<< Chapter < Page Chapter >> Page >

However, the 21 st century is so far showing that certain kinds of technological change can lead to rapid improvements in income even while a nation tries to build up its base of Human Capital from low levels.

The internet and cell phones

By the year 2010 the rapid spread of mobile phones began to have very significant and unforeseen results for financial development, agricultural development, and efficiency in markets, and even in public health.

New research by Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang, Robert Jensen, and Aparajita Goyal shows among other things the following. Source______ [M.G. Source]

The internet and mobile phones boost growth. The impact is, as one would expect, is greater in poor countries than in rich ones, because of the very poor pre-existing communications infrastructure in poor countries. (This reflects of course lack of investment in Physical Capital).

The growth promotion effects are greater for the internet than for mobile phones as we shall see. But mobile phones have mattered greatly.

Background

First consider all mobile phones. By the year 2000, poor nations had 175 million mobile phones (1/4 of the 700 million world total). By 2009 the number of mobile phones in poor nations reached three billion (3/4 of world total).

In poor nations, for every ten percentage points increase in mobile phone availability, GDP per capita rose by 0.8 percentage points (in rich nations it rose by 0.6). Source_______ [M.G. Source]

And, in poor nations having dial-up Internet access, every ten percentage point increase in adoption, was associated with an increase in GDP growth of 1.1 percentage points.

For broadband Internet, in poor nations every ten percentage points of increases in adoption, was associated with a 1.4 percentage point increase in GDP per capita.

Finally, there have begun to appear some potentially significant unforeseen feedback from spreading use of smartphones. There are now cell phone stethoscopes, cell phone microscopes (for imaging cells and parasites) remote diagnoses of disease etc. (WSJ, Sept. 21, 2013).

Promising new approaches in assessing human capital formation policies

We have seen that the idea of human capital formation first took shape in the mind of Nobel Laureate Theodore Schultz in the forties. By the turn of the century virtually all economists had recognized its importance. As the field expanded, so did new analytical and empirical tools developed to help us understand the implications.

One of the most promising of these new tools (new to economics, but not to medicine) has been randomized control trials (RCTs), first pioneered in economics by two MIT economists, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo.

Since 2003, their lab has mounted nearly 450 RCTs, focusing on human capital as well as issues in finance and other fields. With the publication of their widely and highly regarded book, Poor Economics

Abhijit Banerjee&Esther Duflo (2011), Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty, New York: Public Affairs Press.

in 2011, economics, especially development economics, has been greatly enriched. The authors, and others who utilize RCTs, typically focus on problems affecting the very poor, most who live on less than $1 U.S. dollar per day.

Get Jobilize Job Search Mobile App in your pocket Now!

Get it on Google Play Download on the App Store Now




Source:  OpenStax, Economic development for the 21st century. OpenStax CNX. Jun 05, 2015 Download for free at http://legacy.cnx.org/content/col11747/1.12
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google Inc.

Notification Switch

Would you like to follow the 'Economic development for the 21st century' conversation and receive update notifications?

Ask