Regional economy. Рубрика в журнале - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
Spatial management of the shipping routes in the Russian Arctic
Статья научная
The new plans for Russian Arctic development are predetermined by changes in the external economic environment and the state’s internal policy. In May 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced new development guidelines for the Northern Sea Route. Later on, the documents related to the strategic development of the Russian Arctic zone were approved. In these documents, the Northern Sea Route development is highlighted as one of the main directions of competitive national transport communication of the Russian Federation on the global market. The purpose of the research is to determine the role of the Northern Sea Route in the country’s spatial and socio-economic development in the context of the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation until 2025. The long-term plans launched various economic, political, and other socially significant processes in the Russian Arctic, which led to the formulation of two research tasks. The first one is to consider the main approaches to the spatial management of the regional economy and to present the implementation of the spatial economy provisions in case of the Northern Sea Route that is the center of the Arctic space “assembly”. The second one is to reveal the Northern Sea Route potential as a transport and logistics highway in the transit traffic area, transportation of raw materials, and ensuring vital activity of the population of the Northern regions in deliveries of goods to the Northern territories. As a result of the research, the authors have identified the main trends in the NSR development: strengthening of Russia’s domestic economic policy, aimed at activating business processes in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, and the usage of the NSR as an international transit highway. Data analysis on transportation of raw materials and goods deliveries to the Northern territories indicates that inland navigation will soon be a dominant type of navigation on the Northern Sea Route.
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Stimulating final consumption within the reduction of regional inequality
Статья научная
With increasing regional inequality, the economy of the Russian Federation and its regions experiences structural constraints related to its imbalance. The result of this situation is the reduction of domestic consumer demand, which has recently been considered a factor of the economic growth. It actualizes the problem of finding, identifying, and justifying areas of final consumption which may stimulate the population’s demand for goods and services of domestic production and reduce structural imbalances in current economic conditions. In this regard, the purpose of the study is to identify and scientifically substantiate ways to stimulate final consumption that reduce regional imbalances. One of these ways is tourism, which has a high multiplicative effect. It has the minimum share of import in the structure of the formation of its products’ resources. The study’s scientific novelty is the estimation of the effect of the increase of the tourism industry’s output within the regional context. Its results allowed us to identify the problem of under-receiving effects from stimulating the consumption of tourism goods and services by regions. The high contribution of the Central Federal District, which accounts for the greatest effect from the growth of tourism output, indicates the need to overcome the existing spatial asymmetry in tourism development between certain regions of the country. General scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, comparison, generalization, as well as tools based on the methodology of inter-sectoral balance, were used as the methodological basis of the research. The information basis of the research included works of domestic and foreign scientists dealing with structural policy, information from state statistics institutions, data from the World Bank and the World Tourism Organization. Future research areas are related to the definition of methods for regulating final consumption for a deeper understanding of problems of economic restructuring.
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Strategic classification of regions according to the level of financial self-sufficiency
Статья научная
In the context of highly uneven regional development, subnational and federal governments are facing an extremely important task of elaborating and implementing the strategy for development of Russia's constituent entities. In this regard the research on financial self-sufficiency of regions as a driver of resource security of strategic development becomes an urgent issue. The goals of our study include building a typology of regions according to the level of financial self-sufficiency and identifying strategizing features for individual groups of regions. Cluster analysis, principal component analysis and panel data analysis are used to achieve the goals. In order to build sustainable groups, we form a system of 18 indicators of financial self-sufficiency of regions; we carry out cluster analysis on its basis; after that, we identify three groups of regions: leaders, average performers, and outsiders. This classification of regions can be considered stable, since the composition of the groups has not changed over time. We carry out the principal component analysis using our set of indicators of financial self-sufficiency and identify three generalizing factors that characterize the budgetary security of the regions, the potential of regional and municipal taxes, and the tax burden on the economy. We carry out modeling with the use of panel regression and analyze the influence of each factor on financial self-sufficiency in each group of regions. The resulting classification has significant scientific prospects regarding the formation of a general strategizing methodology for regions with different levels of financial self-sufficiency. The strategic classification can be used by regional authorities to form regional and sectoral development strategies.
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Статья научная
At present, Russia's economy is dependent on import in some of its strategically important sectors. The recent economic and political developments such as the aggravation of geopolitical situation and termination of economic partnership between Russia and a number of countries and entities, and also the Government's policy that aims to reduce import dependence determine the need to expand the interaction between domestic producers and the need to use domestic resources, materials and equipment in economic activities. Import substitution in Russia can become a driving force of its industrial growth. The paper presents different interpretations of the term “import substitution” contained in several publications of recent years; it also reveals a common approach of the authors to this problem. The article summarizes existing proposals on priority areas of import substitution such as the shift towards import-substituting production and technology in strategically important industries...
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Strategic priorities for the Russian seaports cargo turnover structure development
Статья научная
Trends in the world economy and trade, as well as the process of globalization, contribute to the seaports development as a strategic driver of economic growth in many countries. Seaports play a major role in optimizing trade relations; they act as key nodes in global transport chains and serve as connecting elements of the socio-economic systems in many countries. We have identified global, national and regional trends in the development of port facilities, analyzed cargo transshipment in the sea ports that are strategic objects of the state; this determines the need to improve methods and forms of management of their development on the basis of advanced technology. The development of port infrastructure will ensure economic growth both in the regional location and in the country as a whole. It is in the regions that it is necessary to form a competitive environment for economic entities, in particular seaports. Their development should have a positive impact on economic and social aspects: economic growth of territorial entities, market competition, development of innovative technologies and investment inflow. Empirical estimates of the links of neighboring regions economic growth were obtained on the basis of Moran's I, as well as from studies on how Russia's export cargo flows through seaports depend on GDP and on the index of industrial production in the period from 2006 to 2018. We analyzed the relationship between cargo turnover and shocks such as the financial and economic crisis of 2008-2009 and the imposition of sanctions, which for obvious reasons increase the observed volatility of international trade and, in particular, cargo volumes in ports. In the conclusion of the article we have formulated strategic priorities for the development of cargo turnover structure in sea ports on the basis of the identified opportunities and the obtained forecasts.
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Strengthening fiscal decentralization to reduce the heterogeneity of Russia's economic space
Статья научная
According to a number of strategic documents, Russia’s economic space is characterized by high heterogeneity. To reduce it, Russian and foreign researchers propose to strengthen fiscal decentralization. The study aims to find out whether using this method in Russia will allow achieving the desired result. An answer can be obtained by conducting a regression analysis of the dependence of the scale of heterogeneity of the economic space on the degree of concentration of budget revenues and expenditures at the federal level. In the course of the research, we develop a new method for quantifying the level of heterogeneity of the economic space of a territory; the method requires constructing a figure in a rectangular coordinate system and finding its area. The advantage of this method for assessing the scale of heterogeneity of Russia’s economic space is that it allows us to take into account both major indicators - the volume of GRP and the volume of GRP per capita, since so far it has not been determined which of them is a numerical indicator of a region’s economic development level. Having assessed the scale of heterogeneity of Russia’s economic space for the period from 2000 to 2021 with the help of the above method, we conclude that strengthening fiscal decentralization will reduce the heterogeneity of Russia’s economic space. In particular, a 1% decrease in the concentration of budget expenditures at the federal level may lead to a 12.6% decrease in heterogeneity. Proceeding from this conclusion, we put forward some ways to reduce the share of federal budget expenditures in the total volume of the expenditure part of the consolidated budget.
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Structure and dynamics of household consumption of information goods: regional perspective
Статья научная
Over the past two decades, the indicators of consumption of information goods by the Russian population have been significantly behind the similar indicators in developed countries, which was accompanied by inequality in consumption between Russian regions. The importance of studying consumption of information goods in information economy is due to the fact that the degree of satisfactionofneedsreflectsthelevelofpopulation'swelfareandisanindicatorofinnovativedevelopment which defines the incentives and constraints of modernization and long-term sustainable growth of the national economy. The article is devoted to contemporary structural changes in consumption of auxiliary information goods by the population of a dynamically developing region (the Sverdlovsk Oblast) amid the development of information economy. The use of methods of economic-statistical analysis and sociological survey has helped identify the structure and main trends in consumption of information goods in Russia in general and in the Sverdlovsk Oblast in particular. The article reviews the impact of factors such as consumers' age group, place of residence (town, village) and income level on household consumption of goods in the Sverdlovsk Oblast.
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Статья научная
The relevance and significance of the study are determined by the following: the analysis of international and Russian practices of establishing borders of the Arctic zone, trends and their changes observed in recent years in Russia, the study of the characteristics of economic activity in the Arctic, the adoption of the federal law to support business activities in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the work is to substantiate the inclusion of a number of such municipalities of the Magadan Oblast as Severo-Evensky, Omsukchansky, Srednekansky and Susumansky urban districts in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The reason is the similarity of their natural, climatic and geographical characteristics with the Arctic regions, identity of the socio-economic development problems, unity of the Magadan Oblast municipalities and the Arctic regions of the Far Eastern Federal District by a common infrastructure. Scientific novelty of the study lies in proving the homogeneity of the conditions of the Magadan Oblast districts and the Arctic regions using the selected criteria. On the example of the project on the development of the Omolon iron-ore cluster, we assessed the effectiveness of its implementation for investors, considering the measures of state support in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Thus, resource savings for the investor, taking into account the Arctic benefits, are more than twice as much as the savings from the use of the preferential economic zone regime in the Magadan Oblast. The research findings formed the basis of the expert conclusion on the expediency of inclusion of a part of the territory of Magadan Oblast into the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, which will help create favorable conditions for investors in the development of natural resource potential, as well as ensure socio-economic development of the entire region.
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Sustainable development in Russia's northern regions: labor dimension
Статья научная
The article points out that sustainable development is not the ultimate goal, but a dynamic process of adaptation, cognition and activity. We show that the transition to sustainable development is preconditioned by historical circumstances; we reveal the chronology of the concepts of sustainable development from the Brundtland Report to the 2030 Agenda. We analyze six international systems of sustainable development indicators; each of the systems contains social-labor indicators and indicators of living standards. We emphasize that the common disadvantage of all the systems is that their indicators are poorly adapted to Russian statistics. We consider it important to establish a set of labor indicators and develop a methodology to assess sustainable development. The novelty of our research lies in fact that we use our own approach to the assessment of sustainable development with the use of labor indicators. Labor stability is estimated according to four factors that include twelve labor indicators...
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Статья научная
The aim of the research is to assess the trade effects of integration in the Asia-Pacific region, arising from the processes of globalization and regionalization, which is manifested in the functioning of trade agreements and their proliferation. It is shown that mutual trade barriers are reduced in the context of the formation of a sub-global network of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements as part of the regionalization process in the Asia-Pacific region. It is determined that the vast majority of free trade zones functioning in the world is concentrated in the Asia-Pacific region while the share of intraregional trade is tending to increase. The authors reveal general regularities of integration processes in the Asia-Pacific region based on the decomposition assessment of the effects of trade agreements in the framework of a synthesized modern approach to the assessment of gravitational dependencies. Integration processes in the Asia-Pacific region in the long term have been generating the effect of creating trade for the countries of the sub-global region that concluded trade agreements, and the effect of globalization contributed to an increase in the overall effect of integration. Based on the obtained estimates, it is determined that the contribution of the globalization effect to the overall effect of integration between the Asia-Pacific countries was higher than from the conclusion of trade agreements. The effects of globalization more than doubled the overall effect of integration for the Asia-Pacific countries that concluded trade agreements. It is clarified that for the Asia-Pacific countries that are carrying out the proliferation of trade agreements, the increase in the overall effect of integration was mainly due to regionalization. The obtained estimate confirmed the assumption that there is discrimination against the economies of the Asia-Pacific countries that do not expand the geography of concluded trade agreements in the region. Based on the obtained estimates, it is argued that the effective strategy for Russia is to increase the coverage of the Asia-Pacific countries to conclude trade agreements in order to diversify foreign trade and support export-oriented sectors of the economy.
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Статья научная
In the current development conditions, the issue of distributing social functions between the state and a business is the most relevant. There are several institutions through which the state transfers social functions to organizations: social entrepreneurship, nonprofit organizations, and corporate social responsibility. These processes are the most important for the RF Arctic zone, which is resource oriented, and it is characterized by a special vulnerability to technogenic, biogenic, and socio-cultural threats. Mining companies adopt a voluntary social responsibility policy more often than companies from other industries. The results of the analysis of conducted studies show that a little attention is paid to issues of cooperation between socially responsible companies and regional authorities. This work is devoted to studying processes of the formation of mechanisms defining cooperation between socially responsible companies and regional authorities of the RF Arctic zone. Primary and secondary sources of information served as the informational basis. To collect primary data, we used in-depth unstructured interviews. Secondary data sources were official data from government and companies’ websites, legal acts, and internal documentation of companies (annual reports, ordinances, regulations, policies, and reports on sustainable development). Content analysis of strategies, synthesis, and structural approach were used as methods of data interpretation. Access to company’s internal documentation and the lack of updates on government and companies’ official websites were restrictions of the research. Despite the existing bottlenecks in the research, the results are interesting for the further study of the mechanism of influence of business’ social responsibility on the territories’ socio-economic development and actualization of strategies for the Arctic regions’ development.
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The impact of institutional factors on economic dynamics in the regions
Статья научная
The article is devoted to the problem of combining institutional and economic features in regional research and forecasting. We substantiate that the importance of institutional factors, including those in the regional context, manifests itself under significant differences in the institutional conditions for business that make it possible to receive stable institutional rent; this leads to the stratification of business by levels of alpha, beta and gamma business. The object of the study is top large business in the region. The distribution of major global and federal companies in the context of regions, as well as the presence of an established group of leaders in the regional economy, requires their separate monitoring and forecasting. We propose our own approach to determining the features of consolidation of large business. We show that the range of dispersion of their levels among regions and over time is significant and can be tens of percent and/or percentage points, which urges researchers to focus on these indicators. By comparing the features of consolidation of large business in the regions and using the constructed quantitative estimates, we substantiate the typology of methods (models) of economic growth in regions, depending on the presence or absence of major global, federal, and regional companies in them and their role in regional economy. Theoretical significance of this approach consists in combining the institutional analysis of the architecture of regional markets with the cost and physical aspects of the analysis; this will help improve the quality of diagnostics of regional and interregional problems and the validity of forecasts. Practical significance is determined by the possibilities of taking into account the architecture of regional markets in regional economic policy.
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Статья научная
According to some researchers, in recent years there has been an upward trend in predominant stagnating regions in Russia. The reasons for this include low innovation activity of the periphery, deindustrialization, predominant extractive industries, capital exports, growing social and property stratification and other equally important reasons. The current economic and political crisis in our country is both a threat, an opportunity and an impetus to restructuring the regional economy. In these conditions it becomes extremely necessary to search for new growth points in the regional economy, support for the most promising industries, and efficient resource allocation. Inter-regional cooperation is the most important area of the regional policy, ensuring progressive balanced socio-economic development of regions based on establishing long-term, equal and mutually beneficial relations between them. The importance of inter-regional cooperation for the development of modern Russia's constituent entities is determined by the fact that it strengthens economic ties between them, optimizes the location of infrastructure facilities based on cooperation of their activities, eliminates inefficient financial costs associated with the creation of duplicate economic structures in Russia's constituent entities and unjustified inter-regional competition, combines the regions' economic potential for implementing the most large-scale investment projects, spreads innovative experience in innovation development...
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Статья научная
The article presents the analysis of long-term tourism development programs of the Volga Region. Great attention is given to the sector's financing measures set out in development programs. Domestic and foreign tourist potential assessment methods are analyzed. Tourist potential dynamics of the Volga Region is studied based on expert opinion. Using econometric approach the authors study the correlation between tourism investments and incomes of the Volga Region for the past six years - from 2009 to 2014. The analysis was carried out using statistics provided by the Russian Tourism Association and the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation by category of profitability from paid tourist services and from hospitality and catering services. The conducted analysis helped construct the figures showing the differentiation of the Volga regions by tourism investment efficiency and tourist potential realization. It is shown that tourist potential of the territories and its realization are highly differentiated...
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Urban agglomerations in the settlement system of the north of Russia
Статья научная
The article examines the evolution of the formation of cities and urban agglomerations in the North of Russia. The aim is to identify cities that meet the criteria of “northern urban agglomeration” from the large cities in the North of Russia. We propose criteria and indicators that make it possible to distinguish urban agglomerations in the urban space; it is noted that for northern urban agglomerations the evaluation criteria can be applied less strictly and indicators less important. We analyze the urban settlement of northern Russia, focusing on northern cities, their structure and the average density of settlements; we consider separately urban-type settlements that contribute to the population density of northern territories, increasing the density of settlements. The focus is on 18 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and four cities with a population of a hundred thousand in different years, the core cities have at least two satellite settlements, according to the criteria proposed, they correspond to the concept of an urban agglomeration core city. We consider and group the selected urban agglomerations according to the structure of satellite settlements and the population living in the zones located within 50, 100 and 150 km from the core. With the help of a review of domestic and foreign literature, we have revealed the essence and content of the category “agglomeration effect”. The article identifies three types of agglomeration effects: local objects sharing; cost reduction; and labor pooling. There are two types of effects: localization (clustering) and urbanization effects; the localization effect is the result of enterprises working together in a common area, the urbanization effect is the concentration of organizations in one area, regardless of whether there is thematic proximity between them. Along with the advantages, urban agglomerations cause environmental, economic, political and social problems and pose threats to the stability of small and medium-sized cities; increasing rural deprivation; which will cause further depopulation of large parts of the country, putting the security and integrity of the country at risk.
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“Smart” benchmarking as a basis for strategic planning in regional development
Статья научная
Addressing the problem of scientific substantiation of the region’s development priorities is an urgent issue for both regional researchers and territorial managers. At the same time, when determining the areas of development, the emphasis is often put on successful experience of the leading territories. This method of transplantation of best practices in order to improve the performance of the object under analysis is called benchmarking. In classical understanding, the key stages of regional benchmarking are: selection of the leading region for comparison, identifying the differences between the leading region and the region under analysis, analysis of key success factors of the leading region, and implementing successful experience in the economic practice of the research area. At the same time, the absence of preliminary analysis of reasons and prerequisites for achieving leadership by best regions, comparison of territories with objectively different characteristics of socio-economic development, leads to non-compliance with the most important principle of regional development planning - the principle of goal-setting...
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