Cultural diversity, human capital, and regional economic growth in India

In: Regional science policy and practice: RSPP, Volume 15, Issue 5, p. 973-992

Abstract

AbstractThe interaction of cultural diversity and human capital and their combined and conditional impacts on regional economic growth have not been explored in depth. The present study shows that India's cultural diversity and human capital have significant impacts on regional economic growth, but the impact of cultural diversity declines with an increase in human capital stock and level of initial regional incomes. These findings are akin to the findings of other studies reporting varying impacts of human capital on economic growth with differing levels of economic development. This implies that the less developed regions, being farther from the technological frontier (Vandenbussche et al., 2006), display a stronger diversity‐led catch‐up effect.