Society and Economics

The work is devoted to identifying the conditions for transforming the employee’s labor potential into human capital. The authors rely on the basic definition of human capital as an additional source of income provided by the employee’s knowledge, skills and motivation, and associate it with the payback of expenses on developing his abilities and the abilities of his children. It is shown that the employee’s labor potential is not always his or her capital, but becomes it only under the condition of expanded reproduction of the employee’s household. It is substantiated that income from employment of a highly and semi-skilled worker in a household with one or two workers and with one or two children should ensure the capitalization of labor potential. It is revealed and confirmed by quantitative calculations that the wages of a significant portion of highly qualified and medium-qualified employees with minor children do not actually allow for expanded reproduction of the purchasing power of households in terms of per capita monetary income and, therefore, do not ensure the capitalization of their labor potential. The reasons are identified and directions are proposed that will lead to the expansion of capitalization of the labor potential of workers in households with children.

Innovative activity of enterprises, development of the regional economy and human potential are associated with the dynamics of the number of skilled and unskilled workers. The article analyzes the qualification composition of the employed population in the Arctic regions of Russia and the structure of employees by professional groups in these regions. The share of specialists with the highest level of qualification in the Arctic regions is smaller than the national average, but their number tends to grow, in contrast to the number and share of unskilled workers, which is decreasing.

This article examines the socio-economic effects of creating technology parks in single-industry towns. Particular attention is paid to innovative infrastructure as a tool for territorial development and to reducing the dependence of municipalities on city-forming enterprises. Government programs in the areas under consideration, as well as examples of existing science and technology parks in single-industry towns, are analyzed. Innovative development tools are classified and their applicability for territories of different sizes and with different socio-economic situations is assessed. The main barriers to the formation of innovative infrastructure are identified, as well as the factors and conditions under which technology parks contribute to the sustainable socio-economic development of single-industry towns.

Agriculture in the North Caucasus, as in almost all subjects of the Russian Federation, is an important backbone sector of their regional economies. Its share in the GRP, the number of employed and other macroeconomic parameters of the regional economy exceeds the national average. All territories of the North Caucasus exist in similar climatic conditions, with minor variations. All, with the exception of Stavropol region, experience a shortage of land resources. At the same time, a significant proportion of the population of these territories lives in rural areas. It is also necessary to take into account the high population density and compactness of its placement, satisfactory transport communications and the availability of vehicles. This is one of the reasons why all territories of the North Caucasus have an excess of labor resources concentrated in agriculture. At the same time, within the macro-region there are noticeable differences of both mental, cultural-value, technological, and production-economic and institutional nature, which has an undoubted impact on the state and dynamics of agriculture. This impact deserves to be studied not only from the point of view of agriculture in the North Caucasus and its territories, but also for comparison with other regions of the country.