Natural and Geographical Environment as a Factor of Human Capital Accumulation in European Russia (Late 19th Century)

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to introduce the results of the study on cartographic visualization and statistical verification of the hypothesis about the significance of natural and geographical factors in the formation of human capital in the late Russian Empire and the quantitative assessment of their role. The level of literacy is used as an indirect (proxy) indicator of accumulated human capital. The demographic information collected as a result of the First General Population Census in 1897, the characteristics of the natural and geographical environment, as well as indicators of the development of transport infrastructure and agricultural specialization of the county (uyezd) economy were analyzed. The unit of analysis is an uyezd in the European part of the country (without Finland, Poland, and Transcaucasia). The methods of correlation, regression analysis, and cartographic research were applied. The results obtained show that a number of essential factors of the natural environment are significantly (p < 0.1) associated with the spatial differentiation of the level of human capital accumulated by 1897 in European Russia and its disparity in the urban/rural context. To a lesser extent, environmental factors are associated with gender disparity.

Keywords

• natural environment
• climate
• regional economy
• technologies
• late imperial russia
• institutions
• socio-economic inequality