Nobel laureate tells China to spend more on human resources

China needs to adopt a more balanced investment on human resources and encourage education to sustain its economic growth, Noble Prize-winning economist James J.Heckman said in Harbin while attending a forum on human capital and the revival of China's rust-belt.

Compared with other countries in expenditure of GDP on education, China is "below average even among its peers in its expenditure on investment," said Prof. Heckman, the 2000 Nobel Prize laureate for economics.

Though favorable trends in governmental human capital investment are seen, China's investment on human resources is "still low by world standard," Heckman said at the "International Forum on Human Capital and Northeast China Revitalization" sponsored by Harbin Institute of Technology Friday in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

"A more balanced investment strategy across rural and urban regions and types of human capital is warranted in China," he said, urging China to encourage education and job training to foster human capital and promote economic growth.

Heckman was co-winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize for economics along with Daniel L. McFadden for their work in developing theories to help analyze labor data and how people make work and travel decisions.

Heckman suggested that China free up labor markets and for human capital and permit greater labor mobility to foster human capital that entails less direct cost to the government.

He said alternative policy reforms such as functioning markets for loans to human capital and fewer restriction on mobility of workers will foster skill acquisition and enable China to harvest the benefits of investment in both material and human capital.