Dynamics of Human Capital in Asian Russia in the First Decades of the 21st Century

Abstract

Russian regions are known to be economically different. While economic inequality is quite natural for a large country, it can lead to depopulation of less developed regions. Thus, the scale of this phenomenon should be assessed and taken into account in development programmes of the Eastern regions of Russia. The study aims to examine population dynamics and migration processes occurring in Asian Russia in the first decades of the 21st century, focusing on the role of human capital at different stages of regional economic development. Migration losses and gains of Asian Russia were estimated based on information on internal migration of the population by education level and the author’s approach to assessing the accumulated human capital. The calculations confirm a hypothesis that losses from the population outflow in the studied region exceed its gains from the inflow, negatively influencing the possibilities of accelerated economic growth. The conducted research presents new results concerning the outflow of human capital from Asian Russia in the period after 2008. Considering foreign experience in reducing negative effects that have also been recently observed in the region, it is proposed to intensify efforts in three major areas: new knowledge as a factor of spatial connectivity; consolidation of the population; implementation and support of economic activity in Asian Russia. The calculation results can be used in development programmes of the Eastern regions of Russia.