EFFECTS OF LOWER LEVELS OF HUMAN

CAPITAL IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

 HEALTH
• Poverty
Health is a kind of human capital as well as an input
to producing other forms of human capital. Being
unhealthy depresses the ability to work productively
and/or the ability and incentives to invest in human
capital. Taken together, these mechanisms imply that
worse health implies lower income.

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3800
109/)
• Prevalent Diseases
Such as Malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, Malaria,
Tuberculosis, Cholera and etc.

Due to lack of facilities, unimproved

healthcare, lacking health programs and other
factors related with human capital in developing
countries, these diseases spreads more and more.
For example :
The country of Chad a developing country
was the third in the list who has the highest
cases of Malnutrition as of 2017 (World Atlas)

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/most-
malnourished-countries-in-the-world.html
 SKILLS
• Low Participation in the Labour Market/Social Exclusion
In 2015, only 63.6% of adults with low qualifications
actively participated in the labour market, compared to
79.9% with a medium educational level and 88.8% of those
with tertiary education. Eurostat data suggest that low-
educated adults are more likely to be discouraged (5 ) on
the labour market than their more educated peers, resulting
in disengagement and social exclusion.
Source: Cedefop (2017). Investing in skills pays off: the
economic and social cost of low-skilled adults in the EU.
Luxembourg: Publications Office. Cedefop research paper;
No 60.
• Low Productivity
“Reaping just what is sown: Low-skills and low-productivity of
informal economy workers and the skill acquisition process in
developing countries” –a Research Paper

Source: http://
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0738059316300657
 EDUCATION
• Low Income/Earnings
In all societies, educational attainment and income
correlate. In European OECD member states, for example,
those with upper secondary education earned on average in
the 1990s about 1.3 times, those with nonuniversity tertiary
education 1.5 times, and those with university-level
education about twice as much as persons without upper
secondary education (see OECD, 2011).

(Ulrich Teichler, in International Encyclopedia of the Social &

Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015 )
• Maternal and Child Mortality
Literacy predicts good health in both developed and
developing countries (De Walt et al., 2004; Kabir, 2008; CSDH,
2008) and enables a person to engage with the healthcare
services and respond to public health campaigns (De Walt et al.,
2004: 1232). In poor countries, female illiteracy in particular, is
associated with poor health outcomes such as maternal and child
mortality (Caldwell, 1986: 184–187; Sen, 1999: 195–198).

(Tarani Chandola, Richard Conibere, in International Encyclopedia

of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (Second Edition), 2015)
• Social Deprivation
In addition, incompletely-educated people
are more likely to find employment in physically
dangerous occupations, or poorly regulated
work with increased risks of accidents (Feinstein
et al., 2006).