Approaches and Methods in Measuring Human Capital: Comparing Methods and Providing a Conceptual Model

: One fundamental problem in production function is to find and submit a variable which can be able to illustrate the effect of human capital on economic growth well. However in most studies, only some parts of human capital are illustrated by the submitted variables. Accordingly, the main purpose of this study is to determine a variable which covers more parts of the human capital. Therefore, initially three different approaches and methods which represent the exact value of human capital are compared. Through analyzing these approaches and methods a conceptual framework was achieved which indicates the human capital as current value of the past investments and the future incomes. Another result of this study is that the human capital is not only consequence of the education which is provided by the government, but also other parameters like health, experience and etc. on the other hand, private investment and families are involved. Ultimately, comparing the methods applied by economist in different countries for different time periods implies that although these methods and approaches are different, there was a convergence in estimating the model through these methods. Hence, the convergence proves that these methods are somewhat precise and scientific.