The Mobility of Labor and the Theory of Human Capital

Recent developments in the study of human resources, initiated particularly by the pioneering works of Theodore W. Schultz, gave rise to new approaches to problems of labor mobility. This paper aims to integrate labor mobility into the analytical framework of human capital theory and to develop some answers regarding the functioning of labor markets that are suggested from this point of view. The implications of this approach for the growth potentials of regions or nations gaining or losing from labor mobility are briefly considered. The treatment is theoretical, although it is felt that only empirical research in a more extensive study could give firmer ground for tackling problems of labor mobility.