Agglomeration effects of large cities: assessment based on microdata

The Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025 contains a list of promising centers of economic growth in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation, including those forming urban agglomerations with a population of less than 500 thousand people. However, it is not specified which ones form agglomerations and which ones do not. At the same time, for the spatial development of territories it is necessary to understand which promising centers form positive agglomeration effects. This determined the choice of the research objective -to assess the presence of agglomeration effects around a number of cities - promising centers of economic growth (Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Surgut, Khanty-Mansiysk). To achieve the goal, we studied theoretical aspects of spatial development in terms of agglomeration effects; reviewed the existing methodological approaches to evaluation that allow determining the presence and scale of such effects; evaluated agglomeration effects arising around the studied centers of economic growth and concluded on the presence or absence of statistically significant agglomeration effects. Theoretical and methodological basis of the research consists from the works of Russian and foreign scientists in the field of spatial and regional economy; the information base is Rosstat statistical data, data of annual accounting statements of enterprises, collected from Contur. Focus and SPARK-Interfax databases. We used the methods of analysis, generalization, sampling, correlation and regression analysis of panel data for 2020-2022. As a result, we found that among the four centers of economic growth under consideration, only around Surgut there are statistically significant agglomeration effects. For example, halving the geographical distance to it leads to an increase in the revenue of enterprises by 16.8%, which is significantly higher than the indicator for Russian cities as a whole (3-5%). The results of the paper can be useful to public authorities and local governments in improving the policy of spatial socio-economic development of territories, the implementation of agglomeration construction projects, researchers in the study of similar topics.