Current Trends of Human Capital Development in the Global Environment

Abstract

The world’s development currently reflects the influence of globalization processes affecting the world economy, international relations, and human development. Therefore, it is relevant to study changes in human development under the impact of the growing interconnectedness and interdependence of the world. The objective of this article is to determine the impact of global processes on human development, as reflected by the global HDI. The novelty of the article is that it reveals trends in the development of human capital in a global environment under the influence of transnationalization processes, rising international migration, and the growth of global cities. The research relies on the methods of system analysis, scientific generalizations and comparisons, as well as economic and statistical analysis. The article postulates that multinational companies, which have spread in the process of globalization, contributed to the creation of millions of jobs throughout the world, stimulated the demand for highly qualified specialists and the rapid growth of all types of education, and promoted the introduction of new forms of production organization and control enhancing production culture and management. This caused the growth of employees’ incomes, boosted demand for consumer goods, thus stimulating a significant expansion of the range of supplied goods and services, the growth of national production and domestic market, and, finally, enhancing living standards and HDI indicators of the host countries. The rising importance of global demographic trends embraces a noticeable growth of the Earth’s population, which is uneven by country and region, the growth in the percentage of elderly people, especially in the developed countries. An important trend is the growth of international migration resulting from the liberalization of international relations, the development of communications, access to better education, the growth of well-being and expanding opportunities for education and self-realization abroad. The number of international migrants is growing faster than the global population, and this trend is likely to continue in the future. Urbanization and the growth of global cities have a significant impact on human development due to their high rates of employment, highly skilled labor, high professional and cultural level of workers, and high incomes. Such cities have become centers accumulating creative and intellectual capitals. The article exposes that investments in education, welfare, and health care in many countries had a positive long-term (over 30 consecutive years) effect on the growing values of the Human Development Index, as well as the global HDI, although the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted it in 2020. Meanwhile, HDI changes occur differently in different country groups, with OECD countries permanently holding the leading positions. The research adds new qualitative knowledge about human capital, trends in its development in the new conditions of globalization, which strengthens traditional views and enriches alternative approaches to the formation of conceptual understanding of human capital.