Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2013 number 1

The paper analyses the strategic documents on the development of natural resources adopted by subarctic countries. This allows us to identify what coincidences and differences in the strategies, goals, priorities and trends can be observed in different countries. The paper considers the opportunity of applying partnership and cooperation to the Arctic development, and what institutions could be regarded as those of the most valuable for transnational regulation in the Arctic. We also present what positive and negative trends can be observed in the Arctic policy carried out by the Russian Federation.

The paper considers the features of a model of the population aging in Russia caused by such factors as a demographic wave, short lifetime, and migration processes. We can state that Russia approximates to the aging model observed in developed countries. We show, by the example for the Komi Republic, a specific character of the population aging in the Northern regions of Russia caused by the more young age structure of the population in these regions, short lifetime, and a massive migration outflow observed over last 25 years.

The paper considers what difficulties Russia faced in establishing local government. Such difficulties were caused, first of all, by significant differentiation of the spatial socio-economic development of the country and peculiar regulatory environment of fiscal federalism pertaining to regulation of local government. We present our recommendations on improving federal laws concerning tax and fiscal relations.

The paper analyses institutional conditions of the development of the Baikal region which can be seen in the Socio-Economic Development for the Far East and Baikal region and other documents. We can identify three types of institutions which impact on regional development such as organizing, distributive and transformational ones. We show that the quality of the Baikal region transformational institutions reduces the effectiveness of the governmental programs aimed at the development and enhancement of competitiveness of this region in open markets.

In line with natural resources regulations and an investment regime, taxes are one of the most important instruments of public regulation of an oil-and-gas sector. The reforms of the 2000s resulted mostly in building conditions for development of oil-and-gas fields in the start-up regions, post mining areas, and small deposits. The paper proves that there is a need in a comprehensive tax reform allowing application of the economic approaches to differentiation

The analysis of power consumed by the population of the Moscow region allows understanding the patterns of energy infrastructure development which can be observed in an urban agglomeration. Dynamics of the power production and consumption over 2000–2010 reflects a transition of the regional economy to its post-industrial structure. We can state that to monitor statistically the effects of agglomeration and react properly when planning power consumption, energy balances of entities included into the agglomeration should be necessarily disaggregated. This could be done by making up an energy balance for each municipality.

A trajectory of incorporation into an academic community is understood here as a combination of the places, where higher education can be acquired, and work places which can be occupied. The data of a survey carried out among the young researchers of the Siberian Branch of RAS show the fact that those researchers who graduated from the university located in the same scientific center where they were working or completing post-graduate programs at the moment of the survey («insiders») are involved in much more number of projects financed through grants. The difference between «insiders» and «outsiders» can be observed at the early stages of their scientific careers. The most successful (i.e. those who have many grants) insiders are oriented at foreign financing organizations that can be seen in their involvement in foreign projects and willingness to have permanent or temporary job abroad as well.

The paper considers what demands for further education can be observed among different graduates completed the programs of vocational schools of the Novosibirsk Oblast - both employed and unemployed at present. We describe the current and potential demand and supply for additional professional education which can or could be observed in the regional market. We show that different segments of the system of additional professional education and relative market segments do react to different demands of groups of the population, sectors of the economy, public employment services, and a labor market.

The paper proposes a system of the indicators and a technique to define regional ratings on the base of such system. An aggregated index of innovation activity for units of the Russian Federation are calculated with consideration for differences in their socio-economic development as well as weighing coefficient (and without them) obtained on the base of a pairwise comparisons matrix. Our analysis shows that consideration for weights does determine the rating of the unit of the Federation among others. However, we can state that the regions having top positions in one rating scale remain of top positions in others.

The paper shows that a downward trend in relation to a share of tax revenues coming from the Siberian Federal District has been changing since 2009 to an upward move. The Siberian economy has revived from the crises faster than the country in whole. We present here the fixed effects models of panel data, and assess features of the Siberian tax field related to spatial and time characteristics. We also show that, over the period of positive market trends observed in 2002–2008, the taxes in the gross were growing mainly due to an extensive factor not connected with structural changes, but its role in the trend is shrinking. The balance of power has been drastically changing since 2009.

The Novosibirsk Oblast showed high of its economic growth - its indicators were significantly higher than both Russian and the SFD average ones over 1999–2008. The same can be observed over the next period 2010–2011. The GRP and industrial production in physical terms were more than twice higher despite negative changes taken place in the economic trends and institutional environment of the Oblast. According to a constantly increasing number of economic indicators, the Oblast has outpaced its SFD neighbors over the last years. The author explains these facts applying a wide spectrum of statistical indicators.

The paper presents quantitative assessment of the risk factors which deteriorate the population health such as economic-infrastructural, socio-psychological, and ecologic ones. Applying regression analysis techniques, the paper also identifies the region where ecological contribution to the health deterioration is more than 10% as well as the regions mostly vulnerable in relation to ecologic impact. The analysis and conclusions made in this paper would allow local authorities to pay attention to a necessity of taking effectual measures both in natural resource management and healthcare.

The paper analyses how large corporations impact on the economic processes taken place in certain regions; what pros and cons could be if large corporations or their subsidiaries and branches operate in regions; what effects are when a centralized model of corporate governance are widely spread; and how such model impacts on the level of localization of effects obtained by operating large federal corporations. We describe the examples of several regions of the Siberian Federal District where large corporations operate. We also consider several examples of foreign practices, and present our conclusions about the role which large corporations play being a factor of the regional economic development.

The paper analyses trajectories of the OAO «Russian Railways» organization development within a two-dimension coordinate system; this allows us to understand the evolution of this corporation and future development perspectives. We consider what should be done to build such management for Russian public-access railways system which allows compromising the corporation's public and commercial objectives. We carry out a critical analysis of shifting a territorial-functional principle of the corporation management to a functional one as well as whether the corporation should be considered as a natural monopoly while there is only a part of it is of actual monopoly.

The paper analyses cooperation of the oil-and-gas industries of the countries located in the Caspian Sea region, and describes the lines of oil and gas transportation and a role which oil companies play in implementation of the oil-and-gas projects. It also presents the author's recommendations on how to enhance the interstate oil-and-gas cooperation in the Caspian Sea region.

The paper analyses the building of regional competitive environment in the Central Federal District through development of small business, and proves that small business could promote the building of competitive environment. The paper also analyses the small business operating within the territory of the Central Federal District.