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Human Capital and Rural Development: What Are the Linkages?

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  • Bollman, Ray D.

Abstract

Rural Canada is experiencing considerable "demographic pressure" as 1.76 rural persons are now looking for a job for each rural person retiring from the workforce. Rural Canada appears disadvantaged. Among OECD countries, Canada has the biggest urban-rural gap in the share of the workforce (aged 25 to 44) with university or college graduation. New jobs in the globalising economy require a high capacity to deal with disequilibria. Improving the human capital of the local workforce is essential to provide opportunities for the individuals in the workforce, regardless of where they will work. However, local economic development strategies should focus on more than human capital development to stimulate local job growth. We offer 4 measures of local community development. Our equations explain only 21 to 34 percent of the variability in these measures of local community development in the 1980s. Contrary to the research findings in the United States, the findings reported in this paper suggest that the human capital complement in Canada's communities did provide a positive (albeit weak) boost to job growth in the locality during the 1980s. Thus, what are the linkages between human capital and rural development? First, the literature suggests human capacity is largely developed by the nutrition and nurturing of children, specifically in the period of minus nine months to plus three years. Secondly, a higher human capacity in a community (as proxied by years of schooling) is weakly associated with a higher growth in community employment but is weakly associated with a lower growth in wages that appears to cause a weak association with lower aggregate community earnings. Investment in nutrition and nurturing of children is a key factor. A higher education level in a community provided only a weak employment boost during the 1980s.

Suggested Citation

  • Bollman, Ray D., 1999. "Human Capital and Rural Development: What Are the Linkages?," Agriculture and Rural Working Paper Series 28025, Statistics Canada.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:scarwp:28025
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.28025
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Bill Reimer, 2002. "A Sample Frame for Rural Canada: Design and Evaluation," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(8), pages 845-859.
    2. Gabriela Tigu & Laura Marinas & Ileana Valimareanu Mircioi, 2015. "Contribution of EU funds to the development of human capital in rural areas," International Conference on Competitiveness of Agro-food and Environmental Economy Proceedings, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 4, pages 356-367.
    3. Calzadilla, Alvaro & Zhu, Tingju & Rehdanz, Katrin & Tol, Richard S.J. & Ringler, Claudia, 2013. "Economywide impacts of climate change on agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 150-165.
    4. Pavel Ciaian & Tomáš Ratinger, 2009. "Income Distribution Effects of EU Rural Development Policies: The Case of Farm Investment Support," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2009_01, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    5. Hou, Feng & Ram, Bali & Abada, Teresa, 2008. "Group Differences in Educational Attainment Among the Children of Immigrants," Analytical Studies Branch Research Paper Series 2008308e, Statistics Canada, Analytical Studies Branch.
    6. Laura Elena MARINAS, 2015. "Returns on EU Funding for Human Capital Development in Rural Areas," REVISTA DE MANAGEMENT COMPARAT INTERNATIONAL/REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COMPARATIVE MANAGEMENT, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 16(4), pages 491-505, October.
    7. Nagy, Cecil N. & Olfert, M. Rose & Skotheim, J., 2004. "Targeting Business Investment in Rural Communities," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 34(4), pages 1-21.
    8. du Plessis, Valerie, 2004. "Trends in Non-Farm Self-Employment Activity for Rural Women 1981-2001," Agriculture and Rural Working Paper Series 28033, Statistics Canada.
    9. Ionut Florin BRATILOVEANU & Adrian IRIMIA & Cristian Virgil MARINAS & Ramona Stefania IGRET, 2016. "Eu Funds To Support Human Capital Development In Romania," Proceedings of the INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT CONFERENCE, Faculty of Management, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, vol. 10(1), pages 428-434, November.
    10. Edith Callaghan & John Colton, 2008. "Building sustainable & resilient communities: a balancing of community capital," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 10(6), pages 931-942, December.

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