A NEW LOOK AT THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN CAPITAL AND SOCIAL COHESION IN A COUNTRY

Abstract

The importance of strong national social cohesion for a country’s socio-economic development is hard to exaggerate. Strong social cohesion is associated with increase in economic development, increase in abilities to deal with economic downfalls, increase in social health and many other positive outcomes. This article suggests a way of strengthening national social cohesion through strengthening of the national human capital. According to the article, the most effective way of doing this is via strengthening of the national identity awareness factor of national human capital.
 The research questions of the analysis are as follows:
 Research Question 1: Is the level of education in a country associated with the level of NSC in that country?
 Research Question 2: Is the level of national identity awareness among people in a country associated with the level of NSC in that country?
 Research Question 3: Is using the measures of education and national identity awareness in a country’s population a better predictor of the level of NSC than either measure alone?
 The method the article utilized is the method of regression analysis. The source of the data utilized in the analysis is Human Development Reports published by the United Nations. Data for six consecutive years (2000-2005) was utilized.