Influence of Various Forms of Education on the State of Human Capital as a Factor of Production in the Regions of Russia

Abstract

The study aims to identify the role of university and professional education in the formation of human capital, which is embodied in different rates of economic development at the regional level in the Russian Federation. With the method of regression analysis we compare the level of education of the population with the rating of universities located in the constituent entity of the Russian Federation. Using the methods of endogenous growth theories, the contribution of human capital to the interregional difference in gross regional product per capita was estimated. The absence of a relationship was found between the dependent variable (gross regional product per capita) and the independent variables (education index, the number of universities in the list of the best universities). When comparing two regions of the Russian Federation, in which the discrepancy between the rating of universities and the level of education was most obvious, it was found that the difference in gross regional product per capita is completely determined by the state of human capital. This distinguishes subnational comparisons from cross-country comparisons, where physical capital and related to technologies residuals play a role. Among the considered indicators of higher, professional education, postgraduate and doctoral studies, the relative level of professional education seems to be most significantly affect at the growth of the region’s well-being, expressed in gross regional product per capita.