Growth of human capital in the regions of the Russian Empire in 1897-1913: the role of local self-government bodies (zemstva) financing

Popov, Vladimir and Konchakov, Roman and Didenko, Dmitry (2024): Growth of human capital in the regions of the Russian Empire in 1897-1913: the role of local self-government bodies (zemstva) financing.

Abstract

The previous research with incomplete data revealed that zemstva expenditure on education per capita were higher in regions with low level of education, but these spending did not make much of a difference – human capital in these regions remained relatively low (Popov, Konchakov, Didenko, 2024). The results reported in this paper provide additional and more rigorous proof that zemstva activities and the increase in their spending for education in 1897-1913 contributed to the spread of primary education and to the decline in the inequality of the distribution of human capital not only between the regions< but also within the regions (ratio of secondary to primary education enrollment).

But we also show that there were more powerful forces at play – education for tuition fees, central government and city/town administration financing – that were pushing the development in an opposite direction, increasing the secondary education enrollment in most regions faster than the primary education enrollment. The result was the widening gap between low and high educated individuals that could have contributed to the formation of the intelligentsia phenomenon – educated intellectuals that were not able to find the proper place in the national economy to apply their knowledge. Intelligentsia opposition to the tsarist regime, however, did not take violent forms – regions with fast growing educational disparities registered lower, not higher increases in peasants’ unrest, industrial strikes and crimes against persons.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: educational attainment, school enrollment, inequality, land distribution, growth
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I2 - Education and Research Institutions > I24 - Education and Inequality; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Demand and Supply of Labor > J24 - Human Capital ; Skills ; Occupational Choice ; Labor Productivity; N - Economic History > N9 - Regional and Urban History > N93 - Europe: Pre-1913; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R11 - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes

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