不論是在內生成長理論或是在知識經濟體系中，人力資本均扮演一個關鍵性的角色。然而，因為人力資本不具明顯可見的形體且可透過多種管道形成，所以其衡量不易周延精確。基於人力資本具同質性及薪資可以反映勞動生產力的概念，本文嘗試設立模型對人力資本的意義、形成及報酬做更詳細的說明，進而以各個勞工與基礎 勞工間推估預期薪資的比率做為代表人力品質之權數，建構較完整的人力資本指標。分析民國68至87年「人力運用調查」的原始個體資料，從成長會計分析及總合生產函數迴歸估計的實證結果來看，本文建構的人力資本指數的確優於其他僅考慮教育的人力資本指數：考量人力品質提升的勞動投入約可解釋18%至35%的經濟成長，遠高於實際工時的15%；惟若考慮結構變動而將樣本期間分為兩段則可發現，近年來台灣人力品質的提升似乎逐漸減緩，不利於後續的經濟成長。
Human capital plays a cricital role in a country's economic development. However, unlike physical capital, human capital is usually embodied in the human body and can be cultivated through many different investment channels. This paper develops a measure of human capital based on the idea that investment in human capital should be reflected in a person's wage. We decompose wages into factors related to different forms of human capital and non-human capital and estimate the wage of a base worker, a worker with zero skill. We then use the predicted human capital wage relative to the wage of the base worker to construct an index for the human capital of the whole economy. Using 1979-1988 data from the Taiwan Manpower Utilization Survey, we compare the results of our human capital index with other human capital indices proposed in the recent literature. Based on growth accounting and aggregate production function estimates, our human capital index outperforms other human capital indices. We find that human capital contributes to 18%-35% of Taiwan's long-run growth. However, we also find that human capital accumulation has been apparently slowing down since 1988 which may affect the future growth of Taiwan's economy.
