Methods and Results of Estimating of Education Expenditures in Russia (Late 19th – Early 20th Centuries)

This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the value-based measures of the education sector as a branch of the national economy of the late Russian Empire. The purpose of the study is to improve existing estimates and assess-ments of the role of education and human capital at the historical stage of the country’s development. It was the peri-od when Russia underwent a transition from the Malthusian to the “modern” regime of economic growth by modern-izing its economic and social structure. The research addresses the following tasks: 1) presentation of the source data collected in electronic format (reports of the Office of the State Control, the Ministry of Public Education, and the Central Statistical Committee); 2) reconstruction of expenditure series on education at different levels and from vari-ous institutional sources; 3) pioneering estimation of the human capital stock based on its replacement cost and in-come-based value; 4) direct comparison of the resulting measures expressed in monetary units with other key macro-economic indicators of the country. Estimates of the respective measures of Russia’s education system and the hu-man capital formed through it are available in economic history literature for the period from the 1920s to the 2000s; this study extends them back in time and makes them generally comparable over time. To ensure such comparability, the author employs methods developed in economic history literature, which address the insufficiency of historical quantitative evidence and are appropriate for cross-country comparisons. There is some room for upward adjustment of the cost-based estimates as the sources underreport the size of non-government funds; however, their share dimin-ished over time. The research findings indicate that during the launch of the “modern” economic growth regime, the rate of human capital accumulation in Russia was on the rise, and its cost-based measure increased faster than that of physical capital. A question arises whether this accumulation could have been even more rapid relative to the com-petitive geopolitical environment and the higher base achieved by Japan. The author outlines prospects for employ-ing the findings in further empirical and theoretical studies of Russia’s and comparative long-run growth and devel-opment.