Abstract:
Human capital refers to the ability and efficiency of people to transform raw materials and capital into goods and services, the consensus being that these skills can be learned through the educational system. The concept of human capital, necessarily, is related to the productivity of workers. Thus, this paper develops a productivity-based single measure of human capital, taking account of different levels of education and productivity differentials across workers. Using this new measure, the paper presents empirical estimates of human capital in Viet Nam and compares the stock of human capital contributed by vocational education and general education. The paper extends its analysis by investigating the extent to which human capital is utilized at different levels of education in the labor market. It also deals with equity in human capital, particularly as contributed by vocational education, and measures this equity across income quintiles and various socioeconomic and demographic groups in Viet Nam.