Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2010 number 1

The paper shows a wave-like change in the Russian territorial structure occurred under the influence of governance factors; presents a number of detailed definitions; and formulates the basic methodical requirements to be met in decision-making processes.

The paper analyzes economic inequalities in the development of municipal units, and compares them with those concerning the subjects of the Russian Federation. We can state that the economic inequalities within the RF subject may be higher by some indicators than those between the RF subjects; and also can state that there are some municipal units observed in different RF subj ects and characterized by equal indicators. This proves the existence of trans-border regions that are economically similar. We also identify the scales of backwardness existing in most regions in comparison with regional capitals and industrial centers, and show their steady character.

The author offers a set of tools of how the applied multi-sectoral forecasts for regional development, which provide better opportunities to analyze the forecasts of the regional structure of natural and financial indicators, could be substituted for continuous time models. As our calculations show, this allows the application of such tools to most tasks of regional strategic development planning.

The paper provides an overview of methodologies applied to analyzing inter-regional income inequalities such as a cross-section approach, a time-series approach, and a distribution dynamics approach. In the paper we present some of them and describe the domains of their applicability.

The paper proposes a new scheme of spatial planning applicable to an administrative area, i.e. by selecting a set of investment projects, each of them affecting the use of land. At present the spatial planning at the level of an administrative area is «bottom-up» since there is no a national system of spatial planning yet. The paper offers new rales for demographic forecasting under a project approach suggested, and discusses some criteria which local communities or local authorities may apply if they want to reject undesirable projects.

The paper analyzes the socio-economic development in the agrarian regions of the Russian Federation. To initiate the raralization processes is considered advisable to overcome the negative social and demographic impacts. The paper identifies the basic social groups, which could be involved in such processes, and the starting conditions under which the said process could be initiated; and suggests a production agglomeration to be used as a form of agricultural production. The author shows the conditions which limit the development of agglomerations at present.

The paper identifies the basic customs charges and what role they could play as the tools for regulating of foreign trade by charge rates. The analysis of the foreign trade in the Siberian Federal District (SFD) over 2001-2007 as well as the review of the customs charges made in the SFD Directorate is presented. The paper considers the factors which impede the progress of the foreign trade in Siberia. The improvement priorities are proposed.

The paper analyzes the consumption practices, which people attribute to markers of poverty and wealth, and the ways of how people build a system of social inequalities around such markers on the base of economic, social and moral criteria. We show that consumption proved to be not only the economic activity but mainly that of a social and appraisal character; and can state that the difference in systems of «alternative inequalities» relates to the fact that people usually address to their different justification registers, i.e. «regimes of fairness», which are based on their different basic values. How competently a person may apply such justification registers could be either the obstacle to or a source of recovering from poverty. These conclusions are illustrated by materials of the empiric study for the concrete region.

The paper analyzes human reproductive patterns as a key factor of fertility. At present when birth rates started to grow after a long drop, the analysis of what factors could shape the human reproductive patterns is of great importance. Applying a logistic regression, we analyze the economic, social and psychological reproductive attitudes (towards having a one-child- or several-children-family) of the population in Vologda Oblast. Such information is considered necessary for developing an effective socio-demographic policy.

The paper shows that the current economic and geographic concepts of the urban conglomeration development are advisable to be supplemented with sociological concepts concerning the processes presently taking place in large urban systems; and offers to see an urban conglomeration as a single social space. We also formulate the tasks of socio-diagnostic researches, subjects of which are urban conglomerations. Our special attention is given to the criteria of whether a community is included into a conglomeration areal in order to define the real boundaries of a conglomeration.

The current techniques for assessment of innovations do not completely reflect the regional specifics of innovation activities. This study offers a system of key indicators which would allow assessing the level of the development of a regional innovation system. We present a classification of the RF regions by the indicators proposed, and a comparative analysis of the SFD regions.

We offer the technique for assessing the economic effectiveness of regional investment projects. Novelty of the technique consists in fact that one can have such assessments only on the base of two indicators such as the investments required and sectoral belonging of projects. We also offer the economic effectiveness criteria which allow ordering the projects according to regional administrations' preferences within some packet of investment proposals. An example of calculations made on some real data is presented.

The study analyzes the key ideas and measures towards environmental protection which were shaped in the second half of the XX century and started to determine the contents of any public ecological policy in the world. We focus on the issues of transformation of the environmental management mechanism applied at the federal and regional level in Russia; and show that our country had a good basis for developing and implementing an effective ecological policy by the beginning of the XXI century but failed to keep it effective for next years. Why it happened is analyzed in the study.

The study presents the author's recommendations on how to improve a local fiscal and tax system with regard to such issue as the revenue and tax distribution and a total increase of local budgets. We offer a management structure which allows the effective distribution of powers and budget resources among different levels of local governments. We prove that some tax revenue should go in favor of local governments.

The paper analyzes how megalopolis uses the trunk and approach lines to provide industrial and intracity communications. A preferable strategy for the development of railway transportation is presented. We show how effective a «trolley car - train» project could be for resolving transportation problems in Novosibirsk.

The study shows the significant difference in political parties' positions on basic economic issues that allow visualizing a factor space of their electorate's preferences and identifying the electorate of each party. We identify factors and relative vectors of electorate's political orientation; and show the stability of electoral preferences. We can state that our knowledge of people's electoral preferences allows identifying those groups of the population in each municipal unit which may vote for some or other party.

The paper considers typological specifics of the knowledge-intensive production cluster in Naukograd «Biysk». We analyze operating results of the cluster and its sub-clusters. Comparative characteristics of leading and less successful companies are presented as well as the priority ways for the cluster development.

The study analyzes the dynamics of interdependence of large foreign companies' economic indicators and changes of their gold reserves. This allows the companies to have more reliable forecasts of their gold production and reserves, and to build their development strategies with due consideration of reserves.

The paper considers the issues of reforms in an educational system and a system of its fiscal funding, i.e. those concerning the conversion of state-financed educational institutions into self-financed ones. The issues of such conversion are examined in the context of an innovation economic model which is oriented on reaching qualitative indicators.