ASSESSMENT METHODS OF REGIONAL HUMAN CAPITAL: OVERVIEW OF APPROACHES
In modern conditions, effective management of human capital is able to provide not only economic growth of the state, but also its competitive advantages. From these positions, in order to identify the best practices of human capital formation in the subjects of the Russian Federation, the methods of its assessment at the regional level are of particular importance. As approaches to the assessment of regional human capital, the article considers representative, index, cost and income methods, their description and provides an overview of practices of Russian researchers. The analysis showed that the most popular methods of quantitative assessment of human capital in scientific research are representative and index. However, the use of these methods for inter-regional comparisons of indicators causes a lot of disputes because of their inability to take into account the polarization of intra-regional development, the quality of the regional education system, compliance with the real needs of the economy, etc. Special emphasis is placed on the critical analysis of indicators used to assess regional human capital. The problems that prevent obtaining adequate quantitative estimates of human capital are analyzed. Among the most significant of them are the lack of a single interpretation of the concept of “regional human capital”, the imperfection of the instrumental and methodological base, the lack of information provided by state statistics.
Keywords: human capital, regional human capital, quantitative assessment of human capital, region.
Highlights:
• key aspects to be taken into account in the analysis of human capital;
• methods used to assess the regional human capital are determined, their strengths and weaknesses are identified;
• a critical analysis of indicators is used in the quantitative assessment of human capital.
Elena A. Gafarova, Candidate of Economics, Associate Professor, senior researcher; Olga G. Kantor, Candidate of Physics and Mathematics, Associate Professor, senior researcher - Institute of Social and Economic Research of the Ufa Federal Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.