This paper analyses the growth effects of high levels of human capital at the industry
level. By favouring technology adoption, human-capital-intensive industries grow
faster compared to less human-capital-intensive industries in economies that have
higher levels of human capital. Using data for nine macro sectors of manufacturing
industries in the twenty Italian regions, the results show positive and significant
effects of human capital levels and accumulation on value added growth. This result
is robust to a series of sensitivity checks such as measures of productivity growth
and different indicators of human capital. This finding is particularly important for
Italy, as it has always had a model of industrial specialization focused on the
traditional sectors which have a low content of technology and human capital.