Ecological Analysis of the Impact of Youth Development on the Development of Science, Technology and Innovation

Author
yagoob entezari
Associate Professor, Economics of Higher Education and Human Resources, Institute for Research & Planning in Higher Education, Tehran, Iran
10.61838/KMAN.IRPHE.31.4.1
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to theoretically and empirically analyze the impact of youth development on the development of science, technology, and innovation processes. For this purpose, the conceptual framework of "human development ecology" and the "human development ecosystem" approach have been used. Within this framework, three main hypotheses have been proposed and tested using global secondary data and structural equation modeling techniques. The results of the tests show that the youth development construct, which consists of six indicators, contributes to the development of knowledge-based economy by contributing to knowledge absorption, knowledge creation, knowledge diffusion and knowledge impact in the economy. These findings indicate that the human development ecosystem is a self-generating system. That is, it continuously creates components and processes that lead to the growth of the ecosystem itself and higher human development. This feature is mainly due to the investment of families and the government in the human development of youth (as the center of human development). Because investment in youth development, in addition to accumulating human capital in the youth, which improves the level of human development of youth, also leads to knowledge-based development in the future due to knowledge-based employment and the use of advanced human capital in science, technology and innovation processes (as another part of the human development ecosystem). The development of knowledge and innovation leads to a multifaceted increase in economic growth, an increase in the country's per capita income, and an improvement in the welfare and standard of living of the people, which indicate a higher level of human development. Based on these results, five policy solutions have been proposed to the government.

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References

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  • Receive Date 05 November 2024
  • Revise Date 11 February 2025
  • Accept Date 04 March 2025
  • Publish Date 01 December 2025