The construction industry in Russia's regions: status, factors and implications

The authors developed a methodological set of tools for assessing the state of the construction industry, and on its basis established the position of Russian regions, drivers and consequences of competitiveness of the industry for the regional economy. We propose an approach to the diagnosis of interregional competitiveness of the construction industry, involving the calculation of the integral index and indices of resource, production and fi nancial potentials. The relevance of the study is due to the importance of the construction industry for economic development - meeting the investment demand of other industries, including the implementation of necessary infrastructure projects and projects in the housing sector. We apply the method ofindex numbers, min-max normalization method, grouping method, correlation and regression analysis. We found that the possession of sectoral interregional advantages, which are identified by the original index of interregional competitiveness, usually leads to an increase in regional specialization in the construction industry, i.e. an increase in inter-industry competitiveness within the economy of the corresponding region. This is facilitated by an increase in wages in the industry, and the interregional advantage is maintained until some optimal income level is reached. We revealed that the interregional competitiveness of construction is related not to the growth of private investment or income of individuals, but to the steady demand from the public sector of the economy. According to the calculations performed, specialization in the construction industry has a negative impact on GRP per capita of the region considering other factors of output. The practical result of the work consists in the fact that the measures of the federal policy of development of regions with specialization in the construction industry and with high interregional competitiveness should be aimed at the development of other types of activity, as it will lead to the growth of output in the economy and incomes of the population in the corresponding region. For developing the results obtained, it is advisable to refine the presented methodology for assessing interregional competitiveness in terms of the applicability of differential weights to various competitiveness potentials and sectoral price indices for value indicators.