This paper examines the economic growth performance of indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand since the early post-war years, giving special attention to the role played by huma capitla formation. Although there has clearly been a host of factors involved in the growth process, such as historical background, cultural values, sociopolitical institutions , political stability and economic policies and their timing, human capital has been one of the key underlying forces. For instance, muh of the eocnomic headstart the Philippines had in the early post-bellum years can be attributed to its considerable educational advantage over Thailand and Indonesia. This economic lead, however steadily diminished over the next three decades as the Philippines' educational edge also narrowed. This implies that the Philippines did not adequately maintain and replenish its educational stock while Thailand and Indonesia were making steady progress in human capital build-up (including investment in education, health and fertility reducation). Contributing to the virtually continuous slowdown in growth oftthe Philipppine economy were inappropriate economic policies which appeared to have been carried on longer than in Thailand and Indonesia. Given Thailand's dramatic fertility transition, attention and resources can now be devoted to delivery of better-quality heath services. ON the other hand, because of faster population growth, the Philippines and Indonesia ( to a a lesser degree) must still exert greater effort in the provision of basic education and health services, with tighter constraints for quality improvements. Interms of the lon-termview, all threee countries would profit from greater attention paid to science and technology.
