Skilled Labour market and economic development in the Mediterranean area

Steady growing literature has examined the relationship between human capital and economic development. However, there is no empirical evidence that the increase in education is always related to growth. The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between human capital and growth in Mediterranean countries to put the premises for further research on single countries and on the functioning of the Mediterranean high skill labour market and the relationship with the economic development of the whole area. The First step of our analysis is to measure the increasing stock of human capital in the labour force and the population in a working age over the past twenty years, for the Mediterranean countries (Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia, Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco). The second step will be to single out the contribution of human capital to the economic development. Data of the World Bank is available to carry out this study. The third step will be to study the allocation of labour across sectors of the economy; and the public and private sector. This allocation will be put in relationship with labour market institutions. Furthermore, to deepen the relation between human capital and growth, the fourth step will be to utilize UNPD’s aggregate indexes to measure gender inequalities (GDI) and the importance of women in society (GEM) in Mediterranean countries, as intervenient variables. In the last step, we will analyse migration flows of skilled people among these countries in order to introduce the topic of brain drain and brain waste in the analysis. In conclusion, the analysis shows that the relationship between the development of tertiary education and economic development is not at all linear. The countries overlooking the Mediterranean not only have differing levels of economic and educational development, but, above all, they have employment markets regulated by different institutions and different social institutions determine the opportunities for access to resources by women and men. Deeper analyses by country which could enrich statistical analysis with information concerning the structures of the economic and non-economic institutions that regulate the development of education and the functioning of the labour market, as well as suitable further investigations into the structure of respective economic systems, are needed to formulate useful hypotheses in order to reach agreements which foster a balanced exchange of persons and knowledge between countries that are increasingly interconnected in economic, social and cultural terms.