Human Capital in the Green Economy: Lessons from Italy and Beyond

This thesis examines how human capital (HC) shapes the green economy and why get ting the “people side” right is now pivotal for credible decarbonisation strategies. It addresses a clear gap: the evidence linking HC to green outcomes is dispersed across dis ciplines, methods, and metrics, with little comparative perspective on Italy. To resolve this, I conduct a systematic literature review that integrates bibliometric mapping with a thematic and quantitative synthesis. Using a pre-registered protocol, I code a global corpus of studies to a common taxonomy of HC inputs (education, skills/TVET, firm training and GHRM) and outcome families (eco-innovation, emissions/intensity, energy efficiency/renewables, green jobs, green productivity/GTFP, circularity), and summarise heterogeneous estimates via an evidence matrix, a heterogeneity map, and sign normali sation. The synthesis reveals a predominantly positive—but conditional—HC–green link, with the most consistent gains for eco-innovation and green productivity/GTFP. Effects operate through five mediating channels—innovation, adoption/diffusion, reallocation, organisational/HRM, and spillovers—and are materially moderated by institutional qual ity and regulatory stringency, as well as digital infrastructure and other complements; several studies exhibit non-linearities and threshold effects consistent with a “capabil ity floor” for green payoffs. Italy’s lens underscores both potential and gaps: provincial evidence shows that inflows of highly skilled interregional migrants raise green employ ment—especially in services and the Centre–South—yet country-specific causal estimates on eco-innovation and productivity remain scarce. Conceptually, the thesis contributes a unified framework that locates HC’s green effects in five mediating channels and for malises key moderators; methodologically, it couples a transparent SLR with bibliometric mapping and sign-normalised synthesis to bridge disparate designs; empirically, it consol idates emerging work on GHRM and AI-enabled knowledge systems and distils lessons for Italy. Policy levers follow directly: pair higher-education and TVET expansion with regu latory credibility and broadband, mainstream GHRM (including green-linked incentives) inside firms, and ease skilled mobility to support reallocation and diffusion.