Factors of human capital formation and development in the NWFD regions

The dynamic advancement of the Russian economy in the direction of the information society actualizes the need to study modern factors of regional development. The decline in the importance of material resources in favor of intangible and, above all, human capital, necessitates the study of regional factors of the formation and development of this type of capital. The purpose of the study is to identify factors and develop a model for the formation and development of human capital in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District. The analysis of scientific literature has revealed various approaches to substantiating the structure of human capital and the factors of its formation and development. In contrast to the traditional approach, to assess this capital, along with the workforce education level, it is also proposed to use the share of high-performance jobs in the research. In the study of the factors of human capital formation and development, along with economic and social factors, we considered the digital economy factors as well. A correlation analysis performed on the basis of panel data for 2017–2020 revealed that economic (GRP) and social (social costs, wages, health) factors, as well as factors of the digital economy (ICT costs) exert strong influence on the formation and development of human capital. At the same time, in the model obtained on the basis of correlation and regression analysis, the state of human capital in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District is determined primarily by the level of wages, as well as innovation activity and the state of healthcare. The digital economy indicators were not included in the final version of the model, which is primarily due to their strong relationship with indicators of the quality of life in the region. Based on the obtained model, the analysis of the conditions for the formation and development of human capital in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District was carried out. The most favorable conditions were found in St. Petersburg and the Murmansk region, and the least favorable in the Pskov and Novgorod regions, as well as the Republic of Karelia; the other regions presented average conditions. One of the problems in most regions is the lack of jobs with the necessary conditions for the development of human capital.