This paper investigates the level of impact of higher education on economic development, how it can help people to increase their personal income, the ways to improve the allocation of human resources, the manner of transferring knowledge and skills to other members of the society, the synergistic effect of cooperation on the basis of getting new knowledge and skills, the effect of cultural influence on lawabiding behaviour, and the impact of the development the creative abilities based on deeper comprehension of cultural achievements. The authors established that state participation in the organization and financing the education, educational service and market regulation contributes to the improvement of the positive externalities of educational impact on society. This activity of the state is confirmed by the growth of investment into human capital and the gross domestic product (GDP) in Russia from 2000-2016.

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