Assessment of asymmetry of socio-economic development of municipalities at the regional level

The Russian economy at the current stage of its development is characterized by a high level of asymmetry in the socio-economic development of regions and municipalities within them. The unevenness of resources allocated to municipal entities increases their differentiation and reduces the possible development prospects for some of them. The administrative reform of local self-government, which implies the consolidation of territorial entities, has not yet yielded serious positive changes, so it is important to regularly conduct a study of the socio-economic condition of the territorial entities included in the region in order to choose the optimal ways of their development. The article presents the results of a comparative analysis of the indicators of socio- economic development of municipalities in the Stavropol Territory according to a selected group of indicators, which led to the conclusion that asymmetry is a consequence of the level of development of the territory in the region. Within the framework of the methodology used, the level of economic development of the territories under study was assessed, intermediate coefficients were calculated, and an assessment of asymmetry in the Stavropol Territory as a whole was presented. The study conducted by the authors allowed us to identify a number of important regularities of asymmetry in the socio-economic development at the regional level, and the proposed method can be further used in the development of programs for the socio-economic development of municipalities.