The innovation and resource factor of economic development has been studied actively, since the middle of the 20th century. The problem of taking into account the innovative factor in regression analysis is urgent now. Several empirical indicators correspond to the innovation factor, but they cannot fully reflect the meaning of innovation used in theoretical models. There is a need to choose the indicator that would least distort the essence of the scientific and technical progress. We use panel regressions and data about Russian regions for 2014-2018. . It was shown, that that the resource factor has a positive effect on economic growth, and the innovation factor is insignificant.