The Spread of Human Capital in the Former Soviet Union Area in a Comparative Perspective: Exploring a New Dataset

Abstract

To date, the rise and fall of the (former) USSR has triggered a lot of research much of which has focussed on the accumulation of physical capital, growth, and consumption. Recently, also the accumulation of human capital has increasingly been incorporated in this picture. However, few datasets exist that cover this crucial variable for this vast area. Therefore, our main objective is to make available a new dataset that contains human capital related time-series for the USSR (and the Newly Independent States (NIS) after its dissolution), constructed mostly on an annual basis. These data are drawn together from various primary sources, available datasets and secondary literature where our focus was on constructing a dataset as consistent as possible. It is our hope that, by supplying these data in electronic format, it will significantly advance quantitative economic history research on Russia and all over the former Soviet Union area (FSU) and will inspire further research in various new fields relating to intellectual production. The data presented in this paper follow after the discussion of the information value of the primary sources utilised, and the various problems that arose when linking and splicing the data from various sources. After constructing series of human capital indicators we perform a time-series and spatial analysis in order to identify the long-term trends of education penetration and of the human capital development in the FSU area with a strong emphasis on inequality issues between the NIS. Applying these results in a simple growth accounting framework provides us with some preliminary insights on the role of human capital in economic development in the FSU area.

Capital formation and economic growth under central planning and transition: A theoretical and empirical analysis, ca. 1920–2008

“…2 Didenko et al (2013) used GNP/cap, which they assumed comparable to GDP/cap, based on Bergson (1961), Becker (1969) and Steinberg (1990). (2001).…”

“…4 The difference between the two human capital measurements is discussed further below. NMP is taken from Didenko et al (2013) which, in turn, was based on the official figures from 1958 to 1990 and Khanin (1991) for the earlier period. The reliability of the primary sources on the former USSR, their merits, and shortcomings are discussed by Didenko et al (2013).…”

“…GDP estimates for Eastern Europe and the former USSR are taken from Maddison (2007) as updated on his website (http://www.ggdc.net/MADDISON/ oriindex.htm) and, in the case of the republics of the former USSR, extended by Didenko et al (2013) based on the World Bank (2011).…”

“…2 The physical capital stock data is taken from Van Leeuwen and Földvári (2013) for Eastern Europe and Didenko et al (2013) for the former USSR. The latter estimate is based on gross fixed capital to GNP (at factor cost) ratio derived from This refers to the gross fixed capital stock.…”

“…(2001). 3 The human capital stock is obtained from Didenko et al (2013) who provide two alternative measures: the cost-and income-based stock of human capital. 4 The difference between the two human capital measurements is discussed further below.…”