Showing papers on "Human capital published in 1969"

Valuing transfer of military‐acquired skills to civilian employment*

Abstract: SUMMARY Without entering the controversy on the importance of human capital in relation to technological progress, an economist faces a challenging technical problem: how to measure or quantify in monetary terms the significant value of specific skills, both for the individual and for the social entity. This paper attempts to contribute to this objective on two levels: one is to develop an acceptable methodology for evaluation of the incremental contribution of skills; secondly, the paper summarizes preliminary results of a case study on the transfer of skills acquired during military training to the civilian sector in Japan during the post-World War II period. Implications of the study suggest a critical review of by-product contributions of military expenditures. In spite of pejorative evaluations of the military establishment on moral grounds by a segment of public opinion, military training remains a prevasive mechanism for mass development of skills in all nations, particularly in less-developed and socialist countries. The potentiality of tapping the experience and the know-how of military establishments for development of skills transferable for application in a progressively technical society opens opportunity for further scientific exploration and operational exploitation.

The role of Business Management in relation to Economic Development1

Abstract: This paper describes and gives some evidence of two related concepts: Firstly: what has been called socio-psychological and habit infra-structures and Secondly: the concept of the "availability" of skill It was argued that socio-psychological and habit infra-structures can be identified in a business organization by the way in which they facilitate (like roads and railways in the macro economy) the exploitation of existing resources and skills. Examples were given of the pre-circulation of agendas and minutes of Boards of Directors and the habit of dictating letters instead of writing them out in long-hand. The concept of the "availability of skills" differentiates between possessing an ability and using it. While it is recognized that there is always likely to be a gap between knowledge and skill on the one hand and their use in practice on the other, it is argued that in developing countries this gap has often become so great as to constitute a major bottleneck in the efficient development of a business unit. The absence of certain socio-psychological and habit infra-structures is identified as one important element in the process of preventing knowledge and skills from being "available". This problem should be explored and considered in connection with the Galbraith-Harbison-Myers-Schultz argument for strategic human capital as a major resource scarcity in the process of economic development. It would seem to follow that one of the critical roles of modern business management in developing countries may be to build these habits and procedures which have here been called infra-structures.