Abstract:

In the context of the post-industrial economy, the processes of knowledge generation, formation of intellectual capital and implementation of intellectual property in manufacturing are particularly important. The potential for economic growth of the regional economy is determined not so much by the dynamics of growth in the real sector of the economy but indicators of intangible assets, i.e. human capital development and infrastructure of innovative processes at the regional level. In turn, the governance of the regional economic systems is a key factor in the national economy growth. However, a single methodological approach to the evaluation of the education impact on the regional economic growth has not been framed.

The paper proposes a model based on an institutional approach to evaluation of the impact of development of regional educational system on the economic growth of the territory. Institutions are understood within the meaning of D. North, i.e. as a set of formal rules, informal constraints, and enforcement mechanism. Institutional configuration model sets the subject-object relationship between categorical and attitudinal structures and institutions taking into account the specific character of the environment in the region. The university is one of the most important stakeholders within the regional configuration being the main producer of knowledge in the region. Therefore, we analyzed the institutional configuration in terms of the knowledge generation including:
(1) production;
(2) exchange;
(3) distribution;
(4) consumption of knowledge.

We chose the universities participating in the Russian Academic Excellence Project 5-100 as a research base; the project is aimed to improve the competitiveness of the leading Russian universities in the global scientific and educational space. We excluded from the analysis the universities in the metropolitan area, as the capitals have special administrative functions and use additional benefits of exploitation of resources from the entire country. Thus, we analyzed 12 universities in 11 regions. Grounding on the study of relevant literature and interviews with experts, we chose the institution of workforce production and the institution of knowledge transfer as the object of analysis. The institution of workforce production was assessed by comparing the development concept of the university and the documents of strategic planning of the region. The second indicator is the demand for graduates on the basis of the university ranking by the rating agency Expert. The ranking has an integrated system of indicators in the fields of "co-operation with employers” and “quality of graduate career." The institution of the knowledge transfer was assessed using indicators of patent registration, issuing licenses for their use, collaborative publications of academia and business, and the creation of small innovative enterprises by the universities.
Results of research empower estimation of the effectiveness of the regional Russian universities and identification of the gaps between the regional educational systems and regional policies. Key findings can be used in further theoretical and applied research as well as formation of regional economic policy both in Russia and in other emerging economies.

Keywords:

Knowledge generation, regional educational system, economic growth, institutional approach, human capital development, knowledge transfer, university.