Unequal investing in the human capital of children (The case of Russia)

We use RLMS HSE data to assess unequal investments in the human capital of children in Russia. Our analysis shows that the position of households in socio-economic hierarchies by the level of education, professional status, income and subjective positioning differentiates investing in children’s education. The increase in the share of households that invest in the human capital of children occurs while moving from less to more prosperous positions in each of these hierarchies. Between 2013 and 2018, the number of households spending on children’s education increased, but the pandemic caused the situation to reverse, offsetting these results in all but the most affluent groups. In terms of children engagement in additional educational activities (for schoolchildren – apart from school, for preschoolers – in addition to home and family activities), it turns out that children are highly engaged in creative activities, to a lesser extent in sports, and to the least extent in child development courses. At times of the Covid pandemic engagement in sports and creative activities reduced for children from advantaged and less advantaged households. Engagement in development courses proved to be most resilient to this external shock. Children participating in development activities belong to households with high social status, given various axes of social differentiation, but even in these they are a minority. Multilateral engagement of the child, i.e. participation in all three types of additional educational activities, is uncommon, while complete exclusion from any forms of extracurricular or extrafamilial activities is widespread.