Development of methods for assessing the cognitive potential of regional economy

The emerging knowledge economy is a new stage of the Russian Federation development. The specific feature of this period is knowledge as a productive force, which performs four main functions: reproduction, storage, distribution and use. The significant differentiation of Russian regions in socio-economic development also has a significant impact on the formation of knowledge economy in the country. We have proposed to use the concept “cognitive potential of the regional economy”, and revealed a system of evaluating indicators for it. This system includes criteria broken down by functions and indicators of structure, ratio, and per capita values. We have calculated the annualized cognitive potential of all Russian regions, characterized leading regions and the subjects of Federation that significantly changed their position.