Статьи журнала - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
Все статьи: 1587
Regional innovation system construction and deepening reformation
Статья научная
The article considers the stages of formation of innovation systems in China’s regions. It presents the current condition of these systems and the specifics of their present and future development. The topical issues concerning the improvement of innovation development management at the regional level are highlighted.
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Статья научная
After the adoption of the Strategy for Spatial Development of the Russian Federation until 2025 in February 2019, special importance was attached to the issues concerning the formation of the coherent system of the RF entity’s regional policy on the development of municipalities, which takes into account socio-economic and geographical features of different territories. In this regard, the goal of this article is to develop methodological tools for efficiency assessment and for analyzing the specifics of interregional policy in the RF entity (on the materials of the Vologda Oblast). Scientific novelty of the research consists, first, in the fact that it uses expert opinions, which were obtained during a questionnaire survey of the Vologda Oblast municipalities heads, and second, in the analysis based on our own criteria of spatial (territorial) aspects reflection in strategies for development of constituent entities within the Northwestern Federal District. The research uses methods such as analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, methodological tools based on economic and statistical, comparative analysis, and expert survey. We reveal that, despite the efforts of state authorities of the Vologda Oblast to develop municipalities, the number of problems, concerning interregional policy implementation, still exist. They are: insufficient consideration of specifics and features of certain municipalities’ development; bureaucratic obstacles in the cooperation between state and local authorities; limited powers of local authorities, etc. The results of the conducted research might be used in the activities of state authorities of the Russian Federation entities. Also, the research might serve as the foundation for further scientific studies on the ways to improve the forms, methods, and tools of the interregional policy implementation.
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Regional public debt: trends and formation specifics
Статья научная
The paper shows that current problems in the Russian economy are largely internal; external factors only multiply them. A significant reason for the emergence of regional public debt in modern Russia lies in the instability of the main types of budget revenues amid growing expenditure obligations. Their growth was significantly dominated by the directives of the federal center, including the first and second editions of the President’s May Decrees, which are, as a rule, only partially supported with transfers from the federal budget or not supported with them at all. At the same time, the structure of regional budgets has been experiencing a continuous increase in the share of mandatory social expenditures and a continuous decrease in the share of capital investments. We show that in these conditions constituent entities of Russia borrow funds to address social issues rather than to stimulate regional investment development. The “residual” principle of financing the social sphere is replaced by the “residual” principle of financing the regional economic sphere of production development and regional infrastructure. It is empirically established that the investment activity of regional authorities involves intensification of debt activity. Having compared the volume and dynamics of debt obligations of Russia’s constituent entities with the provision of expenditures with budget revenues we see that the rapid growth of debt obligations of the authorities of Russia’s constituent entities and the increase in the debt burden on sub-federal budgets pose an actual threat to the stability of territorial budget systems and economic security of regions and the state. We show that territorial convergence of regional public debt in the context of federal districts hides the territorial divergence of regional debt that has increased under the load of obligations to implement the May Decrees and under the lingering and extremely high differentiation of regional budget revenues.
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Regional reserves for raising life expectancy in the conditions of convergence of its level
Статья научная
The goal of the paper is to assess changes in the regional differentiation of life expectancy in Russia for 2003-2017, to consider the features of the level and growth rate of life expectancy, gender differences in the indicator, the difference between urban and rural areas, the structure of mortality due to death, the level of infant mortality in the regions of Russia; the paper also defines regional reserves for further increase in life expectancy. The relevance of the topic is due to significant regional differentiation, Russia’s significant lagging behind developed countries, and the goals associated with this field. We arrange Russian regions into nine groups with annual intervals of the indicator and evaluate the changes in the groups in 2003-2017. We find out that in the conditions of growing life expectancy there has been a marked convergence of regions; they approached the Russian average level according to this indicator. Regional convergence has occurred at the expense of the extreme groups in terms of the indicator, and primarily due to the lagging regions getting closer to the leaders; i.e. we observe the catch-up nature of convergence. This suggests that over the period of 2004-2017, the relatively easy-to-implement life expectancy growth reserves, which are typical for low-indicator regions, have been used quite well, while further growth in high-indicator regions is not an easy task, since the possibilities of first-order factors, such as gender differentiation, the difference between urban and rural indicators, the share of mortality from external causes, and infant mortality rate, have been largely implemented. Nevertheless, all nine groups of regions still have reserves to increase life expectancy, due to certain growth factors of the first order. The groups with the most unfavorable level of the indicator have the greatest reserves. However, factors such as the lag in the rural indicator and the value of infant mortality in the group with very high life expectancy provide opportunities for further increase due to growth factors of the first order.
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Regional social capital and multiple modernization in Russia. On defining the problem
Статья научная
The article raises the issues of relationship between multiple modernization and social capital in Russia’s regions. Social capital is considered as a factor that determines the specifics and pace of modernization. The article also shows the ways to measure social capital and the necessity to develop the indicators for making socio-cultural portraits of the regions with regard to Russia’s conditions.
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Regional sociological research experience
Статья научная
The article presents the experience of the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of RAS in conducting sociological research on the territory of the Vologda Oblast and the Northwestern Federal District. It describes the historical aspects of formation of the system for public opinion monitoring and examines its theoretical and methodological foundations. The author of the article analyzes the structure of monitoring indicators and provides a brief interpretation of research findings that reflect social well-being and social perception trends. In addition, the paper analyzes people's attitude toward the activities of federal and regional authorities, trends in social well-being, consumer sentiment and also the complex indicator - the index of public sentiment in the region - developed by ISEDT RAS researchers. The results of sociological studies carried out at ISEDT RAS correlate with the dynamics of the all-Russian public opinion polls conducted by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM), Levada-Center, etc...
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Regional sociology and management: a “roadmap” for interaction
Статья научная
The article considers the main directions of development of the domestic regional sociology in modern conditions. It contains several research findings of the Russian Academy of Sciences fundamental programs. The author outlines the main directions (“roadmap”) of the interaction between sociological forces and actors of regional administration. The conclusion, substantiated in the article, is that the main mechanism of interaction between regional sociology and administration subjects consists in bilateral and multilateral partnership between academic and university centers, authorities, business and non-profit organizations (NPOs). In addition, the author provides some characteristics of the potential of regional sociology in the implementation of the roadmap.
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Regional specialization and agglomeration effects in the Russian economy
Статья научная
The main goal of economic science which is the search for ways to meet the existing needs by means of limited resources is of particular relevance today in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, the rapid recession of the world economy, reduced export volumes and energy prices decline. Agglomeration effects represent savings of the region’s assets from their more efficient distribution based on specialization. The purpose of the research is to develop theoretical and methodological aspects of specialization and agglomeration effects, which determined the need to solve the following tasks: (1) to provide an overview of approaches related to the study issues, (2) to assess the regional specialization of Russia and calculate agglomeration effects in agriculture, mining and processing sectors of industry, and the service sector, (3) to build a model of agglomeration effects impact on the regions’ economic development. The article presents the systematization of research on agglomeration processes through the allocation of groups of works that are based on the classification of Duranton and Puga, territorial and geographical approaches, the study of related diversity, the use of the cross-sectional analysis results, sorting processes, and agglomeration economy analysis. The economic point of evaluating a region’s specialization is to identify the industries in which it has competitive advantages in order to attract targeted resources. The assessment of agglomeration effects in Russia has shown that not all regions fully realize the advantages of specialization. The constructed models allowed to determine that (1) labor remains the key factor of development in agricultural and industrial regions; (2) roads are not a significant infrastructure indicator of development; (3) agglomeration effects in agriculture and services do not provide the desired result of the per capita GRP increment; (4) the manufacturing sector development is still an important condition. The article proposes a model allowing the assessment of the impact of agglomeration factors and regional specialization, the results of which can become an information basis for the development of regulatory actions in regional management. The research can be valuable for both the researchers and decision-makers in the field of spatial development.
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Regional system of economic and social factors in the formation of innovation development resources
Статья научная
Accelerated reorientation of the Russian economy on innovation development and the implementation of new industrialization and import substitution tasks are major strategic problems for Russia; finding the solutions to these problems will make it possible to overcome the lag in socio-economic development and eliminate the consequences of the economic crisis and sanctions of Western countries. Therefore, the goal of the study is to identify the key resource indicators that determine the level of use of innovation potential of territorial systems and to build on this basis our own approach in order to analyze and adjust modernization development in regions. Research methods are based on the use of economic and mathematical methods, factor and correlation analysis. We identify factors that have the greatest impact on innovation indicators. We assess the degree of their impact on innovation development. The list of factors we have identified is used to assess the degree of differentiation of regions within the Central Federal District according to the level of resource provision of innovations...
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Regional tax gap and assessment of its determining factors
Статья научная
Reduction of the tax gap at the regional level contributes to development of tax potential and the increase of regions’ budget security. The purpose of the article is to study the tax gap at the regional level in the Russian Federation (RF) on the basis of a comprehensive assessment of factors that determine it. Approaches to the determination of the tax gap at regional and national levels are summarized. Factors that form the tax gap are defined. Due to the purpose of the study, it includes the amount of taxes and fees’ arrears, the amount of additional taxes and fees in case of tax inspections’ continuous coverage of taxpayers, and the scale of the shadow economy. The developed methodology for analyzing the structure and dynamics of regional tax gap factors is presented. It allows assessing its size, structure, and the work quality of region’s tax and financial authorities. Besides, it allows identifying opportunities for reducing the tax gap. A variant of grouping entities of the Federation regarding the state and prospects of reducing the tax gap, formed on the basis of the ratio of its level and dynamics, is proposed. Grouping of regions helps to conduct its comparative analysis according to the tax gap and its determining factors. The potential for reducing the tax gap in Russia by improving the quality of tax administration has been largely implemented. The work with tax arrears opens up opportunities for financial and tax authorities. The shadow economy has the largest share in the tax gap, which actualizes the importance of conducting the comprehensive work of the state to legalize it.
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Regions’ export activity as an object of state support
Статья научная
The article reveals the forms of changing the system of state support for export activities at the meso-economic level. The forms are general (subject composition ofparticipants in foreign trade relations, procedure for their state regulation and development) and specific (methods for providing support to exporting enterprises, ways to assess the implementation of these methods). We systematize measures of government support for export according to functional purposes, arrange them into a multi-level scheme, and identify bottlenecks in its implementation. We develop our own approach to assessing the institutional and organizational support of regions’ foreign trade activities. We put forward a method for calculating the assessment of regulatory legal support for this activity, based on the establishment of criteria reflecting the effectiveness of forms of development of regions’ export activities. We carry out a comparative assessment of each form of support, which makes it possible to identify key areas of formation of regulatory legal support for foreign economic activity that have a significant impact on export activities in Russia’s regions. The application of the proposed method for managing the system of government support for export will help to address the most critical issues in the field of international cooperation and foreign trade relations. The system will help to create conditions for the development of export-oriented industries and enterprises, ensure greater availability of financial resources for organizations at all levels and an increase in export volumes through the formation of new mechanisms to support them. The implementation of the proposed measures will stimulate the production of goods in general, which will contribute to an increase in the added value of the regional economy, an increase in the tax base, foreign trade turnover and the number ofjobs, and create the most favorable conditions for the development of export activities in Russia’s constituent entities.
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Статья научная
Making premature financial decisions can negatively affect individual households and society as a whole, so public authorities, using various management mechanisms, regulate the population’s financial behavior. The article attempts to understand how the state regulation of the population’s financial behavior presents interventions in order to “change the context” (in particular, the regulatory and procedural foundations of the financial system) and to “change cognition” (in our case - “human change”, in particular personal knowledge and attitudes). Similar research topics cover the legal basis of financial organizations, behavioral tools for managing the population’s financial behavior, the ways to improve their financial literacy, and so on. In contrast, the present study first reflects the views of alternative economic theories (rational choice theory, behavioral economics) on the possibility of regulating economic behavior, the techniques of behavioral “nudging” widely spread in foreign countries are given; second, a scheme for regulating the financial behavior of the Russian population is proposed and the main regulatory documents regulating the activities of financial organizations in the country are analyzed; third, the relation between the regulation lines of “change the context” and “human change” is estimated. It is shown that the impact on the financial behavior of the Russians is mainly devoted to the “change the context”, i.e. at building a bona fide institutional financial system. The impacts in the line of “human change” are secondary; they are implemented through improving financial literacy and introducing mass financial products. This regulation allows a bias towards the person’s “passivity”. The elimination of the identified imbalance will improve the effectiveness of management decisions regarding the citizens’ financial behavior. It is proposed to redirect interventions from the construction of an “ideal” regulatory context of the financial system to the development of a literate and financially active population, able to form the necessary financial environment for the economy and society by their behavior.
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Regulation of industrial emissions based on the agent-based approach
Статья научная
The article demonstrates one of the most advanced methods for regulation of industrial emissions, which is used by governments of different countries - an emissions trading system based on the bubble principle. This method is a tool for incentive-based control to encourage businesses to reduce the burden on the environment, providing emissions limits of harmful substances, but at the same time giving them some freedom to choose the methods to achieve the specified emission standards. To create a domestic comprehensive system for emissions regulation it would be useful to use the instruments for preliminary evaluation of effects from the implementation of various control measures. One of such instruments may be the agent-based regional model developed by the authors in the present paper. The model will help test different combinations of control measures - both administrative and market - with the use of computer experiments in order to find a balanced combination. The model simulates production activity of agent enterprises which employ agent people...
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Regulation of regional industrial development (on the example of the Murmansk region)
Статья научная
I n the article the features of the Murmansk region’s industrial development from the point of view of the regional regulation are considered. Both negative and positive factors influencing the regional industrial branch of the Murmansk region’s economy are revealed. The system of indicators for the characteristic of the industrial complexes’ development in the regions of the similar type is generated. The measures of state regulation of the development are considered. The modern condition of the industrial complex of the Murmansk region is presented.
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Статья научная
The article dwells on the current state of the regulatory framework of the Russian Federation and the mechanism of public participation in forest management. The examples of addressing the problems of public participation in forest management in individual regions are disclosed. The article deals with the issues concerning the provision of in-interests of the local population through the voluntary forest certification system under the FSC scheme. Recommendations on improving the mechanism of public participation in solving the forest management issues are suggested.
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Статья научная
The purpose of this study is to quantify the relationship between fragmentized collective forestland, farmers investment and forest commodity output to examine the rationality of collective forest right reform after dispersed forestland operation. The data is based on the 2420 farmers’ survey data in nine provinces of China including Fujian, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Guangxi, Henan, Shandong and Liaoning. The results show that if S index is used, fragmentized forestland reaches 0.41 and can be ordered (from high to low) as Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Liaoning, Sichuan, Fujian, Guangxi and Shandong. Under certain fragmentized intervals (forestland fragmentized ratio lower than 0.22 or higher than 0.51), the higher the forestland fragmentized, the lower the farmers investment. The investment-output model indicates that forest block reflects the negative impacts to forest output while other variables such as labor, tangible inputs and forestland have positive impacts. When bamboo is produced, level of fragmentation has negative impacts on forestland acreage and significant positive impacts on labor used. The study implies that after the land is divided to households, physical investment is the key factor to affect the commodity output and should be considered by the related policies to increase the incentives of farmers. Based on this study, we provide some information and guidance on policy of farmers’ forestland operation in large scale.
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Relationship between informal employment and socio-economic development in Russian regions
Статья научная
The relevance of the study is due to the prevalence and long-lasting nature of informal employment practices among the Russian population, as well as the ambiguity of their social and economic implications. The article presents the results of a multidimensional statistical analysis of socio-economic processes in the regions of Russia for 2018 and 2020. The empirical base includes a system of indicators we formed according to Rosstat data. More than 100 variables characterizing the state of the regions have been tested: macroeconomic conditions, labor market, standard of living and quality of life, human capital, and demographic development. According to the calculated factor models for 2018 and 2020, two key components are identified, which we interpret as integral indicators characterizing the intensity of various manifestations of unemployment and informal employment in Russian regions. Further, on the basis of correlation analysis, we show the nature of the interrelationships of the integral indicator (factor) “informal employment” with key macro indicators of regional development. There is a close relationship between informal employment and indicators of economic growth, investment, consumption and income levels, and the lack of connection with indicators of the social sphere. We also classify regions according to indicators of informal employment and analyze the (non)stability of the composition of groups over time and their relationship with the dynamics of regions’ socio-economic development. The novelty of the study consists in an attempt to find hidden patterns and features of manifestation of informal employment in regions and assess their stability over time. The value of the results obtained lies in clarifying the nature of the interrelationships between the specifics of socio-economic development of territories and informal employment models; and also, in designing the approaches to assessing its social and economic effects and identifying regional specifics.
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Relationship between metallurgical works and the budget: debt increases, taxes decline
Статья научная
Large enterprises of ferrous metallurgy consolidate a significant share of cash flows and are important taxpayers for the budget. In 2008-2013 two-thirds of the aggregate profit tax from the ferrous metallurgical industry were provided by seven largest plants: Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK); Cherepovets Steel Mill (CherMK); Nizhniy Tagil Iron and Steel Works (NTMK); Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK); Oskol Electrometallurgical Plant (OEMK); West-Siberian Metallurgical Plant (ZSMK) and Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant (ChMK). All these plants are the key assets of the largest multinational corporations; therefore, the analysis of their statements makes it possible to assess the financial condition not only of individual corporations, but also of the whole ferrous metallurgy. The article presents the results of the analysis of the financial statements of the leading domestic enterprises of ferrous metallurgy for 2008-2013. Particular emphasis is placed on their relations with the budget in the field of profit tax administration. The author investigates the factors in the formation of profit before tax and reveals the destructive impact of the existing tax legislation on the mobilization of budget revenues. The article draws a conclusion about the role of large enterprises in the economic development of the country and its regions. The author proposes several options to change the tax policy in relation to large taxpayers.
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Relationship of production level and wages in agricultural organizations of NWFD
Статья научная
The article examines the dependence of wages on the economic condition of agricultural production properties in the enterprises of the North-west federal district. On the example of agricultural enterprises of the Vologda oblast it examines the impact of funds provision level and availability of labor resources on wages. It compares wages in agricultural enterprises of the region with the level of wages in the industry, justifies the directions of wages growth in the countryside. A model based on the econometric is developed enabling to determine the level of wages in the forecast period based on gross production, its marketability and funds provision of agricultural workers.
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