Schooling ain’t learning in Russia either : High level of student employment as an indicator for slow human capital accumulation

Abstract

This paper discusses the weakness of average years of schooling as a measure of human capital stock. We consider the example of Russia with its large-scale tertiary education and extensive student employment. Building on Lant Pritchett’s observation (Pritchett, L., 2013), we consider insufficient quality of education and relatively low demand for human capital as potential causes of the “earning while learning” expansion. While the latter is likely to reduce the pace of human capital accumulation, it nevertheless may leave average years of schooling untouched.