fictitious goods

Introduction. Education is a complex process aimed at forming intellectual potential of both the individual and the nation as a whole. The quality of knowledge, namely the level of education of a person, his ability to create and develop a new knowledge, which subsequently create new products, technology, ie expand and reproduce the national wealth. Therefore, an educational service should be regarded as an intellectual one. Theoretical analysis. The article contains various theoretical and methodological approaches to defining the content of the educational benefits and identifies the specific characteristics that distinguish it from the traditional market goods. Empirical analysis. On the basis of the evolutionary approach was revealed a functional differences of a universities at different stages of socio-economic development. Using the data of the Federal State Statistics Service was conducted a comparative and quantitative analysis of an indicators such as: the structure of costs to producing goods (works, services); the number of educational organization of higher education (at the beginning of the educational year); the number of students studying in educational organization of higher education. Results. On the basis of theoretical analysis and statistics was formulated the content of the educational benefits, as well definded its basic properties.