Author(s)

Shihui Li

Corresponding Author

Shihui Li

Abstract

The emergence and development of human capital theory is undoubtedly a major event in the labour market field. It has both positive and negative effects on the development of education. The key points are as follows: (1) Investment in human capital is important in the knowledge-based global economy and education is an important way of breaking the intergenerational cycle of poverty, which benefits people’s lives and lifts their nations. (2) Overemphasizing human capital theory and the return of investment will lead to the lack of education quality. (3) Human capital theory optimistically connects the economic benefits with higher education investment, but it can also lead to the problem of over-qualification in the labour market, which may bring waste of human capital and education resources.

Keywords

Human Capital Theory, Education Development, Education quality, Over-qualification.