Comparative analysis between public and private investment in human capital: A case of Nepal

Abstract

Human capital investment is seen at employee's learning of job-related behavior, skills, knowledge, and attitude that tends to improve better performance. This paper compares the human capital investment in public and private sectors of Nepal using Human Capital Report, Human Development Report and Employees Opinion working at public and private enterprises. Empirical studies mostly focused human capital as a function of education and experience. This study compares the status of human capital in the context of Nepal more specific to education and health investment. Firstly, the status of educational investment in human capital in Nepal shows significant improvement trend as primary school teachers trained percentage is increasing, pupilteacher ratio has been decreasing and the percentage of population with least some secondary education has also been increasing. Secondly, Government contribution on health expenses is at negligible level i.e. below six percent of GDP. Finally, employees’ overall perception of human capital investment in private sectors has higher influence than the public sectors. This shows that government intervention on human capital investment is not adequate and found less prioritized which might be one of the key reasons for low per capita in the country. Corresponding author: Post Raj Pokharel Email address for corresponding author: postraj@kusom.edu.np First submission received: 15th November 2017 Revised submission received: 15th March 2018 Accepted: 21st March 2018