The Effect of Human Capital on the Output of Slovak Urban Regions

Abstract

Cities play a key role in the creation of the national product. Most of the population is located in cities, which leads to intensive economic activity. At present, two main topics are being discussed in the academic environment. One focuses on the importance of different size categories of cities in the economic system of countries. The second focuses on the importance of individual production factors in the creation of economic output of cities. This article deals with measuring the effects of production factors on the economic output of urban regions (also referred in this article as cities) in Slovakia. The analysis of 78 urban regions of Slovakia showed that the human capital factor has the largest effect on the production of their total output. Results from the subsequent analysis on the comparison of the impact of production factors between different size categories of urban regions largely confirmed the main result. However, the measured effects of individual production factors for different size categories of urban regions brought interesting differences.