristics of the region. The migration of human capital contributes to the production of regional knowledge. The regional knowledge base plays an important role in attracting university graduates to local employment. The regional university system contributes to the growth of the local regional knowledge base.
The innovative indicators of the region are directly related to the number of university graduates remaining in the regional economy. Innovative regions demonstrating significant regional knowledge assets tend to demonstrate a rich pool of skills, ideas and technologies, cultural environment, and business development. Skills, ideas and technologies are embodied both in the human capital of the labor force in the region and in the physical capital of the population of the region.

The deficit in regional human capital is a factor in the reduction of investment in the region's economy, and as a result economic downturn. The retention of professional and highly qualified personnel is one of the problems of retaining regional human capital. Globalization, dynamically developing regions affect the outflow of talent from less developed regions.

Innovative regions create a dynamically competitive economic environment that shapes the market. The presence of regional knowledge assets through local universities, research institutes ensures the innovativeness of the region. Local research develops regional business structures and generates a local workforce.

National human capital

Demography makes strict demands on the future development trends of the national labor market, national human capital. The age structure of the population is shifting towards an increase in the number of people older than working age. The working-age population is declining. These trends lead to a significant increase in the demographic burden on the working-age population.

National human capital - the country's human capital, which is integral part its national wealth. The condition for the accumulation of human capital is a high quality of life. The development of human capital and improvement of the quality of life essentially relies on the implementation of national projects. Human capital is the ability of the population to ensure economic growth.

National human capital includes:

• social capital;
• political capital;
• national intellectual priorities;
• national competitive advantages;
• the natural potential of the nation.

Increasing national competitiveness is a complex task, the success of which is determined by the development of human capital, economic institutions, the implementation and strengthening of existing competitive advantage Russia in the energy and raw materials industries and transport infrastructure and the creation of new competitive advantages associated with the diversification of the economy and the formation of a powerful scientific and technological complex and a knowledge economy.

National human capital is a part of innovative (creative) labor resources, accumulated competitive and highly productive knowledge, innovation system, intellectual capital and innovative technologies in all spheres of life and economy, as well as the quality of life, which together ensure the competitiveness of the economy of the country and the state in world markets in conditions of globalization.

National human capital is measured by its value, calculated various methods– for investments, discounting method and others. The value of the national human capital is calculated as the sum of the human capital of all people.
National human capital accounts for more than half of the national wealth of each of the developing countries and over 70-80% of the developed countries of the world.
Features of national human capital determined historical development world civilizations and countries of the world. National human capital in the XX and XXI centuries was and remains the main intensive factor in the development of the economy and society. The national security of the Russian Federation is achieved through the development of a national innovation system and investment in human capital.

Tax incentives to support investment and human capital development in Russian Federation:

• granting privileges on personal income tax;
• tax incentives for investments;
• support for the modernization of production;
• simplification of tax accounting and its convergence with accounting.

Supranational (global) human capital

Globalization refers to the free, natural movement of all resources: capital, goods, technology and people. The globalization of the economy forms a supranational, global level of human capital development. Globalization provides an opportunity to access new pools of human capital around the world. Mobility of human capital, talent across national borders creates risk economic growth organizations, regions, countries that are leaving the pool of human capital. The global mobility of human capital within global corporations and companies increases their economic returns. Cross-border migration of skilled labor in the next 20 years could lead to rising unemployment and social unrest.

Global human capital is a combination of education, experience, personal qualities and competencies that are represented in the workforce around the world, contributing to the development of the global economy. The concept of workers as important assets that have measurable economic value leads to development policies by international organizations in less developed countries. Most of international law revolves around the rights of workers and the recognition of the importance of creating a high value of human capital for the health and stability of the country. The most competitive human capital is the labor force from China, India, and South Korea.

Analysts and international economic development organizations evaluate the potential of developing countries and the success of investment efforts through economic indicators, such as the rate of human capital formation. The rate of human capital formation is determined through the "Human Development Index" (HDI), which includes information on life expectancy, education level and average personal income.

The concept of global human capital compares and evaluates indicators of the quantitative values ​​of the labor force in different countries. The globalization of human capital stimulates organizations to innovate, transform the practice of human capital management.
The formation of human capital in any country can be carried out by investing in education, the health care system, strengthening the conditions of family life, civil rights.

emergence theories of human capital was due to the need for a deeper understanding of the action of factors of production, in particular the nature of unusually high share changes in aggregate output, not explained by the quantitative increase in the factors of production used - labor and capital, as well as the need to offer a universal interpretation of the phenomenon of income inequality.

The economic approach to human behavior has gained ground thanks to two Nobel laureates- T. Schultz and G. Becker. The concept was introduced into scientific circulation "human capital" as a set of qualities, skills, abilities and knowledge of a person used by him for production (for income) or consumer purposes. This capital is called human because it is embodied in the personality of man; it is capital because it is either a source of future income, or future consumption, or both.

Human capital, like physical capital, is a durable good, but it can become morally obsolete, physically wear out, and it can become morally obsolete even before its physical wear and tear occurs, its value can rise and fall depending on changes. in the supply of complementary (mutually complementary) production factors and in the demand for their joint products.

The difference between human capital and physical capital is inseparability from the carrier. The carrier of human capital itself cannot be the subject of sale and purchase, at least in modern society. It can only be rented, ie. engage in work under an employment contract.

The following types of human capital.

Total human capital- this is knowledge and skills, regardless of where they were obtained, they can be used in other jobs.

Specific human capital - it is knowledge and skills that have value where they are acquired.

The production of general human capital is provided by the system of formal education, including general and special education, which improves the quality, increases the level and stock of human knowledge. Specific human capital is formed by spending on training to train workers directly at the workplace.

Human capital can be positive or negative.

Positive human capital defined as accumulated human capital that provides a useful return on investment.

Negative human capital The portion of accumulated human capital that does not provide any useful return on investment.

The accumulation of human capital depends on the available this society human potential. To evaluate it, the currently widely used human development index(HDI), which characterizes different sides development of society. The HDI of a country or region reflects the three leading factors of life: income, longevity, education.

Theory of human capital

The theory of human capital is based on the achievements of institutional theory, neoclassical theory, neo-Keynesianism and other economic theories that recognize the fact that people are the same capital for society as machines. The theory of human capital states that where the quality and quantity of human capital are higher, financial and physical capitals are respectively concentrated. And where low-quality human capital has been formed over the centuries, even a large amount of it will not help.

A special role in the development of the theory of human capital belongs to the American scientist, Nobel Prize winner G. Becker, whose contribution is to strengthen its theoretical justification from the standpoint of micro economic analysis and a significant expansion of the possibilities of its practical application.

History reference

Gary Becker was born in 1930 in Potstown (Pennsylvania). After graduating from Princeton University in 1951, he worked at Princeton and Columbia Universities. He received his doctorate in Chicago in 1955. After 1969, he was a professor at the University of Chicago and a member of the Hoover Institution for Revolution, War and Peace at Stanford University. As a professor of economics and sociology at the University of Chicago, in 1992. Becker was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics for "extending the scope of microeconomic analysis to a range of aspects of human behavior and interaction, including non-market behavior."

G. Becker became the founder of a whole family of new sections of economic theory - the economics of discrimination, the theory of human capital, the economics of crime, the economics of household and others. Becker's research in the field of economic analysis of the family was called the "new theory of consumption" ( new theory of consumption).

G. Becker developed the microeconomic foundations of the theory of human capital in his fundamental work in 1962. Human Capital. The model formulated in it became the basis for all subsequent research in this area. Any worker in Becker's view can be considered as a combination of one unit of simple labor and a certain amount of "human capital" embodied in it, respectively. wage(income) - as a combination of the market price of one hundred simple labor and income from investments invested in a person.

The total of direct monetary costs for education and income lost during the time spent on education is investment in human capital. Becker substantiated the possibility of calculating the profitability of such investments both from the standpoint of an individual and society as a whole, considering this process by analogy with the rates of return on capital.

To assess the economic efficiency of education for the employee himself, additional income from higher education is defined as follows: from the income of those who graduated from college, the income of workers with secondary general education was deducted. Education is profitable for the worker if the difference between additional income and real value costs is positive.

Thus, the rates of return act as a regulator of the distribution of investments between various types and levels of education. High rates of return indicate underinvestment, low rates indicate overinvestment.

The American scientist, Nobel laureate T. Schultz1, studying the problems of economic recovery after the war, came to the conclusion that the speed of recovery in different countries was associated with the health and education of the population. Schultz proved that human capital has the necessary features of a productive nature, is able to accumulate and reproduce. Education makes people more productive, and good health care keeps the investment in education and the opportunity to produce.

T. Schultz and G. Becker are credited with popularizing the idea of ​​human capital, their efforts have given impetus to numerous studies and initiated vigorous activity to motivate investment in professional and technical education from international financial institutions.

The theory of human capital began to be dealt with in the 19th century. Then it became one of promising directions development economics. Since the second half of the twentieth century. it became the main achievement, first of all, of the economics of education and labor. In the economic literature, the concept of human capital is considered in a broad and narrow sense. In a narrow sense, "one of the forms of capital is education. It was called human because this form becomes part of a person, and capital is due to the fact that it is a source of future satisfactions or future earnings, or both." In a broad sense, human capital is formed by investment (long-term capital investment) in a person in the form of costs for education and training of the labor force in production, for health care, migration, and the search for information on prices and incomes.

In the "Economic Encyclopedia" human capital is defined as "a special type of investment, the total cost of developing the reproductive potential of a person, improving the quality and improving the functioning of the labor force. The composition of human capital objects usually includes knowledge of a general educational and special nature, skills, accumulated experience. For more full and detailed characteristics of human capital use a functional approach.The principle of the functionality of the definition characterizes the phenomenon not only from the point of view of its internal structure, but from the point of view of its functional purpose, final intended use.

Therefore, human capital is not just a set of skills, knowledge, and abilities that a person possesses. First, it is the accumulated stock of skills, knowledge, and abilities. Secondly, it is such a stock of skills, knowledge, abilities that is expediently used by a person in a particular area of ​​social reproduction and contributes to the growth of labor productivity and production. Thirdly, the expedient use of this reserve in the form of highly productive activities naturally leads to an increase in the earnings (income) of the employee. And, fourthly, an increase in income stimulates, interests a person through investments that may relate to health, education, etc., to increase, accumulate a new stock of skills, knowledge and motivation in order to apply it again effectively in the future.

Features of human capital:

1. In modern conditions, human capital is main value society and the main factor of economic growth;

2. The formation of human capital requires significant costs from the person himself and the whole society;

3. Human capital in the form of skills and abilities is a certain reserve, i.e. may be cumulative;

4. Human capital can physically wear out, economically change its value and depreciate;

5. Human capital differs from physical capital in terms of liquidity;

6. Human capital is inseparable from its carrier - a living human being;

7. Regardless of the sources of formation, which can be state, family, private, etc., the use of human capital and the receipt of direct income is controlled by the person himself.

In the economic literature, there are several approaches to the classification of types of human capital. Types of human capital can be classified according to the elements of costs, investments in human capital. For example, the following components are distinguished: education capital, health capital and cultural capital.
From the point of view of the nature of promoting the economic well-being of society, consumer and productive human capital are distinguished. Consumer capital creates a flow of directly consumed services and thus contributes to social utility.

It can be creative and educational activity. The result of such activities is expressed in the provision of such consumer services to the consumer that lead to the emergence of new ways to meet needs or increase efficiency. existing way their satisfaction. Productive capital creates a flow of services, the consumption of which contributes to social utility. In this case, we mean scientific and educational activities that have a direct practical use namely in production (creation of means of production, technologies, production services and products).

The next criterion for classifying the types of human capital is the difference between the forms in which it is embodied. living capital includes knowledge embodied in a person. Non-living capital is created when knowledge is embodied in physical, material forms. institutional capital consists of living and non-living capital associated with the production of services that satisfy the collective needs of society. It includes all governmental and non-governmental institutions that promote the efficient use of the two types of capital.

According to the form of employee training in the workplace, one can distinguish dedicated human capital and total human capital. Special human capital includes skills and knowledge acquired as a result of special training and of interest only to the firm where they were obtained. Unlike special human capital, general human capital is knowledge that can be demanded in various fields human activity.

Thus, if there is a large number definitions and types of "human capital", this concept, like many terms, is a "metaphor that transfers the properties of one phenomenon to another according to their common feature." Human capital is the most important component modern productive capital, which is represented by a rich stock of knowledge inherent in man, developed abilities, determined by intellectual and creative potential. The main factor in the existence and development of human capital is investment in human capital.