Human Capital in Post-Crisis Russia: Status and Impact

Abstract

The paper deals with spatial disproportions related to human capital accumulation, as well as to the impact of human capital depending on the professional group. The author ddresses the data from a National Sample Survey conducted by the Federal State Institution of Science, Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Science (spring 2017). In general, this study proves that special institutional environment in modern Russia, generates significant spatial disproportions of the impact of human capital of Russian workers. A regression analysis shows that living in megacities provides a 139% increase in personal incomes for people engaged in manual labor, compared to their counterparts working in rural areas. However, as the analysis suggests, inclusion of skill differences among workers allows us to reconsider modest estimates of inpact of their human capital obtained in previous studies. As a result, existence of redistribution institutions organized on meritocratic principles is suggested. Thus, high-level qualifications of workers (from the 5th category) leads to an increase in their incomes: by 36.3% in the centers of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, and by 23.7% in the district centers, when compared with the salaries of low-skilled workers employed in enterprises of the same settlements.