The paper analyzes the link between human capital and firm-level productivity in five Asian countries. It draws
on a dataset of over 4,000 enterprises and considers both the prior educational attainment of workers and inservice
training programs of enterprises. Differences between small, medium-sized, and large enterprises and
between countries are also presented. The key finding is that both preservice education and in-service training
are positively correlated with labor productivity. The productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) is enhanced by a higher level of skills and education of the workforce, just as it is with large firms.
However, there are country differences. The policy implications are that competitiveness is enhanced both by
raising the general level of education in the workforce and by encouraging enterprise-based training programs.