---
title: "Human capital research: papers, trends and top journals"
description: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “human capital” appeared in 2,206 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,297), management (402) and finance (261)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/human-capital
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/human-capital.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “human capital” appeared in 2,206 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,297), management (402) and finance (261). (as of 2026-11-03)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-11-03T18:03:37+09:00
window: 2026-10-05 to 2026-11-03
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Papers on “human capital”

Research on “human capital” in the 480 tracked journals: papers per year and category, the journals, institutions and countries publishing it, the keywords studied with it and its most-cited papers. It is not among the most frequent keywords of the last 30 days, so this page has no list of its latest papers.

Back to the ranking: https://scholar4ai.com/rankings/keywords.md

## Key findings

- From 2017 to 2026 (so far), the keyword “human capital” appeared in 2,206 papers in the tracked journals, most of them in economics (1,297), management (402) and finance (261).
- 325 of them were published in 2025, against 162 in 2017.
- Since 2023, the institutions with the most of these papers were Renmin University of China (21), Lebanese American University (19) and University of International Business and Economics (19).
- The journals publishing most of them were Resources Policy (84), Finance research letters (76) and Economic Analysis and Policy (60).
- The most-cited of them is “Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China” (Resources Policy, 2020), with 1,194 citations.

## Papers per year

*Papers per publication year and category*

| Category | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 (so far) |
|---|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|---:|
| [Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/economics.md) | 102 | 91 | 120 | 106 | 122 | 119 | 161 | 168 | 174 | 134 |
| [Management](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/management.md) | 36 | 30 | 22 | 38 | 51 | 42 | 38 | 50 | 45 | 50 |
| [Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/finance.md) | 7 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 10 | 17 | 21 | 42 | 77 | 62 |
| [Higher Education and Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/higher-education-and-research.md) | 7 | 5 | 3 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 5 | 12 |
| [Operations Research](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/operations-research.md) | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 7 |
| [Tourism and Hospitality](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/tourism-and-hospitality.md) | 1 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 2 |
| [Health Economics and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/health-economics-and-policy.md) | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| [Information Systems](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/information-systems.md) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| [Accounting](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/accounting.md) | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| [Marketing](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/marketing.md) | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| [AI](https://scholar4ai.com/categories/ai.md) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All categories | 162 | 146 | 167 | 186 | 209 | 197 | 245 | 291 | 325 | 278 |

## Where the papers come from

*Journals with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Journal | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 84 |
| 2 | [Finance research letters](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/finance-research-letters.md) | 76 |
| 3 | [Economic Analysis and Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-analysis-and-policy.md) | 60 |
| 4 | [International Review of Economics & Finance](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/international-review-of-economics-finance.md) | 57 |
| 5 | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 36 |
| 6 | [Economic Change and Restructuring](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-change-and-restructuring.md) | 29 |
| 7 | [Technological Forecasting and Social Change](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/technological-forecasting-and-social-change.md) | 28 |
| 8 | [Economic Modelling](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/economic-modelling.md) | 27 |
| 9 | [Journal of Innovation & Knowledge](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-innovation-knowledge.md) | 25 |
| 10 | [World Development](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/world-development.md) | 23 |

*Institutions with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [Renmin University of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/renmin-university-of-china.md) | 21 |
| 2 | [Lebanese American University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/lebanese-american-university.md) | 19 |
| 3 | [University of International Business and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-international-business-and-economics.md) | 19 |
| 4 | [Zhongnan University of Economics and Law](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhongnan-university-of-economics-and-law.md) | 19 |
| 5 | [Shanghai University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shanghai-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 17 |
| 6 | [Xi'an Jiaotong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xi-an-jiaotong-university.md) | 16 |
| 7 | [Shandong University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/shandong-university.md) | 15 |
| 8 | [Southwestern University of Finance and Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southwestern-university-of-finance-and-economics.md) | 15 |
| 9 | [Xiamen University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/xiamen-university.md) | 15 |
| 10 | [Jilin University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/jilin-university.md) | 14 |

*Countries with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Country | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | China | 533 |
| 2 | United States | 185 |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 111 |
| 4 | Australia | 57 |
| 5 | Italy | 53 |
| 6 | Germany | 50 |
| 7 | Spain | 42 |
| 8 | India | 39 |
| 9 | France | 37 |
| 10 | Turkey | 33 |

*Keywords with the most papers, since 2023*

| # | Keyword | Papers |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/china.md) | 162 |
| 2 | [economic growth](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/economic-growth.md) | 86 |
| 3 | [regional heterogeneity](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/regional-heterogeneity.md) | 65 |
| 4 | [social capital](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/social-capital.md) | 59 |
| 5 | [sustainable development](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/sustainable-development.md) | 53 |
| 6 | [foreign direct investment](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/foreign-direct-investment.md) | 51 |
| 7 | [digital transformation](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/digital-transformation.md) | 48 |
| 8 | [educational attainment](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/educational-attainment.md) | 46 |
| 9 | [Chinese listed companies](https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/chinese-listed-companies.md) | 44 |

## Most-cited papers

*Most-cited papers since 2017*

| # | Citations | Per month | Title | Journal | Published | Authors |
|---:|---:|---:|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1,194 | 15.2 | [Moving towards a sustainable environment: The dynamic linkage between natural resources, human capital, urbanization, economic growth, and ecological footprint in China](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2020.101677) | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 2020-04-11 | Zahoor Ahmed, Muhammad Mansoor Asghar, Muhammad Nasir Malik et al. |
| 2 | 935 | 13.8 | [Digitalization and energy: How does internet development affect China's energy consumption?](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2021.105220) | [Energy Economics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/energy-economics.md) | 2021-03-18 | Siyu Ren, Yu Hao, Lu Xu et al. |
| 3 | 839 | 12.7 | [The Economic Burden of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder in the United States (2010 and 2018)](https://doi.org/10.1007/s40273-021-01019-4) | [PharmacoEconomics](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/pharmacoeconomics.md) | 2021-05-05 | Paul E. Greenberg, Andrée-Anne Fournier, Tammy Sisitsky et al. |
| 4 | 811 | 9.2 | [The impact of natural resources, human capital, and foreign direct investment on the ecological footprint: The case of the United States](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resourpol.2019.101428) | [Resources Policy](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/resources-policy.md) | 2019-06-17 | Muhammad Wasif Zafar, Syed Anees Haider Zaidi, Naveed R. Khan et al. |
| 5 | 795 | 7.2 | [Knowledge-based human resource management practices, intellectual capital and innovation](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.07.018) | [Journal of Business Research](https://scholar4ai.com/journals/journal-of-business-research.md) | 2017-08-05 | Aino Kianto, Josune Sáenz, Nekane Aramburu |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Papers on “human capital”. Journal and Conference Research Rankings. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/human-capital

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-keywords-human-capital,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Papers on “human capital”},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/keywords/human-capital}},
  urldate = {2026-11-03},
  note = {Journal and Conference Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).