This thesis highlights the formation of human capital in the European regions and its implications for economic growth. It is characterised by its combined regional, long-term and European approach. To this end, I refer to Unified Growth Theory and New Economic Geography as the most important recent theoretical contributions and construct an unparalleled new and large database on regional human capital and other economic factors from numerous diverse sources. For the empirical analysis, spatial and GIS methods are employed in addition to standard econometric models. In this way, the thesis explores human capital formation in the regions of the European continent between 1790 and 2010. Moreover, it underlines the relationship between human capital proxies, the determinants of human capital and the long-run impact of human capital on economic growth.
