Human Capital and Regional Economic Growth in Russia

This study examines the contribution of human capital accumulation to regional economic growth using panel data for 82 subjects of the Russian Federation over 2002–2019. This paper aims to test the hypothesis that in the long-run equilibrium there exists a connection between economic growth and human capital accumulation in the regions of Russia. From the point of view of econometrics, it would mean that we should refute the hypothesis that there is no cointegration of time series describing the aforementioned variables. General theoretical framework was drawn from the neoclassical growth theory, and panel data econometrics suggested the appropriate empirical methodology. Pooled mean group and fully modified least squares estimators were applied to an autoregressive distributed lags model based on the Solow model. The results indicate that accumulation of human capital has a positive and statistically significant long-term impact on the rate of growth of per capita income and that these variables are cointegrated. Such calculations allow us to make the following conclusions: per capita GRP is cointegrated with physical and human capital on the regional level. The cointegrating equation ‘explained’ more than 90% of per capita GRP variance. Human capital accumulation had a significant positive impact on per capita GRP growth in the long run; such impact exceeded the impact of physical capital accumulation. The positive impact of human capital accumulation on per capita GRP growth surpassed the negative elasticity of growth GRP by the amount of resource excluded from the real sector to provide support to students and maintain the regional education system. The paces at which regional economies were heading towards the steady state differed which is an evidence that there exist an incredible manifold of ways and means for regions to adjust to disbalancie