Human Capital in the Context of Economic Growth

In order to increase the capacity of an economy to produce goods and services a country needs to increase the quantity and quality of its factors of production: land, labor, time, information and capital. Along the history, there have always been dominant factors of production. Among these, one of the most important proved to be “man” seen, from the economic standpoint, as “human capital”. Human capital comprises knowledge, skills, talents, abilities, courage, intelligence, experiences, wisdom, health, some inherited and some acquired during lifelong learning (family, school, university, on-thejob learning, and training). Analyzing the literature in the field this paper focuses on the components that best define “human capital”: education, health, leadership, migration and innovation and, using statistical data available, tries to underline how well are these components represented in successful economies.