A review of theoretical and empirical research on human capital quality in Croatia

• Published in: Review of innovation and competitiveness 2016-01, Vol.2 (2), p.67-96
• Main Authors: Justić Jozičić, Katarina, Škare, Marinko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Economic growth; Education; formal education; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Human capital; human capital quality; human capital quality; formal education; investment in human capital; participation rates; investment in human capital; participation rates
• ISSN: 1849-8795; 1849-9015
• DOI: 10.32728/ric.2016.22/2

Human capital is an important factor of economic growth. Its quality affects the level of available labour’s competitiveness. The aim of this paper is to determine human capital quality in Croatia. This paper also tends to indicate the human capital factors in Croatia. Human capital quality is determined by the quality of the education system, than the investment in education and also participation rates in education. When considering the education quality, mainly is to observe the quality of the formal education. The quality of Croatian education system can be measured by quantitative indicators such as numbers of completed years of schooling. But also, by qualitative indicators, which are based on an international comparative research of educational student achievement of different countries. One of these international comparative researches is PISA1for pupils in which Croatia is included since 2006. This paper will point out the importance of investment in human capital in Croatia. Insufficient investments in human capital can become the limitation factor to economic growth. According to data from UNESCO2, the Croatian public expenditure on education in 2011 amounted to 4.16% of GDP. With that, Croatia is placed below the average3 of OECD countries which amounted in average of 6.1% or to EU countries 5.8% of GDP. An important indicator of human capital quality is also the rate of participation of Croatian population in education. According to the last population census in 2011, Croatia has sufficient educational structure: illiterate less than 1%, with only primary school about 30%, most with secondary education 52%, and the share of highly educated 16.4% (increases over 4% from the last one in 2001). This paper is primarily focused on the review and systematization of the existing literature and studies on the quality of human capital in Croatia. Many researches about the topics on human capital have been indicating to its high importance. The intention is to show if Croatia has recognized the importance of human capital and its quality in comparison to other countries.