Content №2 от 2017
An Institutional System to Manage the Socio-Economic Development of Regions
The article analyzes the existing system managing the regional and municipal development. It is shown that for many years this administration system has exhibited its inability to ensure the implementation of periodically stated strategic objectives for the development of the Russian economy and the execution of regional policy. The evidence for the current system's ineffectiveness is an almost complete absence of positive results in achieving these objectives and executing the defined priorities of economic development in regions and municipalities. We give the rationale for an integral institutional system to manage the strategic development of a region and its municipalities, providing means for designing necessary planning and forecasting documents and their further implementation. The administration system is presented as a set of interconnected mandatory subsystems, which include organizational structures (an insti-utional system), planning and forecasting documents, and a control mechanism (instruments of impact). We identify problems that the existing administration system is unable to resolve or solves ineffectively. The article also assesses the role that an institutional administration system plays in designing and carrying out strategic directions of region socio-economic development and provides recommendations on how to create an institutional system to manage the development of a region and its municipalities. We propose directions on forming an integral system to manage regional and municipal development, as well as present the basic elements of the state and municipal administration mechanism under the new conditions of socio-economic development that may serve as a foundation for advancing metho-do-ogical and methodical aspects of regional administration in the Russian Federation.
Models for Assessing the Indicators of Protection of the Country and Its Regions
The paper considers three methods for estimating the security levels of the country and its regions. The work is timely and important as a response to several strategic documents on transport, economic, food, and information security recently adopted in the Russian Federation. Our analysis of methods used in practical calculations of security levels is built according to the following scheme. First, we fixate an object which security is to be estimated, then define the main notions used by the method developers and determine indicators applied in estimation. Finally, we discuss ways to normalize these indicators and formulas to calculate an integral indicator that would generalize a group of indicators or the indicators of an object as a whole, and show their advantages and disadvantages. The conclusion is made that all the considered approaches can be helpful in estimating the levels of economic security of Russia and its federal subjects. Their comparison allowed identifying the main assessment stages, which are as follows: determination of a set of initial indicators, their quantification, normalization, calculation of the generalizing indicators for groups of normalized indicators, subjects of the Russian Federation, and the whole country.
Institutional Factors to Assess the Spatial Development of Regional Banks
The article analyzes changes in the spatial distribution of regional banks and branches of Moscow and regional banks in Russia over the period of2000-2016. It has been established that the differences in bank concentration around the subjects of the Russian Federation are related to their institutional characteristics and not only to their economic potential. We provide the results of a quantitative evaluation of the effect that these factors exert on the dynamics of the number of regional banks and branches of banks. The calculations also show that the localization of regional banks and branches of Moscow banks varies by periods: from 2000 to 2009 and from 2010 till present. Before 2009, regional banks were more numerous in regions with republican status, relatively independent regional authorities, and prominent national and ethnic characteristics; they based their operations on the local labor market and educational potential of the population. Since 2010, the local institutional environment has become worse at protecting the regional banking network from Moscow banks. Republican status and local conditions no longer hamper the expansion of Moscow banking networks as much as they used to before.
Price Levels Across Russian Regions
Based on price levels (cost-of-living indices) across Russian cities, the article computes regional price levels relative to the Russian average over 2009-2015. A regional price level is defined as a weighted average over region's cities where there is a statistical observation of consumer prices. Shares of the population in relevant cities (as at the beginning of year) serve as the weights. We compare the obtained results with approximate estimates of regional price levels that are applied in many publications. These estimates are based on the cost of the fixed basket of goods and services for cross-regional comparison of consumer purchasing power. The comparison makes it possible to conclude that the approximate method provides an adequate accuracy, as 90% ofdeviations fall into the range of ±5%. Regional price levels obtained are applied to estimating real (i.e. comparable between regions) incomes per capita relative to the national average over 2009-2015.
Siberian Federal District: What Prevents Economic Growth
The article considers the task of restoring economic growth in the Siberian Federal District (the SFD). It is shown that for the most indicators the regions in this area have worsened their positions over the period between 2014 and 2016. The district's shares in the regional structures ofproduced GRP, level of employment, and estimated fixed assets decreased. An emerging issue is a decline in the technological level of the industry. Local consumer market and investment in fixed assets experience greater losses than the rest of Russia. Having analyzed the dynamics ofpublic debt and deficits of federal subjects' consolidated budgets, we conclude that the SFD regions do not have sufficient financial resources for effective policy actions to stimulate economic growth. The article gives recommendations on how to reduce the impact of the existing negative trends in different economic areas.
Estimation of the Public Efficiency of the Infrastructure Project on the Example of the Second Branch ofthe Eastern Siberia - Pacific Ocean Oil Pipeline
The article presents the results of research on the development and application of methodological tools for an integrated assessment of the impact that a large-scale infrastructure project has on the development of the regional and national economy. The methodological framework of this study is a combination of two major areas of analysis and evaluation of project efficiency: project analysis techniques and methodological approaches to studying the economy in view of spatial and cross-sectoral aspects while using an interregional input-output optimization model (OMMM). When assembled, these areas provide an estimate of indirect project efficiency, as well as obtain results in terms of the main macroeconomic indicators at the national and macro-regional levels. We present the results of calculations carried out for the first time on a real project with reliable information in the framework of suggested approach to estimate the public efficiency of infrastructure projects. The article introduces a comprehensive assessment of the impact of ESPO-2 on the economy of Russia and the Far Eastern Federal District with regard to redistri-butive and indirect effects resulting from the project.
Fertility in the Regions ofRussia: Convergence or Divergence
The article examines changes in fertility that took place in the regions and federal districts of Russia between 1990 and 2014. To estimate the changes, we used the b-convergence and the s-convergence. Over the period under review, differences at the regional level increased and then decreased again due to the socio-economic peculiarities of Russia's development. At the federal districts level, the overall situation was similar except for less variation. There were no significant convergence models for the Ural and Siberian federal districts; the regions of the Northwestern and Volga federal districts were diverging; in other federal districts, the regions were converging. Although demographic policies greatly affected population behavior, we recognize a need for additional measures aimed at reducing differences between regions because of «clubs» of regions forming on fertility basis, which may have a negative impact on the socio-economic development of Russia. The article concludes with recommendations concerning the state demographic policy, namely for developing measures meant to change reproductive intentions in low-fertility regions.
Analysis of Changes in the Settlement System of Yakutia
The paper analyzes the changes in the spatial distribution of population in Yakutia between 1897 and 2015; the considered indicators are the urban and rural population, the density of population in urban and rural settlements, and the impact of activity types on the settlement system. The quantitative estimations for the level and dynamics of the spatial concentration of population are based on the Theil index. We discover differences in the dynamics of population concentration and characteristics of the settlement system throughout the periods of region's development. Market relations have redirected the spatial structure of economic activity in Yakutia, despite a series of constraints resulting from climate, economic, and national factors. The transformation of the settlement system in Yakutia is heterogeneous: the population in cities tends to concentrate which leads to urban agglomerations, while rural settlements demonstrate a trend towards size convergence.
Competitive Cooperation of Territories as an Economic Reality
Estimating Relation Between Innovative Development of Large Companies and Their Efficiency
The article analyzes the development of large companies in Siberian regions as elements of regional innovation systems, on the one hand, and as elements of sectoral innovation systems, on the other. It evaluates the interrelation between the companies' innovation activity and their operational efficiency. We test a hypothesis that innovative companies are more efficient than non-innovative ones. Characteristics related to the innovative development of large companies are partially responsible for their performance: only intra-innovation environment plays an important role, while neither regional nor sectoral innovation environments determine the efficiency of large companies. Such companies may consider innovation activity as a means to improve performance, although they are poorly integrated into regional and sectoral innovation systems.
The Spatial Transformation of the Northwestern Macro-Region in the Post-Soviet Period
Prospects Study of Using Crowdsourcing in Managing the Region
Hydropower Projects in the Mongolian Part of the Selenga River Transboundary Basin: Possible Risks for the Russian Federation
The article analyzes the Mongolian projects to regulate streamflow in the Se-lenga River transboundary basin. It rationalizes a program aimed at evaluating probable consequences of streamflow regulation for Russia's territory. These estimates consider the needs to maintain the safety of Lake Baikal and the Selenga River transboundary basin, meet demands of water users and consumers in Russia and Mongolia under different water availability conditions. The obtained results will help to prepare science-based proposals for mutually beneficial use of transboundary water resources and to articulate a science-based position of the Russian Federation on this issue in international negotiations.
Predicting Population Morbidity Under the Conditions of Air Pollution
The article proposes an approach to considering quantitative relationships between population morbidity and the state of the natural environment around large thermal power plants. By exercising this approach with data from the Lesosibirsk industrial hub in the Lower Angara region, we managed to establish quantitative relationships between morbidity of child population and the factors affecting it. The article constructs hazardous substances dispersion maps that depend on climatic conditions, the location of production facilities, and characteristics of emissions in the area under study. Variant calculations carried out to determine the concentrations of hazardous substances in the territory, with due regard to the changed conditions for the purification of thermal power plant emissions, made it possible to conclude that it would be inexpedient to build a TPP of a given capacity in the Lower Angara region because of a possible increase in the incidence of upper respiratory tract diseases in children (up to 260-280 cases per 1,000 inhabitants a year).
Socio-Spatial Segregation of the City on the Example ofthe Residential Market in Novosibirsk
The article analyzes the social and spatial segregation of the city on a status basis from the perspective of the residential market. We use housing cost and prestige as indicators. The analysis methodology is built upon a combination of the cartographic method and an expert survey of real estate market specialists. We distinguish territorial clusters as fairly dense areas of Novosibirsk usually with residential houses of the same kind, relatively homogeneous in housing cost and prestige. Based on the analysis of the market for new residential construction, we describe the types of territorial clusters that differ in housing cost and prestige. The article also examines the ways to maintain residential homogeneity within territories.
Value Orientation in the Concept of Strategic Management: Analyzing Practices of Russian High-Tech Companies
The article suggests a methodical approach to corporate strategic decisions aimed at gap elimination in the processes of creating value for consumers and extracting value for company's stockholders. Within the framework of this approach, we design a strategic value creation/extraction matrix that classifies problematic situations typical for different stages of corporate development and determines adequate ways of value management. Approach verification is based on examining business operations of 40 high-tech companies in Novosibirsk.
