The human capital of an enterprise includes the following elements. Universal and specific
Human capital
Human capital- a set of knowledge, skills and abilities used to meet the diverse needs of an individual and society as a whole. The term was first used by Theodore Schultz, and his follower Gary Becker developed this idea, justifying the effectiveness of investments in human capital and formulating an economic approach to human behavior.
Human capital in a broad sense, it is an intensive productive factor economic development, development of society and family, including the educated part of the labor force, knowledge, tools of intellectual and managerial work, living environment and work activity, ensuring the effective and rational functioning of the human capital as a productive factor of development.
Briefly: Human capital- this is intelligence, health, knowledge, high-quality and productive work and quality of life.
Human capital is the main factor in the formation and development of the innovative economy and knowledge economy as the next highest stage of development.
One of the conditions for the development and improvement of the quality of human capital is a high index of economic freedom.
Use the classification of human capital:
- Individual human capital.
- Human capital of the company.
- National human capital.
In national wealth, human capital in developed countries ranges from 70 to 80%. In Russia it is about 50%.
Background
Elements of the theory of human capital (HC) have existed since ancient times, when the first knowledge and education system were formed.
In the scientific literature, the concept of human capital (Human Capital) appeared in publications of the second half of the 20th century in the works of American economists Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker (1992). For creating the foundations of the theory of human capital (HC), they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics - Theodore Schultz in 1979, Gary Becker in 1992. Simon (Semyon) Kuznets, a native of Russia, who received the Nobel Prize, also made a significant contribution to the creation of the theory of HC in economics for 1971
The theory of human capital is based on the achievements of institutional theory, neoclassical theory, neo-Keynesianism and other particular economic theories. Its appearance was a response from economics and related sciences to the demand of the real economy and life. The problem has arisen of an in-depth understanding of the role of man and the accumulated results of his intellectual activity on the pace and quality of development of society and the economy. The impetus for the creation of the theory of human capital was the statistical data on the growth of the economies of developed countries, which exceeded calculations based on taking into account classical growth factors. Analysis of real processes of development and growth in modern conditions led to the approval of human capital as the main productive and social factor development of modern economy and society.
Contributions to the development of the modern theory of human capital were made by T. Schultz, G. Becker, E. Denison, R. Solow, J. Kendrick, S. Kuznets, S. Fabrikant, I. Fisher, R. Lucas and other economists, sociologists and historians .
The concept of human capital is a natural development and generalization of concepts human factor and human resources, however, human capital is a broader economic category.
The economic category “human capital” was formed gradually, and at the first stage it was limited to a person’s knowledge and ability to work. Moreover, long time human capital was considered only a social factor of development, that is, a cost factor, from the point of view of economic theory. It was believed that investments in upbringing and education were unproductive and costly. In the second half of the 20th century, attitudes towards human capital and education gradually changed dramatically.
Broad definition of human capital
The concept of human capital (Human Capital) appeared in publications of the second half of the 20th century in the works of American economists Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker (1992). For creating the foundations of the theory of human capital (HC), they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics - Theodore Schultz in 1979, Gary Becker in 1992. Simon (Semyon) Kuznets, a native of Russia, who received the Nobel Prize, also made a significant contribution to the creation of the theory of HC in economics for 1971
The founders of the theory of human capital (HC) gave it a narrow definition, which expanded over time and continues to expand, including all new components of HC. As a result, Cheka has turned into a complex intensive factor in the development of the modern economy - the knowledge economy.
Currently, on the basis of the theory and practice of Cheka, a successful development paradigm for the United States and leading European countries is being formed and improved. Based on the theory of the Cheka, Sweden, which had lagged behind, modernized its economy and regained its leading position in the world economy in the 2000s. Finland for historically short period time, managed to move from a primarily raw material economy to an innovative economy. And create your own competitive high technologies, without giving up the deepest processing of your main natural resource - forests. Managed to take first place in the world in the ranking of the competitiveness of the economy as a whole. Moreover, it was with the income from processing forests into goods with high added value that the Finns created their innovative technologies and products.
All this took place not because the theory and practice of Cheka realized some kind of magic wand, but because it became the answer of economic theory and practice to the challenges of the time, to the challenges of the innovative economy (knowledge economy) emerging in the second half of the 20th century and venture scientific -technical business.
The development of science and the formation of the information society have brought knowledge, education, health, quality of life of the population and the leading specialists themselves, who determine the creativity and innovativeness of national economies, to the forefront as components of a complex intensive development factor - human capital.
In the context of the globalization of the world economy, in the conditions of the free flow of any capital, including private capital, from country to country, from region to region, from city to city in conditions of intense international competition, the accelerated development of high technologies.
And countries with accumulated high-quality human capital have enormous advantages in creating stable conditions for increasing the quality of life, creating and developing a knowledge economy, information society, and developing civil society. That is, countries with an educated, healthy and optimistic population, competitive world-class professionals in all types of economic activity, in education, science, management and other areas.
Understanding and choosing human capital as the main factor of development literally dictates a systematic and integrated approach when developing a concept or development strategy and linking all other private strategies and programs with them. This dictate follows from the essence of the national Cheka as a multicomponent development factor. Moreover, this dictate particularly highlights the living conditions, work and quality of the tools of specialists who determine the creativity and creative energy of the country.
The core of the Cheka, of course, was and remains a person, but now an educated, creative and proactive person with a high level of professionalism. Human capital itself determines modern economy the main share of the national wealth of countries, regions, municipalities and organizations. At the same time, the share of unskilled labor in the GDP of developed and developing countries, including Russia, is becoming ever smaller, and in technologically advanced countries it is already vanishingly small.
Therefore, the division of labor into unskilled labor and labor requiring education, special skills and knowledge gradually loses its original meaning and economic content when defining Cheka, which the founders of Cheka theory identified with educated people and their accumulated knowledge and experience. The concept of human capital as an economic category is constantly expanding along with the development of the global information community and the knowledge economy.
Human capital in a broad definition is an intensive productive factor in the development of the economy, society and family, including the educated part of the labor force, knowledge, tools of intellectual and managerial work, living environment and work activity, ensuring the effective and rational functioning of the human capital as a productive factor of development.
Briefly: Human capital is intelligence, health, knowledge, high-quality and productive work and quality of life.
The composition of the Cheka includes investments and the return on them in the tools of intellectual and managerial work, as well as investments in the operating environment of the Cheka, ensuring its effectiveness.
CC is a complex and distributed intensive development factor. It's like he blood vessels in a living organism, permeates the entire economy and society. And ensures their functioning and development. Or, on the contrary, it depresses when its quality is low. Therefore, there are objective methodological difficulties in assessing its individual economic efficiency, its individual productivity, its individual contribution to GDP growth and to improving the quality of life. CHK, through its specialists and IT, contributes to the development and growth of the economy everywhere, in all types of economic and production activities.
CHK contributes to improving the quality and productivity of labor in all types of life activities and life support. In all types of economic activity and management, educated professionals determine the productivity and efficiency of labor. And knowledge, high-quality work, and the qualifications of specialists play a decisive role in the effectiveness of the functioning and work of institutions and organizations of all forms and types.
The main drivers for the development of Cheka are competition, investment, and innovation.
The innovative sector of the economy, the creative part of the elite, society, and the state are sources of accumulation of high-quality human capital, which determines the direction and pace of development of the country, region, municipality, and organizations. On the other hand, accumulated high-quality human capital underlies the innovation system and economy (IE).
The development processes of HC and IE constitute a single process of formation and development of the innovative information society and its economy.
How does human capital differ from human potential? The human potential index of a country or region is calculated using three indicators: GDP (or GRP), life expectancy and literacy. That is, this is a narrower concept than Cheka. The latter absorbs the concept of human potential as its enlarged component.
How is human capital different from labor resources? Labor resources are directly people, educated and uneducated, who determine skilled and unskilled labor. Human capital is a much broader concept and includes, in addition to labor resources, accumulated investments (taking into account their depreciation) in education, science, health, safety, quality of life, tools for intellectual work and the environment that ensures the effective functioning of the human capital.
Investments in the formation of an effective elite, including in the organization of competition, are one of the most important investments in the Cheka. Since the times of the classics of science D. Toynbee and M. Weber, it has been known that it is the elite of the people who determine the vector of the direction of its development. Forward, sideways or backward.
An entrepreneurial resource is a creative resource, an intellectual resource for economic development. Therefore, investments in entrepreneurial resources are investments in the development of the human capital in terms of increasing its constructiveness, creativity and innovation. In particular, business angels are a necessary component of CHK.
Investments in institutional services are aimed at creating comfortable conditions for servicing government. institutions of citizens, including doctors, teachers, scientists, engineers, that is, the core of the Cheka, which helps improve the quality of their life and work.
With such an expansion of the economic category “human capital”, it emerges, as already noted, from the “flesh” of a person. People's brains do not work effectively when the quality of life is poor, when safety is low, or when the environment where a person lives and works is aggressive or oppressive.
The foundation on which innovative economies and information societies are created is the rule of law, high quality human capital, high quality of life and an efficient industrial economy, which has smoothly transformed into a post-industrial or innovative economy.
National human capital includes social and political capital, national intellectual priorities, national competitive advantages and the natural potential of the nation.
National human capital is measured by its value, calculated by various methods - by investment, by the discounting method and others.
National human capital makes up more than half of the national wealth of each developing country and over 70-80% of the developed countries of the world.
The characteristics of national human capital determined historical development world civilizations and countries of the world. National human capital in the 20th and 21st centuries was and remains the main intensive factor in the development of the economy and society.
Estimates of the value of national human capital in countries around the world
The value of the national human capital of the world's countries was assessed by experts based on the cost method World Bank.
Estimates of the components of human capital based on the costs of the state, families, entrepreneurs and various funds were used. They allow us to determine the current annual costs of society for the reproduction of human capital.
In the USA, the value of human capital at the end of the 20th century was $95 trillion, or 77% of the national wealth (NW), 26% of the global total value of the human capital.
The value of the global human capital amounted to $365 trillion, or 66% of global wealth, 384% of the US level.
For China, these figures are: $25 trillion, 77% of the total NB, 7% of the global total of HC and 26% of the US level. For Brazil, respectively: $9 trillion; 74%, 2% and 9%. For India: 7 trillion; 58%, 2%; 7%.
For Russia the figures are: $30 trillion; 50 %; 8 %; 32%.
The share of the G7 countries and the EEC is billing period accounted for 59% of the world's HC, which is 78% of their national wealth.
Human capital in most countries exceeded half of the accumulated national wealth (the exception is the OPEC countries). The percentage of HC is significantly influenced by the cost of natural resources. In particular, for Russia the share of the cost of natural resources is relatively large.
The bulk of the world's human capital is concentrated in developed countries. This is due to the fact that investment in human capital over the last half century in these countries has significantly outpaced investment in physical capital. In the United States, the ratio of “investment in people” to productive investment (social spending on education, health care and social security as a percentage of industrial investment) was 194% in 1970, and 318% in 1990.
There are certain difficulties in comparatively assessing the value of human capital in countries with different levels of development. The human capital of an underdeveloped country and a developed country has significantly different productivity per unit of capital, as well as very different quality (for example, significantly different quality of education and health care). To assess the effectiveness of national human capital, factor analysis methods are used using country-specific international indices and indicators. At the same time, the values of the HR efficiency coefficient for different countries differ significantly, which is close to the differences in their labor productivity. The methodology for measuring national human capital is outlined in the work.
The value of Russian national human capital has been declining over the past 20 years due to low investments in it and the degradation of education, medicine, and science.
National human capital and historical development of countries and civilizations
The economic category “human capital” was formed gradually. And at the first stage, the composition of the Cheka included a small number of components - upbringing, education, knowledge, health. Moreover, for a long time, human capital was considered only a social factor of development, that is, a cost factor, from the point of view of the theory of economic growth. It was believed that investments in upbringing and education were unproductive and costly. In the second half of the 20th century, attitudes towards human capital and education gradually changed dramatically.
In fact, it was investments in education and science that in the past ensured the accelerated development of Western civilization - Europe and North America in comparison with China, India and other countries. Studies of the development of civilizations and countries in past centuries show that human capital even then was one of the main development factors that predetermined the successes of some countries and the failures of others.
Western civilization, at a certain historical stage, won the global historical competition with more ancient civilizations precisely due to the more rapid growth of human capital, including education, in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 18th century, Western Europe surpassed China (and India) by one and a half times in terms of per capita GDP and twice as much in terms of population literacy. The latter circumstance, coupled with economic freedom and then democracy, became the main factor in the economic success of Europeans, as well as the United States and other Anglo-Saxon countries.
The influence of human capital on economic growth is illustrated by the example of Japan. The Land of the Rising Sun, which has followed isolationist policies for centuries, has always had a high level of human capital, including education and life expectancy. In 1913, the average number of years of education for adults in Japan was 5.4 years, in Italy - 4.8, in the USA - 8.3 years, and average life expectancy - 51 years (about the same as in Europe and the USA). In Russia, these figures were equal: 1-1.2 years and 33-35 years. Therefore, in terms of the level of starting human capital, Japan turned out to be ready in the 20th century to make a technological breakthrough and become one of the leading countries in the world.
Human capital is an independent complex intensive factor of development, in fact, the foundation of GDP growth in combination with innovation and high technology in modern conditions. The difference between this complex intensive factor and natural resources, classical labor and ordinary capital is the need for constant increased investment in it and the existence of a significant time lag in the return on these investments. In the developed countries of the world at the end of the 1990s, about 70% of all funds were invested in human capital, and only about 30% in physical capital. Moreover, the main share of investments in human capital in the advanced countries of the world is carried out by the state. And this is precisely one of its most important functions in terms of state regulation of the economy.
Analysis of the processes of change in technological structures of the economy and types of societies shows that human capital, the cycles of its growth and development are the main factors in the generation of innovative waves of development and cyclical development of the world economy and society.
Given the low level and quality of human capital, investments in high-tech industries do not yield returns. The relatively rapid successes of the Finns, Irish, Japanese, Chinese (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, etc.), Koreans, and newly developed European countries (Greece, Spain, Portugal) confirm the conclusion that the foundation for the formation of human capital is high culture the bulk of the population of these countries.
Structure, type and methods of assessing the value of human capital
Structure
At one time, upbringing, education and basic science were considered a costly burden on the economy. Then the understanding of their importance as factors in the development of the economy and society changed. Education, science, and mentality as components of human capital, and the Cheka itself as a whole, have become the main factor in the growth and development of the modern economy, the development of society and improving the quality of life. The core of the Cheka, of course, was and remains man. Human capital itself now determines the main share of the national wealth of countries, regions, municipalities and organizations.
With the development and complexity of the concept and economic category of “human capital,” its structure also became more complex.
Human capital is formed, first of all, through investments in improving the level and quality of life of the population. Including - in upbringing, education, health, knowledge (science), entrepreneurial ability and climate, in information support for labor, in the formation of an effective elite, in the safety of citizens and businesses and economic freedom, as well as in culture, art and other components. The Cheka is also formed due to the influx from other countries. Or it decreases due to its outflow, which is still observed in Russia. The Cheka is not a simple number of people, ordinary workers. Cheka is professionalism, knowledge, information services, health and optimism, law-abiding citizens, creativity and efficiency of the elite, etc.
Investments in the components of the Cheka constitute its structure: upbringing, education, health, science, personal safety, entrepreneurial ability, investments in training the elite, tools for intellectual work, information services, etc.
Types of Human Capital
Human capital can be divided into negative human capital (destructive) and positive (creative) human capital according to the degree of efficiency as a productive factor. Between these extreme states and the components of the total human capital, there are states and components of the human capital that are intermediate in effectiveness.
This is part of the accumulated human capital, which does not provide any useful return on investment in it for society, the economy and impedes the growth of the quality of life of the population, the development of society and the individual. Not every investment in upbringing and education is useful and increases HC. An incorrigible criminal, a hired killer is a lost investment in them for society and the family. A significant contribution to the accumulated negative human capital is made by corrupt officials, criminals, drug addicts, and excessive drinkers of alcohol. And just quitters, slackers and thieving people. And, on the contrary, a significant share of the positive part of the Cheka is made up of workaholics, professionals, and world-class specialists. Negative accumulated human capital is formed on the basis of the negative aspects of the nation’s mentality, on the low culture of the population, including its market components (in particular, work ethics and entrepreneurship). Negative traditions of government structure and the functioning of state institutions on the basis of lack of freedom and underdevelopment of civil society, on the basis of investments in pseudo-upbringing, pseudo-education and pseudo-knowledge, in pseudo-science and pseudo-culture, contribute to it. A particularly significant contribution to the negative accumulated human capital can be made by the active part of the nation - its elite, since it is they who determine the policy and development strategy of the country, and lead the nation along the path of either progress, or stagnation (stagnation) or even regression.
Negative human capital requires additional investment in human capital to change the essence of knowledge and experience. To change the educational process, to change innovation and investment potential, to change better side mentality of the population and improving its culture. In this case, additional investments are required to compensate for the negative capital accumulated in the past.
Ineffective investments in the Cheka - investments in ineffective projects or family costs to improve the quality of the components of the Cheka, associated with corruption, unprofessionalism, false or suboptimal development ideology, family dysfunction, etc. In fact, this is an investment in the negative component of the Cheka. Ineffective investments, in particular, are: - investments in individuals incapable of learning and perceiving modern knowledge, which give zero or insignificant results; - in an ineffective and corrupt educational process; - into a system of knowledge that is formed around a false core; - in false or ineffective R&D, projects, innovations.
The accumulated negative human capital begins to fully manifest itself during periods of bifurcations - in conditions of highly disequilibrium states. In this case, there is a transition to another coordinate system (in particular, to another economic and political space), and the Cheka can change its sign and magnitude. In particular, during the country's transition to another economic and political system, during a sharp transition to another, significantly higher technological level (for enterprises and industries). This means that the accumulated human capital, primarily in the form of accumulated mentality, experience and knowledge, as well as existing education, is not suitable for solving new problems of a more complex level, tasks within the framework of a different development paradigm. And when moving to another coordinate system, to radically different requirements for the level and quality of human capital, the accumulated old human capital becomes negative and becomes a brake on development. And new additional investments are needed in the Cheka for its modification and development.
An example of ineffective investments is the investment in chemical warfare agents (CWA) in the USSR. There were almost twice as many of them created as in the rest of the world. Billions of dollars were spent. And it was necessary to spend almost the same amount of money on the destruction and disposal of chemical agents as on their production in the past. Another close example is investment in the production of tanks in the USSR. They were also produced more than in the rest of the world. Military doctrine has changed, tanks now play a lesser role in it, and investments in them have yielded zero return. They are difficult to use for peaceful purposes and impossible to sell - they are outdated.
Let us once again explain the essence of the negativity of the unproductive component of human capital. It is determined by the fact that if a person is a bearer of knowledge that does not meet modern requirements of science, technology, production, management, social sphere, etc., then retraining him often requires much more money than training the corresponding employee with zero. Or inviting an outside employee. In other words, if the quality of work is determined by pseudo-knowledge, then a fundamental change in this quality is more expensive than the formation of qualitatively new work on a modern educational basis and on the basis of other workers. In this regard, enormous difficulties lie, in particular, on the path to creating a Russian innovation system and venture business. The main obstacle here is the negative components of human capital in terms of innovative entrepreneurial ability, mentality, experience and knowledge of Russians in this area. These same problems stand in the way of introducing innovations at Russian enterprises. So far, investments in this area have not yielded adequate returns. The share of the negative component in the accumulated human capital and, accordingly, the effectiveness of investments in human capital in different countries of the world varies greatly. The efficiency of investments in HC is characterized by the conversion coefficients of investments in HC at the country level and for regions of the Russian Federation.
Positive human capital(creative or innovative) are defined as accumulated HC, providing a useful return on investment in it in the processes of development and growth. In particular, from investments in improving and maintaining the quality of life of the population, in the growth of innovative potential and institutional potential. In the development of the education system, the growth of knowledge, the development of science, the improvement of public health. To improve the quality and availability of information. CHK is an inertial productive factor. Investments in it yield returns only after some time. The size and quality of human capital depend, first of all, on the mentality, education, knowledge and health of the population. Historically short time You can get a significant return on investment in education, knowledge, health, but not in the mentality that has been formed over centuries. At the same time, the mentality of the population can significantly reduce the transformation rates of investments in HC and even make investments in HC completely ineffective.
Passive human capital- human capital that does not contribute to the country’s development processes, to the innovative economy, and is aimed mainly at its own consumption of material goods.
The fact that the human capital cannot be changed in a short time, especially with a significant amount of negative accumulated human capital, in essence, is the main problem in the development of the Russian economy from the point of view of the theory of human capital development.
The most important component of the Cheka is labor, its quality and productivity. The quality of work, in turn, is determined by the mentality of the population and the quality of life. Labor in Russia, unfortunately, has been and remains traditionally of low quality (that is, products Russian enterprises, with the exception of raw materials and primary products from them, is uncompetitive on world markets, productivity and labor intensity are low). The energy consumption of Russian products is twice or three times higher, depending on the industry, than in countries with efficient production. And labor productivity is several times lower than in developed countries. Low-productivity and low-quality labor significantly reduces the accumulated Russian human capital and reduces its quality.
Methods for assessing the value of human capital
There are various methodological approaches to calculating the cost of human capital. J. Kendrick proposed a costly method for calculating the value of human capital - based on statistical data, calculate the accumulation of investments in people. This technique turned out to be convenient for the United States, where extensive and reliable statistical data is available. J. Kendrick included in investments in the human capital the costs of the family and society for raising children until they reach working age and obtain a certain specialty, for retraining, advanced training, healthcare, labor migration, etc. He also included investments in housing in savings, household durable goods, household inventories, research and development expenditures. As a result of his calculations, he found that human capital in the 1970s accounted for more than half of the accumulated national wealth of the United States (excluding government investment). Kedrick's method made it possible to evaluate human capital accumulation at its full “replacement cost.” But did not give the possibility of calculation " net worth» human capital (minus its “wear and tear”). This method did not contain a technique for separating from the total amount of costs the part of the costs used for the reproduction of human capital for its actual accumulation. The work of J. Mincer assessed the contribution of education and duration of employment to human capital. Based on US statistics from the 1980s, Mincer obtained the dependence of the effectiveness of the Cheka on the number of years general education, professional training and age of the employee.
The FRASCAT methodology is based on detailed information in the United States on the costs of science since 1920. The methodology took into account the time lag between the period of R&D and the period of their implementation in accumulated human capital as an increase in the stock of knowledge and experience. The average service life of this type of capital was taken to be 18 years. The calculation results turned out to be close to the results of other researchers. The calculation algorithm was as follows. 1. Total current expenditures on science (for fundamental research, applied research, R&D). 2. Accumulation over the period. 3. Changes in inventories. 4. Consumption for the current period. 5. Gross accumulation. 6. Pure accumulation. International economic and financial institutions are showing constant interest in the problem of human capital. The UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) back in the 1970s. prepared a document on the strategy for the further development of mankind, which raised the problem of the role and importance of the human factor in global economic development. This study created methods for calculating some components of human capital: the average life expectancy of one generation, the duration of the active working period, the net balance of the labor force, the family life cycle, etc. The cost of human capital included the cost of education, training and training of new workers, the cost of advanced training , costs of extending the working period, losses due to illness, mortality, etc.
A significant contribution to the development of an expanded concept of national wealth (taking into account the contribution of the Cheka) was made by World Bank analysts, who published a series of works that substantiated this concept. The World Bank methodology summarizes the results and methods for assessing human capital of other schools and authors. The WB methodology, in particular, takes into account accumulated knowledge and other components of human capital.
Sources of HC are selected according to the groupings of costs for the relevant areas. These are science, education, culture and art, healthcare and information support.
These sources must be supplemented with the following: investments in the safety of the population and entrepreneurs - ensure the accumulation of all other components of human capital, ensure the realization of a person’s creative and professional potential, ensure the maintenance and growth of the quality of life; investments in training the elite of society; investments in entrepreneurial capacity and entrepreneurial climate - public and private investments in small businesses and venture capital. Investments in creating conditions for maintaining and developing entrepreneurial ability ensure its implementation as an economic productive resource of the country; investments in raising children; investments in changing the mentality of the population in positive side- this is an investment in the culture of the population, which determines the effectiveness of human capital; investments in institutional services for the population - the country's institutions should contribute to the disclosure and implementation of the creative and professional abilities of the population, improve the quality of life of the population, especially in terms of reducing bureaucratic pressure on it; investments in knowledge associated with inviting specialists, creative people and other talented and highly professional people from other countries who significantly increase human capital; investments in the development of economic freedom, including freedom of labor migration.
The results of calculations of human capital in Russia and the CIS countries based on the cost method using the algorithm of World Bank specialists are presented in the works. Estimates of the components of human capital based on the costs of the state, families, entrepreneurs and various funds were used. They make it possible to determine the current annual costs of society for the reproduction of Russian human capital. To assess the value of real savings, the authors of the work used the calculation of the “true savings” indicator using the methods of World Bank specialists.
Human capital in most countries exceeds half of the accumulated national wealth (the exception is OPEC countries). This reflects the high level of development of these countries. The percentage of HC is significantly influenced by the cost of natural resources. In particular, for Russia the share of the cost of natural resources is large.
It should be noted that the above methodology for assessing human capital by cost, which is quite correct for developed countries with effective government systems and efficient economies, produces a significant error for developing countries and countries with transition economies. There are certain difficulties in comparatively assessing the value of HC from different countries. The human capital of an underdeveloped country and a developed country has very different productivity per unit of capital, very different levels and quality.
This is driven by the growing income gap between people with and without world-class higher education. According to data for 1990, Americans with primary education had a total lifetime income of $756 thousand, with higher education - $1,720 thousand. That is, Americans with higher education had an average income of $1 million more . High pay for skilled and intellectual labor is one of the main incentives for acquiring knowledge in developed countries and the main factor in their development.
In turn, the high image of intellectual labor, its enormous importance for the knowledge economy, generates powerful synergistic effects of strengthening the total intelligence of the country, industries, corporations, and ultimately, the total human capital of the country. Hence the enormous advantages of the developed countries of the world and problems for countries with catching up economies trying to join their ranks.
Modern methods for measuring the value and quality of human capital are given in the works.
An analysis of modern methods for measuring human capital shows that the most accurate methods for measuring it are by its share in national wealth or in GDP, as an intensive productive factor.
Human capital is the main factor in the formation of the “knowledge economy”
All these provisions are included in one form or another (usually in a truncated and scholastic manner), both in the federal innovation strategy and in regional innovation strategies, programs and laws.
Essentially, an understanding of what needs to be done to create a national IP from the point of view of theory and experience of developed countries has matured at all levels of government (those who write programs and strategies). However, there has been little real progress in solving the problem.
The creative core, the engine of IP and the economy is the venture business. Venture business is by definition a risky and highly profitable business (if successful). And in this case, the participation of the state as a regulator and investor is generally accepted. The state takes on some of the risks. The venture business is aimed at implementing major, sometimes breakthrough innovations, innovations emanating from fundamental science. Therefore, the participation of the state in it on the basis of public-private partnership is necessary and useful.
Venture capitalists - specialists, managers and business angels - are especially highly professional, gifted people who require, accordingly, comfortable living and working conditions, and high incomes. Venture capitalists - specialists and entrepreneurs - are in short supply around the world. In the context of the globalization of the world economy and open borders, business angels and other venture capitalists “fly” to where it is more convenient and profitable for them.
World experience has shown that at the early stage of creating a venture business, highly professional venture capitalists can be raised and formed only on the basis of an effective venture school, for example, in Silicon Valley, as Israel and Singapore did. This way of establishing a venture business, in one form or another, has been used by all countries in which IE and venture business have already been created. The foundation on which innovative economies and information societies are created is the rule of law, high quality human capital, high quality of life and an efficient industrial economy, which has smoothly transformed into a post-industrial or innovative economy.
Venture business is of particular importance in the processes of creating an effective and competitive economy. High technologies allow a country with a “catching up” economy to approach the developed countries of the world in terms of per capita income in the foreseeable future. The mission of generators of high technologies and innovative products is carried out by venture technology and scientific-technical businesses.
The accumulated experience of the functioning of the Russian Venture Company, the implementation of the “Federal Target Program Electronic Russia (2002-2010)” and other private programs for the development of high technologies and the introduction of innovations, according to the assessments of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev, independent experts and analysts, showed that their activities have not yet led to any significant positive results. Venture business and innovative activity in Russia and Voronezh, in particular, are not yet economically beneficial for entrepreneurs and the state. And no favorable environment and conditions have been created for this activity.
The tasks of creating a national innovation system and the innovation sector of the economy, technological modernization of the economy, development of science and high technology were set in all federal and regional development strategies and programs. There are no changes yet. Dmitry Medvedev, at a meeting on May 15, 2009 on issues of modernization and technological development of the economy, said on this matter:
“The main problem is that, despite the correct program settings, there are no significant changes in the technological level of our economy. And this is especially obvious during the global financial and economic crisis. So far, neither the small firms that we have tried and are trying to create, nor technology parks, nor various kinds of technology transfer centers, all kinds of new forms that we are trying to use, nor the Russian Venture Company, nor technology-innovation special economic zones have shown serious results. All this basically, I must admit frankly, exists only on paper.”
Why does this happen? The answer is, in principle, not complicated. Corruption and criminalization of the economy and society reduce the effectiveness of the constructive components of human capital. Reduce the efficiency of labor, the economy, business and the state.
Innovation in a market economy is a consequence of free competition in markets. In the absence of a source of innovation generation - competition - innovations themselves are absent or are random in nature. The desire and need to make a big profit pushes the private owner to do something special, useful, which competitors do not have, so that his product is more attractive and sells better. Economic freedom, competitive markets, the rule of law and private property are the factors that automatically generate innovation, demand for it, investment in an innovative product and pave the way between an idea and an innovative product. Outside of a market economy with free competitive markets, it is a priori impossible to create an innovative economy and self-sustaining generation of innovations and innovative goods. This has been proven by the experience of the USSR and other socialist countries in this area.
A feature of the innovative economy, venture business and information society is the fact that favorable conditions for venture business and a high quality of life must be achieved in relation to the developed countries of the world in the context of globalization and open borders and economies. Venture capitalists, as particularly highly professional specialists, work where they are most comfortable, and where favorable and competitive conditions are created for business. It was not possible to create such conditions in the USSR. And that's why he lost the science and technology competition. Current conditions are less favorable for this than they were in the USSR. The remnants of former science and education, as well as other components of the innovation system, do not correspond to the level of the knowledge economy. Therefore, Russian business angels prefer to invest money in foreign technology parks, for example, in India. In Russia, the profit on venture projects is noticeably lower, and the risks are very high. Including criminal risk.
The main reasons for the slowdown in scientific, technical and innovative activity in Russia are the low quality of human capital and an unfavorable, depressing environment for innovation activity. The quality of all components of Russian human capital has decreased: education, science, security of citizens and businesses, elite, specialists. And for venture business and the innovation economy, we must first build a reliable foundation.
Notes
- Konstantinov Ilya. Human capital and strategy of national projects
- Nesterov L., Ashirova G. National wealth and human capital. // VE, 2003, No. 2.
- Korchagin Yu. A. Broad concept of human capital. - Voronezh: TsIRE, 2009.
- SHULGINA E. V. DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN POTENTIAL. Moscow Business School, Moscow, Russia
- Shultz T. Human Capital in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. - N.Y., 1968, vol. 6.
- Becker, Gary S. Human Capital. - N.Y.: Columbia University Press, 1964.
- Kendrick J. The total capital of the United States and its functioning. - M.: Progress, 1976
- Korchagin Yu. A. Investment strategy. - Rostov-on-Don: Phoenix, 2006 ISBN 5-222-08440-X
- Korchagin Yu. A. Russian human capital: a factor of development or degradation? - Voronezh: TsIRE, 2005.
- Fischer S., Dornbusch R., Schmalenzi R. Economic theory. - M., Unity, 2002.
- “The Economics of Resources and the Resources of Economics” (1974).
Human capital is a set of competencies, knowledge, abilities, skills used to meet the diverse needs of an individual and society as a whole, as well as social attributes of an individual, including creative, cognitive abilities, embodied in working abilities.
Human capital is seen as an activity that cannot be delegated to third parties. Human capital cannot be sold or transferred to others.
The term “human capital” was first coined by Theodore Schultz.
According to Theodore Schultz, “one of the forms of capital is education, it is called human because this form becomes part of a person, and capital is due to the fact that it represents a source of future satisfaction or future earnings, or both together.” Schultz later expanded his theory as follows: “Consider all human abilities as either innate or acquired attributes... that are valuable and that can be developed with appropriate investment will be human capital.”
Classification of human capital:
- individual human capital – individual level;
- human capital of an organization (firm) – micro level;
- regional human capital – meso level;
- national human capital – macro level;
- supranational (global) human capital – global level.
Human capital provides for a multi-level development model. Lower-level human capital originates in the cognition, learning, skills, behavior and other characteristics of individuals. Individual human capital produces knowledge and innovation. Then individual human capital is strengthened by interaction with the environment, and manifests itself as human capital of a higher level as a collective phenomenon - the human capital of an organization, national human capital, supranational human capital. At the same time, the collective phenomenon of human capital is manifested and at the same time remaining part of individual human capital.
Individual human capital, in contrast to collective human capital (human capital of an organization, national human capital), is a non-renewable source.
Individual human capital it is an economic type of talent that includes the inherent personal qualities of a person, tied to his body and accessible only through his own free will, for example:
- physical and mental health;
- knowledge, skills, abilities;
- natural abilities, ability to set moral examples;
- education;
- creativity, inventions;
- courage, wisdom, compassion;
- leadership, indescribable personal trust;
- labor mobility.
In a narrow sense, the value of individual human capital can be described through the formula:
Where,
Zi – human knowledge;
Ui – human skills;
Oi – human experience;
AI – human initiatives.
The intellectual, emotional and motivational skills that individuals possess determine their potential and importance in society or an organization. Each of these elements of individual human capital contributes to success not only in a person's professional life, but also in a person's personal life.
The skills that a person acquires are a form of capital—individual human capital. Skills are acquired through intentional investments in education. Human capital theory views education as a commodity that must be used for economic gain. Individual human capital includes expenses and investments for obtaining education and maintaining health, which leads to an increase in the productivity of the bearer of this human capital.
The relationship between knowledge and individual human capital can be understood if a person realizes that capital is formed through investment. Investments in human resources are intended to increase productivity and the ability to earn more.
The value of individual human capital in a broad sense is determined by the formula:
Where,
CCi – the cost of individual human capital;
PSi is the initial cost of individual human capital;
SUZi=γ1× PSi – the cost of outdated knowledge of individual human capital;
SPZi=γ2× PSi – the cost of acquired knowledge, skills of individual human capital;
SIi is the cost of investment of individual human capital;
SZNi=γ3×PSi – the cost of tacit knowledge, abilities of individual human capital;
γ1, γ2, γ3, γ4 - weighting coefficients determined by experts.
Knowledge quickly becomes outdated, so it is important for a person to constantly acquire and apply useful knowledge. People accumulate knowledge and skills, which are considered one of the main forms of capital in the modern economic system. Analyzing the components of formula 2 of individual human capital, we come to the conclusion that the amount of human capital depends on the production of knowledge.
- knowledge embodied in physical tools, machines, developments, research, that is, accumulated knowledge that becomes obsolete over time;
- knowledge embodied in individuals for the purpose of obtaining education, qualifications, and acquiring skills;
- non-embodied (implicit) knowledge, for example: books, textbooks, instructions, guides.
Knowledge transfer helps increase human capital. Knowledge transfer includes components such as the source (sender) of knowledge, the recipient of knowledge, the relationship between the source and recipient of knowledge, the transmission channel, and the overall context. Knowledge transfer occurs at the individual level, micro level, meso level, macro level and global level.
Human capital of the organization (enterprises, firms)
Knowledge within the organization is used to ensure innovation, productivity, quality and is a determining component for winning the competition in finding customers, technologies, technical solutions, specialist knowledge, financing, which creates intangible advantage. The knowledge economy, the dynamics of the development of organizations and local systems are based on the exploitation of cognitive and intangible resources and intangible objects. An intangible advantage is formed by the assortment of attributes of an enterprise's intangible assets.
Human capital refers to the intangible assets of an organization, which do not have a physical form, but at the same time have a certain value for the organization. Human capital turns into organizational assets. Human capital is not fungible. In an organization, individual human capital forms corporate culture, Wednesday. Human capital is inherent in people and cannot be owned by an organization.
The concept of human capital of an organization (firm) can be interpreted in different ways. This can be a resource that belongs to the organization - ideas, technologies, know-how, equipment, scientific research, job descriptions, etc. . On the other hand, human capital is the wealth of an organization in relation to the qualifications of its personnel. An organization's human capital is created through employees, their innate and acquired knowledge, skills, abilities, talent and competencies. Therefore, the human capital of an organization represents the total value that the company’s employees create in accordance with their knowledge, skills, capabilities, using the organization’s resources.
The formation of human capital of an organization is carried out using the following methods:
- acquisition (selection and hiring);
- attraction and retention;
- development and training;
- merger and (or) acquisition.
Ways to increase the human capital of an organization:
- trainings;
- performance monitoring;
- direct communication;
- certain job responsibilities;
- motivation.
The most common professional development tool is employer-provided training.
The cost of human capital of an organization (firm) depends on the category of employee (unskilled and skilled workers, creative specialists, managers, etc.). The value of an organization’s human capital is influenced by: high professional competence, intellectual and creative potential, the ability to perceive innovation and be a participant in innovation, adaptability to rapidly changing production conditions, mastery of several specialties, professional mobility, responsibility, personal characteristics. The cost of an organization's human capital is probabilistic in nature.
An organization's human capital has a value that must only be understood in economic terms. This type of value does not take into account the individual's importance to family, society, or other aspects of his social network. The primary focus of an organization's human capital value is strictly on the skills, knowledge and experience that an individual possesses and how much these assets are worth in relation to a particular employer. An organization's human capital creates other forms of capital.
An example of how a person acquires human capital is the professional training of athletes. Often, an athlete begins the process of preparing for a sports career by learning the basics of this sport: receiving an education, participating in sports events, and gaining experience in a particular sport. Assuming that the combination of knowledge, talent and experience is sufficient, then the athlete is offered the opportunity to play professionally, where he gains additional experience. This whole process has economic value because the athlete’s human capital in a given sport increases, and this leads to sporting achievements(results) in various competitions. The value of such an athlete’s human capital increases as a result of his performance, and he becomes a salable “brand.”
The human capital of an organization (HC) can be represented as the sum of the individual human capital of the employees of this organization:
An organization's human capital is a source of competitive advantage and includes collective competencies, know-how, innovation, organizational procedures, intelligent technologies, corporate culture and relational capital. Armstrong identifies the three most important factors in achieving competitive advantage: innovation, quality and cost of leadership, but all of these depend on the quality of the organization's human resources. In the modern economy, the very existence and development of an organization depends on its innovativeness.
Human capital, as an asset of an enterprise, needs accounting.
The reputation of the organization and the employer brand influence the attraction of human capital to the company. Human capital may leave the organization in search of better opportunities for the work environment, training and development, for better evaluation and recognition.
Regional human capital
Currently, human capital is the main factor in the socio-economic development of the region.
The economic development of the regions should include the formation of a “resource portfolio” that ensures the growth of the competitiveness of the regional economy due to (see Figure 1):
- investments;
- innovation and technology;
- accumulated funds.
Figure 1. Stages of growth of competitiveness of the regional economy.
The economic success of a region depends on the population living in a given territory, the capabilities of regional human capital, and the level of unemployment. In regions with high unemployment rates, there is an outflow of labor, and as a result, a decrease in regional human capital. At the same time, dynamically developing regions experience a shortage of labor resources. On January 1, 2015, the labor mobility program for Russians is being launched, for which 6 billion rubles are planned to be allocated from the federal budget in the next three years.
The property of human capital mobility is used in regional labor markets for intraregional movement of human capital. The mobility of the regional population is due to economic and social reasons. Most household families at the regional level support the migration of their grown children to large cities to study, search for higher-paying jobs, and labor mobility.
Intraregional migration of human capital does not require the cost of moving the whole family, and reduces tension in the labor markets of underdeveloped and depressed territories and single-industry towns in the region. Educational and labor migration of human capital within the region reduces pressure on the regional labor market. In modern conditions, labor migration of highly qualified workers is an important source of human capital accumulation, ensuring prosperity and economic growth in the region. Population mobility is modernizing the economic space of the region. With increasing population mobility, the unemployment rate decreases, and this leads to a change in the demographic structure of the region.
The human capital of the region is based on public consciousness and socio-political development. Regional human capital is assessed as the share of the population with a certain level of education in total economic activity, income or output per capita. The knowledge and skills of the region's people are a key contribution to the region's business competitiveness and ability to grow in the future. The importance of a region's human capital is reflected in the depth and breadth of education, training, qualifications and professions of the region's population.
The effect of human capital at the regional level depends on economic indicators:
- impact on the productivity of the region in the area of employment;
- expanding employment opportunities for individuals endowed with a certain level of individual human capital.
The effect of regional human capital depends on the level of wages in the region, the migration of university graduates to economically developing regions, the migration of students, the creation of local developing agglomerations, and the development of the region’s infrastructure.
The pattern of student migration is observed from places of permanent residence to places with a higher level of education and subsequent first employment after receiving higher education. The flow of applicants to universities largely depends on the economic or innovative characteristics of the region. Migration of human capital contributes to the production of regional knowledge. The regional knowledge base plays an important role in attracting university graduates into local employment. The regional university system promotes the growth of the local regional knowledge base.
The region's innovation indicators are directly related to the number of university graduates remaining in the regional economy. Innovative regions that demonstrate significant regional knowledge assets tend to demonstrate a rich pool of skills, ideas and technologies, cultural environment, and business development. Skills, ideas and technologies are embodied both in the human capital of the region's workforce and in the physical capital of the region's population.
The deficit in regional human capital is a factor in reducing investment in the region's economy, and as a consequence, economic decline. Retaining professional and highly qualified personnel is one of the problems of retaining regional human capital. Globalization and dynamically developing regions influence the outflow of talent from less developed regions.
Innovative regions create a dynamically competitive economic environment that shapes the market. Availability of regional knowledge assets through local universities, research institutes ensures the region's innovation. Local research develops regional business structures and generates a local workforce.
National human capital
Demography makes strict demands on future trends in the development of the national labor market and national human capital. The age structure of the population is shifting towards an increase in the number of people older than working age. The working age population is declining. These trends lead to a significant increase in the demographic burden on the working-age population.
National human capital is the human capital of a country, which is an integral part of its national wealth. The condition for the accumulation of human capital is a high quality of life. The development of human capital and improving the quality of life is significantly based on the implementation of national projects. Human capital is the ability of the population to ensure economic growth.
National human capital includes:
- social capital;
- political capital;
- national intellectual priorities;
- national competitive advantages;
- natural potential of the nation.
Increasing national competitiveness is a complex task, the success of which is determined by the development of human capital, economic institutions, the implementation and strengthening of Russia’s existing competitive advantages in the energy and raw materials industries and transport infrastructure and the creation of new competitive advantages associated with the diversification of the economy and the formation of a powerful scientific and technological complex and economy knowledge
National human capital is part of innovative (creative) labor resources, accumulated competitive and highly productive knowledge, an innovation system, intellectual capital and innovative technologies in all spheres of life and the economy, as well as the quality of life, which together ensure the competitiveness of the country’s and state’s economy in world markets in conditions of globalization.
National human capital is measured by its value, calculated by various methods - by investment, by the discounting method and others. The value of national human capital is calculated as the sum of the human capital of all people.
National human capital makes up more than half of the national wealth of each developing country and over 70-80% of the developed countries of the world.
The characteristics of national human capital determined the historical development of world civilizations and countries of the world. National human capital in the 20th and 21st centuries was and remains the main intensive factor in the development of the economy and society. National security of the Russian Federation is achieved through the development of a national innovation system and investment in human capital.
Tax incentive measures aimed at supporting investment and human capital development in the Russian Federation:
- providing benefits for personal income tax;
- tax incentives for investment;
- support for production modernization;
- simplification tax accounting and its convergence with accounting.
Supranational (global) human capital
Globalization refers to the free, natural movement of all resources: capital, goods, technology and people. The globalization of the economy forms a supranational, global level of human capital development. Globalization provides the opportunity to access new pools of human capital around the world. The mobility of human capital and talent across national borders creates a risk of economic growth for organizations, regions, and countries that leave the pool of human capital. Global mobility of human capital within global corporations and companies increases their economic returns. Cross-border migration of skilled labor over the next 20 years could lead to increased unemployment and social unrest.
Global human capital is the combination of education, experience, personal qualities and competencies that are represented in the workforce around the world that contribute to the development of the global economy. The concept of workers as important assets that have measurable economic value has led to development policies by international organizations in less developed countries. Most of international law revolves around workers' rights and recognition of the importance of creating high value human capital for the health and stability of the country. The most competitive human capital is labor from China, India, and South Korea.
Analysts and international economic development organizations evaluate the potential of developing countries and the success of investment efforts through economic indicators such as the rate of human capital formation. The rate of formation of human capital is determined through the “Human Development Index” (HDI), which includes information on life expectancy, level of education and average personal income.
The concept of global human capital compares and evaluates labor force indicators in different countries. The globalization of human capital stimulates organizations to innovate and transform human capital management practices.
The formation of human capital in any country can be carried out through investments in education, the healthcare system, strengthening the conditions of family life, and civil rights.
Quality of the workforce. General and specific human capital.
Labor quality- a generalized characteristic of the level of development of the workforce, which allows us to ensure adequate quality of individual and collective work based on the effective use of new and emerging technologies, rational forms of organization of production and work processes.
The quality of the workforce is characterized by
The volume of general educational training for employees;
The level of general culture;
Level of professionalism and qualifications;
Available experience and work skills;
Moral reliability.
Human capital- this is the totality of the collective knowledge of the enterprise’s personnel, their creative abilities, problem-solving skills, leadership qualities, entrepreneurial and managerial skills.
Human capital is divided into
1. General human capital - knowledge, abilities, skills that can be implemented in various workplaces, in various organizations.
2. Specific human capital - knowledge, abilities, skills that can only be used in a specific workplace, only in a specific company.
Personnel of the organization: composition and structure. Tasks and stages of planning the personnel of an organization.
Everyone working in the organization is divided into two categories˸
industrial production personnel engaged in production and service;
personnel of non-industrial organizations (workers of housing and communal services, children's and medical institutions on the balance sheet of the organization).
Everyone employed at the company according to the classifier of professions and positions, they are divided into categories˸
Workers are persons directly involved in the creation of material assets, as well as repairs, movement of goods, provision of material services, etc.
Managers - employees holding positions of heads of enterprises and their structural divisions
Specialists - workers engaged in engineering, technical, economic and other work
Employees - workers who prepare and process documentation, accounting and control, and housekeeping services
The organization's employees are divided into professions, specialties and qualifications.
A profession is characterized by a complex of theoretical knowledge and practical skills necessary to perform a specific job in one of the industries.
The specialty is determined by the further division of labor within the profession.
Qualification depends on the level of special knowledge and practical skills of the employee and characterizes the degree of complexity of the specific type of work performed by him.
Quality of the workforce. General and specific human capital. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Quality of labor force. General and specific human capital." 2015, 2017-2018.
Introduction
Human capital is a set of knowledge, skills and abilities used to meet the diverse needs of individuals and society as a whole. The use of the concept of “human capital” allows us to understand the role of social institutions, to find out not only social parameters, but also to conduct an economic analysis of the influence of the social factor on market economy. In the 20th century, the theory of “human capital” was developed. According to this theory, improving the qualitative characteristics of a person in the areas of education and health care ensures the creation of durable economic resources. Education transforms the labor force, giving it the ability to perform highly skilled work, and healthcare increases the duration and intensity of use of the individual’s accumulated ability to work. Based on these premises, the productive qualities and characteristics of the worker were recognized as a special form of capital, since they, like other types of capitalized resources, ensure that their owner receives certain income over a period of time.
In the conditions of the modern economy, during the economic crisis, the topic of human capital is especially important and relevant, since in the Republic of Belarus people are the most important resource, as noted by President A.G. Lukashenko at a press conference in October 2009. The new type of worker must receive continuous education throughout his life. Investments in people and their environment allow for more efficient use of society's economic resources. The phenomenon of “human capital” acts as an integral attribute of a market economy.
In this work, I revealed the essence of human capital, examined its structure and main characteristics, studied approaches to the concept of human capital and methods for assessing it. I examined the role and qualitative aspects of the state of human capital in Belarus and, based on this, made conclusions about what needs to be changed in order to increase the material and educational level of the population, labor productivity, and attract the attention of the younger generation to scientific activities, the development of which will have a good impact on the general condition states.
Human capital: concept, main characteristics
Definition of the essence of human capital
The theory of human capital has a far from simple and very controversial history. On the one hand, human capital as an objective economic phenomenon has been recognized since the times of A. Smith, K. Marx and many other representatives of classical and postclassical economic theory. Smith wrote that fixed capital consists not only of machinery and equipment, but also of the useful abilities of the members of society, the acquisition of which always requires actual costs, which represent fixed capital. K. Marx notes that from the point of view of the direct production process, saving labor time can be considered as the production of fixed capital, and this fixed capital is understood as the person himself. On the other hand, for a long period of time, theoretical economists used in their research not the concept of “human capital”, but categories such as “labor” and “labor force”. Human capital has been and is recognized as an objective reality existing in the world of economic phenomena, but human capital has not yet become a subjective reality in the relevant theoretical constructs and concepts of the majority of representatives of fundamental theoretical science. In addition, even among the few representatives of economic theory of the past and present, there is no agreement even on the key methodological provisions characterizing human capital as a complex and contradictory phenomenon. The term “human capital” first appeared in the works of Theodore Schultz, an economist interested in the difficult situation of underdeveloped countries. Schultz stated that improving the well-being of poor people did not depend on land, technology, or their efforts, but rather on knowledge. He called this qualitative aspect of the economy "human capital." Schultz, who received the Nobel Prize in 1979, proposed the following definition: “All human abilities are either innate or acquired. Each person is born with an individual set of genes that determines his innate abilities. Valuable qualities acquired by a person, which can be enhanced by appropriate investments, we We call it human capital." He considered human capital as the costs accumulated in the country for the reproduction of labor force, regardless of the source of their coverage. The results of such investments are the accumulation of people’s ability to work, their creative activity in society, the maintenance of people’s very lives, health, etc. He also substantiated the need for an expanded interpretation of a number of categories of reproduction, especially accumulation, suggesting that of the product produced in society, not 35-50% is no longer used for the accumulation of the human factor, as followed from most theories of reproduction in the 20th century, but? its total size.
A follower of Theodore Schultz was Gary Becker, who developed this idea, justifying the effectiveness of investments in human capital and formulating an economic approach to human behavior.
There are a huge number of approaches to research and an abundance of interpretations of the essence of human capital. If we try to classify the interpretations of human capital existing in modern economic literature, they can be divided into the following varieties: a) “predicative”, b) “resource”, c) “eclectic”.
Predicative interpretations of the essence of human capital are formulations that only come into contact with the sphere of human capital, but do not penetrate in depth, do not identify and do not reflect the real essence of the problem.
Resource-based interpretations of the essence of human capital are the most common in economic literature. The meaning of “resource” definitions of human capital is that here we are not talking about capital as actualized resources, but directly about the resources themselves, which are just potential, and not a fact of creative activity.
The eclectic characteristics of the essence and related content of human capital absorb various disjointed provisions and interpretations of the phenomenon under consideration. In particular, human capital is defined here simultaneously as an element of national wealth, as part of the economic resources of the individual, organization and society as a whole, as the process of creating the required goods, etc.
The presented interpretations of the essence of human capital are the object of criticism, since they do not reflect the qualitative certainty of the phenomenon under consideration. At the same time, these definitions and characteristics of human capital are very useful from the point of view of identifying its socio-economic content, as well as studying various aspects of the formation and development of this capital. But, in order to understand what the qualitative definition of human capital is and how this complex socio-economic phenomenon should be interpreted in connection with this, it is necessary to carry out a research “ascent” from “general” to “special”.
Let's consider the “general” in the characteristics of human capital. If capital as such represents any value directly used to create vital goods, then a person should be considered as a capital most important asset, as a basic value, without which it is practically impossible to create any vital good. From the “general” point of view, the essence of human capital lies in its ability to be used to create certain goods; it is a value that can ensure the creation of other values. “Special” in human capital lies in the fact that the bearer of creating value is the individual herself, on whose cultural level and education, motivation and attitudes, decisions and actions depends not only the actualization of human forces and their transformation into a creative, capital value, but also directly any creative process. Only a person sets himself and other types of inanimate capital in motion; a person organizes and manages the creative process, giving it direction and filling it with a certain content. This circumstance reveals the first, initial feature of human capital: in the system of national capital it is basic, integrating. Direct investments in human capital are indirect investments in the natural and material capital of the nation. The importance of human capital as an integrator of all types of capital lies in the creation of a technological linkage of existing factors of production, in the formation of a favorable socio-economic and institutional environment that ensures the most effective use of the elements of natural and material capital involved.
The most important feature of human capital is its quality of self-growth, i.e. human capital, considered in unity with the person himself, grows itself, forms and reproduces the necessary creative qualities and characteristics. The dynamics, complexities and contradictions of the modern reproduction process, as well as the growing and changing requirements for the creation of vital goods, necessitate not only accelerated, but also advanced, diversified development of human capital.
The considered features of human capital are reduced to one more specific property, which appears in the form of the ability of this capital to internally systematize all the qualitative characteristics and quantitative properties of the individual; with the direct creative use of human capital, a system of human properties works, the individual is realized as such, and not just one or two of its characteristic features.
The most important modern feature of human capital is that the purchase and sale of human abilities for certain creative activities carried out on the human capital market is less and less reflected and explained by the principle of equivalent exchange, and is increasingly acquiring an external character. Identification of the external nature of human interactions and the development of organization members, as well as the presence of a rational principle in human capital as such, allows us to highlight another of its features as a factor of production. This feature lies in the fact that human capital is the only factor of production that, in the process of use, is simultaneously consumed and developed. Thus, human capital acquires a multiplicative, or “double” value. The multiplier effect is that as a result of the production process with the aim of creating some kind of life benefit, the creative value of human capital “at the output” exceeds its value “at the input”. This explains the constantly growing efficiency of investments in human capital, with the relatively declining effectiveness of investments in natural and material capital.
The most important feature of human capital is its ability to create wealth without the participation of natural and material capital. Such benefits are, first of all, new knowledge necessary for human development.
Historical-economic and logical-epistemological analysis of existing interpretations of human capital, as well as identifying the characteristics of human capital as a factor of production allows us to clarify the definition of the essence of human capital, which is understood as a specific value represented by a system of constantly developing, creatively oriented and in demand human properties, conscious and purposeful the use of which ensures the expanded reproduction of vital benefits required for development.
In modern economic literature, the categories “human capital”, “labor”, “labor” are often considered as factors of production. Meanwhile, the identified essence of human capital allows us to say that all these categories are multi-level. The workforce represents a certain human resource, potential readiness for creative activity. Human capital expresses a real readiness for the creative use of a certain combination of human knowledge and abilities. Labor is the materialization of this real readiness into the fact of activity to create this or that good.
The use of the concept of “human capital” allows us to understand the role of social institutions, to find out not only social parameters, but also to conduct an economic analysis of the influence of the social factor on the market economy. Becker in his work “Human Capital” introduces the concept of “special human capital”, that is, this means only those skills that are of interest to any one company, any one type of activity. O. Toffler introduces the concept of “symbolic capital - knowledge”, which, unlike traditional forms of capital, is inexhaustible and at the same time accessible to an infinite number of users without restrictions.
FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
STATE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION
HIGHER PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION
ULYANOVSK STATE UNIVERSITY
Institute of Economics and Business
Department of Economics
Department of Economic Theory
COURSE WORK
Human capital: concept and role in the modern economy
Ulyanovsk 2014
Introduction
1 The concept and essence of human capital
Chapter 2. Investments in human capital (using the example of Russia)
1 Features of human capital development in Russia
1 The main problems of using human capital in modern Russia
2 Ways to improve the efficiency of using human capital
Conclusion
Introduction
The development of the information economy has significantly changed the place and role of man in a new type of economic management. Human skills and abilities came to the fore in social production. Human capital today plays an important role in the country's economy. Through the development of human capital, it is possible to increase the country's competitiveness, increase production efficiency, and its development also contributes to the economic growth of the country. The transition to an innovative path of development is impossible without attracting human capital.
The concept of “human capital” is currently acquiring great importance not only for economic theorists, but also for individual companies. The interest of economic science in human creative abilities, in the ways of their formation and development, has sharply increased. Most companies are beginning to place great importance on the accumulation of human capital as the most valuable of all types of capital. One of the ways to accumulate human capital is to invest in a person, in his health and education. Today, the study of problems of increasing the efficiency of using the productive forces of people, realized in modern conditions in the form of human capital, is not only relevant, but is being promoted to the category of priority tasks in the structure of socio-economic research. This involves conducting deep scientific research this problem.
The concept of human capital has become intensively used by world science, which has appreciated the role of intellectual activity and identified the necessity and high efficiency of investments in human capital. The concept of human capital plays a central role in modern economic analysis.
The relevance of this topic lies in the fact that the effective use and development of human capital is a priority for many leading countries in the world. It is this that contributes to improving the quality of life, as well as increasing the efficiency of the national economy.
The object of the study is human capital.
The subject of the study is human capital and its role in the development of the modern economy.
The purpose of the work is to consider the theoretical and practical foundations of human capital and its role in the development of the modern economy in Russia.
In accordance with the goal, the following tasks are set in the work:
· Define the essence and concept of human capital;
· Monitor the development of human capital;
· Determine the state of human capital in Russia and abroad;
· Identify the main problems in the use of human capital in Russia;
· Consider ways to improve the efficiency of using human capital in modern Russia.
Chapter 1. Theoretical foundations of human capital
1.1 Concept and characteristics of human capital
The concept of human capital appeared in Russian literature as a positive economic category. In developed countries, the theory and practice of human capital is a basic element for the development of concepts, strategies and programs for the development of the country.
There are many definitions of human capital, including those by the founders of human capital theory, Gary Becker and Theodore Schultz. They directly connected the concept of human capital only with a person as a carrier of knowledge. And they attached special importance to education as the main factor in the development of society and the economy. At present, this definition already seems narrowed. Human capital includes not only educated specialists, knowledge, upbringing, science, but also tools of intellectual labor and the environment for the functioning of human capital in terms of performing its productive functions. Indeed, a specialist without the software of his work, without the necessary sources of information, databases, methods and technologies cannot, in modern conditions, perform his work, his functions, just as without a high quality of life, a specialist will not work in a given country, but will leave for the country, where he will be provided with comfortable conditions for intellectual work.
In order to consider the theory of human capital, it is necessary to first clarify the essence of some concepts.
Human capital - in economics - the ability of people to participate in the production process.
Human capital is divided into:
1.General human capital is knowledge, skills, abilities that can be implemented in various workplaces, in various organizations.
2.Specific human capital is knowledge, skills, abilities that can only be used in a specific workplace, only in a specific company.
.Human intellectual capital is capital embodied in people in the form of their education, qualifications, professional knowledge, experience.
So, human capital in economics is understood as a person’s stock of knowledge, health, skills, and experience that are used by an individual to generate income. It should be noted that this is not just the totality of knowledge and abilities that a person possesses.
This means that under the concept of “human capital” you need to see:
Acquired stock of knowledge, skills, abilities;
That it is advisable to use this reserve in one or another area of social activity, and this contributes to the growth of labor productivity and production;
That the use of this stock leads to an increase in earnings (income) of this employee in the future by refusing part of current consumption;
That increased income promotes employee engagement, and this leads to further investment in human capital;
That human abilities, talents, knowledge, etc. are an integral part of every person;
What is motivation? necessary element so that the process of reproduction (formation, accumulation, use) of human capital is fully completed.
The main essential characteristics of human capital are:
a certain stock of knowledge, skills and other productive qualities and abilities of a person, which is the result of investments in a person;
this stock of human knowledge exists potentially and is realized in one or another sphere of social reproduction through its inclusion in the process of social labor. The accumulated stock of knowledge is the basis for the growth of labor productivity and production, the basis for the economic growth of the country;
Using the accumulated stock of knowledge expediently, the employee receives an appropriate income in the form of wages, and society - in the form of national income. The more efficiently human capital is used, the higher the income of the employee and society as a whole should grow;
increasing the income of the employee and society should stimulate them to further accumulate new stocks of knowledge, skills and experience by investing in human capital.
Therefore, human capital is the abilities and qualities formed as a result of investments and accumulated by a person, which, when used appropriately, lead to an increase in labor productivity and income.
When studying the concept of “human capital,” the question arises: why is the entire totality of a person’s productive abilities interpreted as capital?
The following arguments prove this:
The productive abilities of a person are a special form of capital because they are an inalienable personal property and wealth of a person, his property, and therefore they cannot be bought and sold, alienated from the owner;
human productive abilities provide its owner with higher income in the future by giving up part of current consumption, i.e. temporary lost profit;
The productive abilities of a person can generate not only income in cash in the form of wages, but also provide psychological, social, moral result;
the formation of human productive abilities requires significant costs from both the individual and society;
Human productivity tends to increase as a result of investment and production experience.
Therefore, a person’s productive abilities are his capital, and, being included in the system of social reproduction, are one of the forms total capital society.
The main elements of human capital usually include:
education capital, including general and specialized knowledge;
industrial training capital (qualifications, skills, production experience);
health capital;
possession of economically significant information (for example, about prices, income);
migration capital, which ensures worker mobility;
motivation of work activity.
When defining the concept of “human capital”, the following features are taken into account:
Human capital is the main value of modern society, as well as a fundamental factor in economic growth.
The formation of human capital requires significant costs both from the individual himself and from society as a whole.
Human capital can be accumulated, namely, an individual can acquire certain skills, abilities, and can increase their health.
Over the course of its life, human capital not only acquires knowledge, but also wears out, both physically and morally. The individual’s knowledge becomes obsolete, i.e. The value of human capital changes economically in the process of existence, human capital is depreciated.
Investments in human capital usually provide their owner with higher income in the future. For society, investments provide a longer-term (in time) and integral (in nature) economic and social effect.
Investments in human capital are quite long-term. And if investments in human capital of education have a period of 12 - 20 years, then a person makes investments in health capital over the entire period of time.
Human capital differs from physical capital in its degree of liquidity. Human capital is inseparable from its carrier - a living human personality.
Direct income received by a person is controlled by him, regardless of the source of investment.
The functioning of human capital depends on a person’s decision and expression of will. The degree of return from the use of human capital depends on a person’s individual interests, his preferences, his material and moral interest, worldviews, general level his culture.
Human capital is assessed quantitatively: the total number of people, the number of active population, the number of students, etc.
Qualitative characteristics: skill, education and also that which influences a person’s performance and helps to increase labor productivity.
Conclusion: Human capital is capital represented in an individual by the potential ability to generate income, based on innate intellectual abilities and talent, as well as knowledge and practical skills acquired in the process of training, education and practical activities of a person.
2 Types of human capital
Currently, in the theory and practice of human capital (HC), a distinction is made between individual, corporate and national human capital.
Individual human capital is the accumulated stock of special and specialized knowledge and professional skills of an individual, allowing him to receive additional income and other benefits compared to a person without it.
Corporate human capital is a special and special individual human capital accumulated by a company in comparison with its competitors, know-how, intellectual capital, special management and intellectual technologies, including computer and information technologies that increase the competitiveness of the company.
National human capital is a part of innovative (creative) labor resources, leading specialists, accumulated knowledge, accumulated innovative and high-tech share of national wealth, innovation system, intellectual capital, social capital, as well as quality of life, which together ensure the development and competitiveness of the innovative part of the economy countries and states in world markets in conditions of globalization and competition.
Narrow and broad definition of human capital
There are several definitions of human capital: narrow (educational), extended and broad. As already noted, the socio-economic category “human capital” was formed gradually. And at the first stage, HC included only investments in special education (a narrow definition of HC). Sometimes human capital in a narrow definition is called educational HC.
At the second stage, HC (expanded definition) gradually included (this was done, among other things, by World Bank experts when assessing HC and the national wealth of countries around the world) investments in upbringing, education, science, human health, information services, and culture and art.
At the third stage of development of the socio-economic category HC, investments were added in components that ensure the safety of people (separated from the quality of life of the population due to its particular importance, especially for Russia and other developing countries). In the preparation of an effective elite, in the formation and development of civil society (CS). In improving the efficiency of institutional services for HC, as well as investing in improving the quality of life and in the influx of capital from outside into a given country.
In a broad definition, national human capital is culture, knowledge, health, professionalism, law-abidingness and innovative creativity of specialists, their social capital, as well as high quality of life and work.
The basic component of HC is the mentality of the people, including traditions and culture, attitude towards work, family, and law-abidingness. They have been historically significantly influenced by religions. The determinants of HC are upbringing, education, health, accumulated knowledge, science, quality of life, competition and economic freedom, the rule of law and justice, security, mobility and creativity of business and citizens. - a synthetic and complex socio-economic category at the intersection of various disciplines and sciences : economics, psychology, sociology, computer science, history, medicine, pedagogy, philosophy, political science and others.
The core of the national HC consists of the best and globally competitive specialists who determine the growth and efficiency of the use of knowledge and innovation, the efficiency of entrepreneurial resources, the size and efficiency of the innovation sector of the economy.
For the integral efficiency of HC, all its components are important. Low quality of any of them reduces the overall quality of the HC. In this case, there are negative synergistic and multiplicative effects of weakening the effectiveness of HC while reducing the efficiency or quality of any component, as is currently the case in Russia.
In the modern economy, the creative part of the labor force (creative class) constitutes the core of the accumulated national human capital (HC).
It also includes a qualified part of the labor resources that ensures the effective functioning of the HC, the environment for its functioning and the tools of intellectual work. HC performance is significantly determined by culture and its associated work and entrepreneurial ethics.
From the point of view of the innovation economy, development processes and GDP, human capital can be defined as follows:
Human capital is part of the creative labor resources (creative class), their high-quality material support, accumulated high-quality knowledge, intellectual and high technologies, which annually create a share of innovative and knowledge-intensive products in GDP that is competitive in world markets.
The value of accumulated HC is calculated in this case by summing the shares of innovative products, services and high-tech products in GDP over the average working life of a generation (30 years for Russia).
Human capital in value terms is the share of the innovative economy and its support in the overall economy of the country.
This approach makes it possible to quantify national human capital through the use of integrated country-specific international indicators, which, on the one hand, simplifies the calculations, and on the other, makes them more reliable.
At all levels of human capital - individual, corporate and national, it is based on special, specific knowledge, skills and technologies that determine the competitive advantages of human capital at the corresponding level.
At all levels of human capital, its composition also includes additional qualified labor resources, quality of life, tools and technologies that ensure the implementation of the competitive advantages of the national human capital, the effective functioning of the human capital as an intensive factor in innovation, intellectual work and development.
3 Basic provisions of the concept of human capital
With the increasing role of scientific and technological progress in economic growth, the attitude of Western classical economists to the problems of reproduction of the labor force has changed. The focus of attention of scientists has focused on the problems of creating a qualitatively new labor force, while previously the main problems were the problems of using the available labor force. Structural changes in the economy of modern capitalism served as the objective basis on which the modern concept of human capital arose.
The development of the theory of human capital dates back to the late 50s and early 60s in the USA. On rights special section it is included in all Western economics textbooks. At its origins were famous American economists, representatives of the so-called “Chicago school” - Nobel Prize laureates Theodore Schultz and Gary Becker, Barton Weisbrod, George Mintzer, Lee Hansen. Later huge contribution Mark Blaug, S. Bowles, Yoram Ben-Poret, Richard Layard, J. Psacharopoulos, F. Welch, B. Chiswick and others contributed to its development.
In general, this concept lies in line with the neoclassical direction, but the set of analytical tools of the neoclassical school is used by it to study those social institutions (education, health care, etc.) that previously remained outside the scope of economic analysis.
The central methodological installation of the “Chicago School” of human capital - to explain economic processes on the basis of the principle of maximizing behavior of individuals - has been transferred to a variety of spheres of non-market human activity. The emphasis is on quantitative analysis. The Chicago School concept suggests that investments in education, health care, migration and other activities are made on a rational basis - in order to obtain big income in future.
These costs, or investments, in the production of human capital are extremely important for the family and for the entire society.
Expected returns from investment in human capital include higher earnings, greater lifetime satisfaction in one's chosen work, and higher valuations of nonmarket activities.
The costs of producing human capital (investments in human capital) include:
) direct costs, including tuition and other expenses for education, change of place of residence and work;
) lost earnings, which is an element of opportunity costs, since obtaining an education, changing place of residence and work are associated with loss of income;
) moral damage, since getting an education is difficult and often unpleasant, searching for a job is tiring and exhausting nervous system, and migration leads to the loss of old friends and acquaintances.
In general, neoclassical labor market theory contains:
) theory of labor demand, which includes the theory ultimate performance and the apparatus of production functions associated with it;
) labor supply theory, which generally consists of models of choice between work and leisure and models of investment in human capital.
Human capital refers to the knowledge, skills and abilities of a person that contribute to the growth of his productive power. Human capital, as most economists define it, consists of the acquired knowledge, skills, motivations and energy that human beings are endowed with and can use over a period of time to produce goods and services. (Economic theory. / Nikolaeva I.P. - M.: Finstatinform, 2002)
Education and health care are long-term factors. The product of the educational process is a qualitatively new workforce with a high level of qualifications, capable of work of greater complexity. Health protection makes a person capable of more intensive and longer work. In contrast, migration and information search act as short-term factors. If education and health care are associated with actual increases in labor costs, then migration and information seeking reflect fluctuations in the price of labor around costs. Migration and information seeking are distributive processes, while education and health care are separate moments in the production of labor.
Calculations show that in 1969 in the United States, the average lifetime income of men with a college education exceeded the lifetime income of men with a high school education by about $210,000. In the same year, 1969, the cost of four years of college was equal to on average 5.2 thousand dollars
Consequently, the difference in lifetime earnings was approximately 40 times, or nearly $205,000, greater than the direct costs of attending college.
If the growth of educational training is associated with receiving additional earnings that exceed the cost of training, and this, as we see, is exactly the case, then we can, of course, characterize the costs of acquiring education as an increasing cost. But to say that this is capital, that is, self-increasing value, would be absurd. The value of a qualification does not increase on its own: the indispensable condition here is the work of its bearer.
Western economists recognize that the creation of human capital (for example, the learning process) requires active labor efforts from the investor: “Students learn what constitutes work...Students do not enjoy leisure time while studying, they are not completely engaged in consumer activities.” (Roshchin S.Yu., Razumova T.O., “Labor Economics (Economic Theory of Labor)”: Textbook. - M.: INFRA-M, 2000. - 148 p.)
Human capital (i.e., the stock of knowledge and abilities accumulated by an employee) can only be realized in the work of its owner. On the contrary, the increase in the value of capital does not require any labor input from the owner.
But, differing in their political and economic content, the formation of physical capital and the formation of human capital (labor force) have a certain technical and economic similarity: both require the diversion of significant funds to the detriment of current consumption, the level of economic development in the future depends on both , both types of investments provide a long-term productive effect.
What then does it mean to put forward the concept of “human capital”? Nothing more than an awareness of the fact that people's skills and abilities can be a reserve, that is, they can be accumulated. Thus, Western political economy has rediscovered what was known to Adam Smith and David Ricardo and what Karl Marx noted. “The reproduction of the working class,” he wrote, “includes the accumulation of its art, transmitted from generation to generation.” Moreover, K. Marx emphasized that from the point of view of the direct production process, development human abilities"can be considered as the production of fixed capital, and this fixed capital is the person himself."
Chapter 2. The state of human capital in Russia
2.1 Features of human capital development in Russia
Human capital in a broad definition is an intensive productive factor in the development of the economy, society and family, including the educated part of the labor force, knowledge, tools for intellectual and managerial work, living environment and work activity. Human capital is a necessary condition for maintaining the competitiveness of the country's and state's economy in world markets in the context of globalization, as well as the most important characteristic of the activities of legislative and executive authorities in the country. To assess the quality of human capital, the standard of living, literacy, education and longevity of the population, the state of medical care and GDP per capita are measured.
These indicators are taken into account when calculating the Human Capital Development Index (HDI). A quarter of a century ago, Russia occupied 23rd place in the list of 187 countries, and according to data for 2013, we were assigned 55th place. The reasons for this decline are low investments in education, science, culture and public health.
The state of modern education sets the development of the country for many years to come. At the moment, state policy is such that studying in higher educational institutions is increasingly becoming paid and the opportunity to enter the university, especially for students from rural schools, is decreasing from year to year. Statistics claim that “paid education is fully accessible for 12.7% of young people, for 42.1% it involves the need to deny themselves everything, and for 44.8% paid education is not available at all.” In the ranking of spending on education as a share of GDP (3.8-4% of GDP in recent years), Russia in 2009 was in 109th place out of 186 countries. For comparison: in the USA - 5.5% of GDP; in Sweden and Norway - 6.7%; Slovenia - 5.2%; France - 5.6%, Canada - 4.9%. Modernization of education in Russia today is becoming the most important national task. Without its solution, the country will not be able to get rid of the “raw materials curse” and achieve renewal in all spheres of public life on the path of post-industrial development. We need serious changes in the organization and technology of education, an increase in funding and an improvement in the quality of university management.
Due to low investments in population health, Russia ranked 161st out of 224 in terms of life expectancy in 2010, ranked 200th out of 225 in terms of the birth rate of children per woman, and ranked 7th in the world in terms of mortality. If this rate of population decline continues, by 2015 there may be no more than 130 million Russians left, which will lead to a significant reduction in the number of labor resources, an increase in the dependency burden and an aging population (Table 1). If, according to WHO, the average cost for countries in the world in 2009 was 8.7% of GDP, then in the Russian Federation it was 5.3% of GDP. The USA, for example, leads in investments in people’s health (as well as in investments in education, science and in the human capital in general) - 15.3% of GDP. In addition, the US GDP is 6.7 times larger than the Russian GDP. High investments in education, healthcare and science determine the US leadership in the quality of life, in the quality of the human capital, in the knowledge economy and high technology.
Of course, corruption remains a huge problem for the development of human capital in Russia. Most of the cash deposits in the Cheka are used ineffectively, for other purposes, and are embezzled. Thus, a unit of investment in the United States gives four times greater returns than in Russia.
The return on investment in science is also low. Russia traditionally invests a significant share of its GDP on research and development. However, most of these allocations go to the maintenance of state research institutions that have little connection with either the personnel training system or entrepreneurship. Commercial organizations still invest very little money in science. For now, they are satisfied with the possibilities of extensive growth, growth based more on market expansion than on its intensification. The share of enterprises seeking to engage in innovation is only 10%, which is several times lower than in the EEC countries.
Analysis of the processes of scientific and technological development shows that human capital is becoming the most important factor economic development and growth. If GDP growth is not invested in human development, in improving the quality of life, in education and healthcare, then it will be impossible to expand production and move to an innovative economy and knowledge economy. Back in 1934, Nobel Prize laureate in economics Simon Kuznets wrote that “for a scientific and technological breakthrough, the necessary starting human capital must be created (accumulated) in the country.”
In my opinion, more serious investments are needed in the development of Russia’s human capital, simultaneously in all its components, while simultaneously fighting corruption and criminalization. The most important areas are the financing of science, education and healthcare, and maternal and child health care.
human capital innovative economy
Table 1 Age structure of the population and dependency load
Age groups of the population thousand people 2002 (census) 2007 2010 2020 *** 2030 *** Younger than working age 26327227182285425935.122845.4 Working age 88942901528836079033.276770.5 Older than working age 29778293513070036939.739755.9 Total08139371.8Load ** in %%631578606796815Younger than able-bodied18,216,016,118,316,4In able-bodied61,363,462,355,755,1Older than able-bodied20,520,621,626,028,5Total population100100100100100
*Men aged 16-59 + women aged 16-54
**For every 1000 people of working age there are disabled people (children + pensioners)
*** 2020 and 2030 - Rosstat forecast (2010 Average version).
2 Ways to increase the growth of human capital in Russia using the example of the scientific sphere
To avoid migration of young specialists, it is necessary to develop a sustainable system for retaining, training and supporting personnel. It is necessary to maintain or increase the share of resources to support the scientific environment. Moreover, along with priority support for fundamental research, there should be a wide field for innovation, business participation, various enterprises. The regions, along with the center, must create and maintain this system. In this situation, the development of a set of measures for expanded reproduction, maintenance and support of personnel in the scientific and technical complex acquires special importance.
These measures should be addressed to all age categories of people, including their decent pension provision. The focus, of course, should be on the young. It is very good that in recent years a system has been developing in the country to stimulate the influx of young people into science. These are, in particular, grants from the President of the Russian Federation to support young scientists - candidates of science and scientific supervisors, doctors of science, leading scientific schools in Russia. This is the Russian Foundation for Basic Research program “Young Scientists, Postgraduates, Students”. These are federal target programs for the integration of science and higher education, within the framework of which 154 educational and scientific centers were created in 40 regions of Russia, 788 branches of university departments were formed in 364 scientific institutions.
However, despite the importance of the above, these measures are clearly not enough. There is a need to unite the efforts of the Ministry of Industry and Science, the Ministry of Education, the Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg and other leading universities, interested ministries and departments in order to change the situation with the staffing of Russian science. A significant role should be given to coordinating the efforts of all regions of the country. Special instructions from the President would certainly help create such a system.
The education system is the area where the reproduction of scientific potential begins. The country has good experience in organizing the entire chain: school, university, production, good experience in selecting talented youth for higher education by holding olympiads, creative competitions, organizing youth scientific schools, conferences, creating boarding schools for gifted high school students. This work needs to be expanded, especially since the increasing social stratification of Russian society is significantly narrowing the starting opportunities for young people, especially from rural areas and small towns. Under no circumstances should the system of special secondary education created in Soviet times be destroyed. The problem of access to quality education for talented youth arises. It is also necessary to prepare managers for the scientific field.
Ensuring accessibility to education is comprehensive, along with a system of Olympiads in all regions for the selection of talented youth, one of the important measures could be a system of interest-free lending for young people to obtain higher education, with the definition of a list of banks capable of providing and monitoring this process. Moreover, the agreements would have to be tripartite: student, employer, university, defining the corresponding rights and obligations. This framework could also include a system target set, and the state order system, including for the defense industries. A young specialist could return, in one form or another, the loan taken in 7-10 years or work for several years in a profession necessary for the country, for example, as a teacher in a rural school. In this way, it would be possible to effectively solve the problem of staffing for socially significant areas, including healthcare. It is important that the problem of obtaining housing, for example, through a mortgage, is also resolved. We emphasize the need to create an effective system for the acquisition and purchase of housing. Moreover, one in which regions, businesses and various firms and enterprises would be interested. Currently, programs are being launched for the construction of departmental housing, the development of mortgage lending, with the subsequent write-off of part of the loan to those who fruitfully work for Russian science.
Let us add that there are proposals to create special national innovation complexes in Siberia and the Far East, stimulating the migration influx to these regions (there is a program for innovative regional development developed by a team from Samara). Meanwhile, the regions are not ready for this, and few people are interested in the content of this program.
The following programs already operate at Moscow State University. Firstly, the “100+100” program: every year 100 young candidates of science become associate professors without waiting lists and 100 young doctors of sciences become professors without waiting lists. Thanks to the program, about two thousand young people have already made their careers 5-10 years faster. Secondly, competitive program support for young researchers and teachers: each of the 100 winners is awarded 5 thousand rubles per month throughout the year. The goal of the third program is to retain in domestic science those who have defended their Ph.D. great opportunities obtain further results. For such specialists, at least a two-year scientific internship with a good salary is organized at the university.
In general, it is clear what needs to be done. The issue is not simple, and, most importantly, it cannot be solved quickly and cheaply, but it must be resolved if we want to be effective developing state.
Thus, based on the data presented, we can conclude that human capital is formed through investments in improving the level and quality of life of the population, including in upbringing, education, health, knowledge, entrepreneurial ability, information support, security and economic freedom of the population, as well as science, culture and art.
Human capital as a stock of knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience can not only accumulate in the investment process, but also materially wear out.
The return on investment in human capital increases over time. It is not subject to the law of diminishing returns if the strategy for human capital development is correctly chosen.
Chapter 3. Problems and ways to solve them using human capital
1 The main problems of using human capital in the modern Russian Federation
Human capital in Russia is not used to its full potential. The fact is that the events associated with Russia's transition from a planned system to a market system led to the depreciation of the human capital accumulated earlier. This affected knowledge, perception, thinking habits, skills acquired both during formal education and in the work process. Productivity dropped sharply. It is estimated that approximately 40% Russian workers were forced to change their profession.
Due to this kind of stress, many people's health and overall well-being have deteriorated. However positive trait our mentality played an important role. The desire and willingness to constantly learn was very useful at a time when it was necessary to make up for lost human capital.
Today, our country, which has great natural and reproducible potential, is on the verge of a situation where the quantitative and qualitative indicators of human capital are not enough to solve problems related to economic development, reproduction, and the development of fuel and energy, natural and raw materials resources. The problem of efficient use of available human capital arises.
There are a number of parameters through which we can determine the effectiveness of using human capital. These include:
· Amount of working time;
· Workload of the working day;
· Amount of work performed;
· Quality of work performed;
· The degree of coordination of employee actions with each other and with business goals.
The above parameters are characterized by the following components: the optimal amount of knowledge of the employee, the presence of experience and intuition, the optimal level of energy (inspiration). The latter is usually determined by the level of material and non-material incentives, a healthy lifestyle, rest, working conditions, that is, the ergonomics of workplaces and surroundings.
The instability of the external environment, a weak legislative framework, the precarious financial situation of Russian companies associated with the recent global economic crisis, the difference between supply and demand in the labor market, as well as an ineffective corporate governance system played a role in orienting business entities to the so-called survival strategy. In other words, short-term benefits have become a priority over the long-term goals of the company's development and the interests of consumers. All this had a negative impact on the quality of work and service provision and led to a deterioration in the quality of life of people. An increase in the number of people with mental illness has become obvious. The problem of reliable information about official indicators of the prevalence of mental illness is associated both with the expansion of the alternative (private) sphere of relevant medical services, and with the fact that patients refrain from seeking help from public medical institutions for fear of losing their jobs. Moreover, life in megacities also has a negative impact on people. According to a survey conducted research center“Superjob”, almost 43% of Russians have 3-4 hours of free time after work. After an eight-hour working day, time spent traveling to the office and home, delays after work, study - residents of large cities have almost no time and energy left for themselves. Such fatigue affects the quality and volume of work performed and the level of employee motivation to work.
The job situation also remains a significant problem. Most of them do not meet a number of requirements. In accordance with Article 209 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, “a workplace is a place where an employee must be or where he needs to arrive in connection with his work and which is directly or indirectly under the control of the employer” Labor Code RF, Chapter 33, Article 209. First of all, the workplace must meet occupational safety requirements. In addition, it must meet psychological and physiological requirements. In reality, the opposite is true. This is especially true for government institutions, where equipment and machinery are long outdated and often not suitable for full use; there is no need to talk about convenience or aesthetic requirements.
Thus, human capital in many countries is now not used to its full potential (with an efficiency of about 5%-10% or less), including in Russia. Not only the historical events of the last century, but also the ineffective organization of labor played a role in this. The development of the Russian economy, improving the well-being of citizens - all this directly depends on human capital. That is why it is important to pay attention to increasing the efficiency of using human capital. In other words, it becomes necessary to create a system in which the creative potential of employees is used as effectively as possible, as well as the rapid growth and development of this potential.
Reasons for the low efficiency of human capital in Russia.
The effectiveness of investments in human capital is tested by the market. Ultimately, an important element of this test is the level of national wages. In 2004, hourly industrial wages in Russia were $1.7, and although this was three times higher than in China, India and Indonesia, it was 1.4 times less than in Central and Eastern Europe ( CEE) and Latin America. Whereas in terms of labor productivity in industry, Russia was at the same level as the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America.
In Russia, deep differences in employment and wages between the constituent entities of the Russian Federation remain. Average employment level in Russia for 2002-2003. was 59.4%, and the total ranged from 74.3% in the Evenki Autonomous Okrug to 22.4% in the Republic of Ingushetia.
At the beginning of the 21st century, almost a third of the Russian population received wages comparable to the subsistence level. And only in the mining regions and some regions of the North-West of Russia (Moscow, Moscow region, etc.), the level of accrued salaries is noticeably higher.
Among the regions-subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of the level of per capita cash income of the population, Moscow and gas production regions in the Tyumen region stand out. Two stages can be distinguished in the dynamics of wages: the strengthening of differences (until 2000) and their weakening after the Government of V.V. came to power. Putin. The quality of life of the population is largely determined by its economic activity. On the other hand, the economically active population ensures the supply of labor in the labor market to create goods and provide services.
The negative trends of the first half of the 90s were overcome only at the very end of the twentieth century. In 2005 the economically active population, according to the State Statistics Committee of Russia, amounted to 73.8 million people, including 68.6 million people employed in the economy, and the number of unemployed people amounted to 5.2 million people, which is noticeably lower than at the beginning of the 20th century. (the number of unemployed in 2000 was 7 million people).
There is still a noticeable difference between men's and women's employment. The smallest gap is observed in the group of 40-44 years old and the largest in the group of 55-59 years old. This occurs, first of all, due to the earlier retirement of women.
Giving birth and raising children has had a much lesser impact recently: the difference in employment between men and women aged 20-34 was only about 10 percentage points.
The general conclusion that can be drawn is rather disappointing: the payment structure of Russian citizens does not correspond to the era of the scientific and technological revolution. Moreover, the current education system does not help improve the situation. Higher education has become social norm, which does not adequately reflect the level of ability. Meanwhile, in the West, increased education contributes to higher wages.
Each level of education in the United States contributes to an increase in annual household income, and the gap is very large. Americans who failed to complete the 9th grade of a 12-year high school receive 6 times less than those who defended their doctoral dissertation at a university.
However, not only this final gap is important, gradations are important: those who completed high school receive 2 times more than those who did not complete it; those who have received a bachelor's degree are 2 times more than those who have a certificate of secondary education. It is noteworthy that it is important not only to study at school, but also to pass final exams for a matriculation certificate, not only to attend university, but also to obtain a bachelor’s certificate, not only to study in a master’s program, but also to defend a master’s thesis.
It is not surprising therefore that specific gravity wages in GDP in developed countries is significantly higher than in Russia and developing countries. If the share of wages in Tajikistan’s GDP in 2004 was 13.5%, in Turkey - 26.3%, in Mexico 30.4%, in Belarus - 44.2%, in Russia - 45.7%, then in Great Britain - 55.7%, and in the USA even 57.3%.
However, the system of higher and secondary specialized education that remains in Russia does not contribute to solving the above problem. Since most educational services are currently provided by the state free of charge, there is a natural desire to receive these benefits in maximum quantities, regardless of the growth of their returns. Education is a public good that widens the gap between expected private benefits and private costs. Since this gap grows with each year of study, there is a natural tendency in Russia to increase the duration of study, regardless of the return that this study could bring.
Russia is currently closer to Romania, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Belarus in terms of labor productivity. True, total labor productivity in Russia at the beginning of the 21st century has increased significantly.
However, the reasons for this growth are well known. This was due to the growth of the oil and gas sector, which accounted for 20% of Russia's GDP but less than 1% of employment. Labor productivity in the oil and gas industry was almost 30 times higher than in other industries.
However, recently the situation has been worsening, as employment in this sector is growing faster than labor productivity.
A necessary condition for increasing labor productivity is the development of fundamental and applied scientific research. And here the past successes of Russian science are also obvious. However, over the past 11 years, the number of researchers has decreased by 130 thousand people, technicians - by 35 thousand people, support staff - by 60 thousand people, and other personnel - by 30 thousand people. Of course, the commercialization of science involves optimizing the number researchers.
However, if this occurs without significant restructuring of organizational mechanisms and management, it can cause significant damage to science.
3.2 Ways to improve the efficiency of using human capital
There is a problem that any state with a developing economy has to resolve: how much of the investment should be invested in human capital that does not provide a quick return? It is clear that these investments in a developing economy at the first stage are made mainly from budgets of all levels at the expense of the economy on other expenditure items. It is also necessary to provide tax and other incentives for investment in human capital by private businesses.
The main condition for the growth of human capital in Russia is wage growth. Another condition for the growth of human capital is high investment in education.
In general, to solve the problem of growth of Russian human capital, the following is necessary:
develop a program for financing and stimulating the growth of the size and quality of Russian human capital;
develop a general ideology of the state;
increase direct public and private investment in human capital;
provide benefits to legal entities and individuals investing in human capital;
increase public investment in preschool and school education;
increase targeted educational benefits for children and youth;
implement computerization of education;
carry out an effective transformation of medical care for the population.
Some of the above problems are already being solved, but it is necessary systems approach to solving the problem of human capital development. There are positive trends in the development of Russian human capital, namely:
the formation of a new elite with a market outlook;
weakening of the influence of the remnants of Soviet ideology on the population;
understanding of a number of problems facing the country in the country's senior leadership;
favorable global price environment for Natural resources;
growing desire of the population for education, including higher education;
transition of the education system in economics and humanities to standards close to those generally accepted in developed countries;
providing a variety of educational products and services, public and private, in this area;
rapid development of the sphere of paid medical services and bringing their quality closer to world levels;
gradual transition to transparent reporting of legal entities according to international standards.
Consequently, the above facts about the development of human capital in Russia indicate that human capital in the Russian Federation has problems of formation and growth, namely:
low life expectancy of the population;
degradation of fundamental sciences, therefore, degradation of the education system;
low GDP per capita;
insufficient funding of science and education from the state;
low quality of work;
outflow of highly qualified specialists abroad, etc.
Only increasing public and private investments in human capital and their effective use can correct the current situation in Russia with low growth of human capital and bring it out of the crisis. This will make it possible to overcome the split in Russian society and reduce contradictions between the state and the population.
Among the priority areas for improving the use of human capital, one should also note the orientation of budget policy towards ensuring a high standard of living for the population. In this direction, it is necessary to recognize the implementation of the following measures: achieving a balanced budget by increasing revenue rather than reducing expenses; strengthening guarantees and rationalization of state financing of the social sphere, education and health care. Moreover, the increase in budget revenues should be carried out through an increase in production volume, improvement of tax policy, in particular, the development of a system of indirect financing of the social sphere. To strengthen the guarantees and rationality of government financing of the social sphere, it is necessary to strengthen control over expenses financial resources, practice financing of healthcare, education, culture based on targeted programs. For example, “Prevention and control of socially significant diseases”, “Clean water”, “Federal target program for the development of education for 2011 - 2015”, “Russian language”.
One should not ignore such an aspect as motivating a person for high-quality and highly productive work.
Methods of moral encouragement of employees can be manifested in public recognition, promotion of an employee, training, and the creation of a favorable psychological climate.
Among the economic methods of motivation, we can highlight material incentives, which include bonuses, paid vacations, wages, preferential meals and much more.
Thus, there are a number of problems that hinder the effective use of human capital. However, our country has the opportunity to improve this situation. This requires active government regulation. The implementation by the state of the proposed measures should have a beneficial effect on the efficiency of use of human capital. Motivation also remains an important element, combining various methods of stimulating employees to perform quality work. Thus, thanks to the right government policy and incentives for workers, Russia’s human capital can be used to its full potential.
Conclusion
In the most general sense, human capital is the knowledge, skills and professional abilities of an employee. The very concept of “human capital” characterizes the quality of the workforce, the employee’s capabilities in the labor process.
Thus, human capital is a term denoting the accumulated knowledge, skills and mastery that an employee possesses and which he acquires through general and special education, professional training, and production experience. The concept of human capital was first put forward by the American economist G. Becker in 1960.
Despite the fact that many ideas of the theory of human capital can already be found in A. Smith, it is relatively young: its formation occurred in the 50-60s of this century. Prominent representatives of the “human capital” school are T. Schultz, G. Becker, J. Mincer and others. Scientists from the “human capital” school studied the influence of the duration of training of workers, their skills and abilities on wages, efficiency and economic growth of enterprises. In other words, their main task was to determine the economic return on investment in people. The research results were largely sensational. In particular, it turned out that the economic return on employee training costs far exceeds investments in new technology and equipment.
Economic assessments of human capital have become widely used both at the microeconomic and macroeconomic levels to determine the amount of national wealth, society's losses from wars, diseases and natural Disasters, in the field of life insurance, the profitability of investments in education, healthcare, migration and for many other purposes.
For modern stage World scientific, technical and socio-economic development is characterized by a radical change in the role and importance of the human factor in the economy and society. Human capital is becoming the most important factor in economic growth. According to some estimates, in developed countries, increasing the duration of education by one year leads to an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) by 5-15%
Today in Russia, against the backdrop of America’s victorious march in the political, economic and military fields, opinions are increasingly being expressed about the ineffectiveness of Russian education, allegedly unable to provide the desired breakthrough, and about the need to reform our education system in the image and likeness of the American one.
Unfortunately, today's Russian science, as well as high-tech businesses, with rare exceptions, do not demonstrate outstanding results. This is largely due to the fact that over the past 15 years Russia has been going through a painful period of transformation. In addition, the prevailing Soviet period the system of applied science (at a very high level of development) was initially focused primarily on the needs of the military-industrial complex, which also affected its position in the new conditions.
Therefore, at present, in conditions of relative stabilization of macroeconomic indicators, the problem of reforming the education system, science and stimulating innovation is acute.
To achieve these goals, at the end of 2004 - beginning of 2005, the Ministry of Education and Science developed the Development Strategy of the Russian Federation in the field of development of science and innovation for the period until 2010. This indicates that the policy in the field of science and innovation will be one of the priorities.
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