## (2) Verification of the channel of ‘intellectual power’

The relationship between human capital and economic growth has been widely studied since the 1990s in research in labor economics and economic growth theory. A certain consensus has already been reached that an accumulation of human capital--mainly using education level (literacy rate, enrollment rate, years of education) as a surrogate variable $ ^{5} $ --contributes to an increase in income or economic growth $ ^{6} $ .

For example, there tends to be a positive correlation between per-capita GDP--after controlling various factors that may have impact on growth other than human capital--and the Educational Level Index $ ^{7} $ formulated by the UNDP. Furthermore, there may be insufficient previous research $ ^{8} $ on the relationship between human capital, in the sense of knowledge/information, and economic growth. Since it is difficult to measure knowledge/information. But the upper graph in figure 1-8 shows, when the number of science and technology papers is used as a rough surrogate variable reflecting science and technology knowledge, a correlation with per-capita GDP has been observed.

Then, what kind of relationship is there between ICT and human capital? With the penetration of remote education using satellite communications and the Internet, etc., it is understood that the base of learners has expanded and the level of education has been effectively raised with an improvement in educational effectiveness through digital materials. At the same time, the sharing of knowledge and information has drastically progressed with an advancement of networks, such as the Internet and corporate LAN, and everyone must have felt the benefits of such “externality”.

The lower graph in figure 1-8 shows a positive correlation between the aforementioned number of science and technology papers and the Internet subscriber ratio. A similar result was obtained when the ICT competitiveness index of the World Economic Forum was used instead of the internet subscriber ratio. This suggests that there is a close relationship between the penetration of ICT and the accumulation of human capital, such as educational level and technology-related knowledge.

It is still necessary to conduct further examination into and case studies on the existence of causal relations of the channel from ICT to human capital, such as education human resources and knowledge/information. Nonetheless, we intuitively know that the use of ICT effectively contributes to the accumulation of human capital. The World Bank supports the incorporation of ICT into education in developing countries by including ‘ICT and education’ in its program called ‘Education for the Knowledge Economy’.

In the current age of the knowledge economy, intellectual production is increasingly becoming an engine for growth. In order to ensure that ICT leads to economic growth at the policy level, we must emphasize measures that would accelerate the accumulation of human capital through education human resources, and knowledge/information, for example, through the informatization of education and establishment of digital archives, while giving due consideration to the presence of this channel.

### 4. Channel of ‘Social power’

## (1) Accumulation of social capital and growth

The channel of ‘social power’ refers to the contribution of social capital to growth. There are several specific definitions of social capital, but here we refer broadly to the ‘quality of a country or local community--the foundations of our lives. Specifically, we consider two areas: local community bonds (trust, reciprocity, networks $ ^{9} $ ) and governance (voice and accountability, political stability and absence of violence/terrorism, government effectiveness, regulatory quality, rule of law, control of corruption). Characteristics of social capital include high externality, as in the case of human capital, as well as strong cultural and societal aspects that cannot be