Human capital development convergence in OECD countries since 1870: Using school enrolment rates as indicators of human capital development

This study assesses the convergence of human capital development using two proxies -secondary school enrolment rates and tertiary school enrolment rates- in 19 countries for the period, 1870-2020. The study has focussed on stochastic convergence of human capital development, which according to our knowledge, has not been undertaken by the previous papers. The advantage of stochastic convergence is that it can show the actual country converging or diverging. A set of panel unit root tests have been used including a new test that provides for the likelihood of abrupt breaks, while allowing for cross-sectional dependence to test for unit roots in relative human capital development. The results provide substantial evidence for convergence of human capital development. Policy implications of the paper has been discussed in the paper.