ABSTRACT
Since the post war period there has been a growing interest, particularly amongst planners in developing countries, in the relationship between Human Resource Development (HRD) and economic growth. During the 1960s and 1970s, it was assumed that developing countries could identify the precise nature of their manpower requirements using complex econometric models. This chapter argues that in order to understand the complex relationship between HRD and economic growth it is necessary to place it in the context of the historical formation of a country's state. Using Mexico as a case study, it demonstrates how changes in the behavior of country's state, following the economy's recent restructuring, determine which components of HRD receive priority and which do not. Furthermore, the chapter enables to account for the challenges facing HRD in Mexico today.
