| AUTHOR | Lyudmila Baum |
| ORGANIZATION | UNICEF |
| TYPE | Field Examples |
| DATE | 2009 |
| TOPIC | Child poverty and disparities |
| LANGUAGE | English |
The term “human capital” first appeared in the work of Theodore Schultz, an economist who was interested in the labour situation in underdeveloped countries. Schultz stated that improvements in the wellbeing of the poor did not depend on the land, technology or their strengths, but rather on their knowledge. He entitled this qualitative aspect of economics “human capital”. Schultz, who received a Nobel Prize in 1979, offered the following definition: “All human resources and capabilities are inborn or acquired. Every person is born with an individual set of genes which define inborn human potential. We call the valuable qualities acquired by the person that can be strengthened by relevant investment human capital.”
