The influence of ethnic and religious factors on the economic behaviour of the population

World view of people, their mentality, culture and ideology, their training cannot be changed in a historically short period of time. Hence, the main obstacle to the development and effective market economy - a low level of development of the Russian human capital. It is alleged that the analysis of the human capital of the Russian society must start within the institutional socio-economic theory as an interdisciplinary synthesis of economics and other related disciplines. In our opinion, the modern economic theory does not fully take into account the underlying intrinsic values and ethno-confessional peculiarities, formed in the process of historical development, which largely determine the patterns of behaviour of individuals. In turn, according to the author, it is the differences in the economic behavior of individuals underlie the formation of human capital. Based on the analysis of the works of the leading scientific economists, historians, sociologists and philosophers an attempt to describe the vital functions of the Russian and Buryat ethnoses and their economic behaviour based on ethnic and religious features is made.