Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2016 number 1

The article claims that an effective use of the findings from a study of innovation in the reproduction process may result from revising the role of regions in the spatial diffusion of innovations. Regions are mostly able to develop actively various forms of cooperation, including ones with neighboring territories and foreign companies when these processes are systematically coordinated by the government and serve the interests of the entire Federation and not just individual regions with objective benefits or special investment support from the government. Converting regions into the drivers of innovative development will require expanding their powers at least to the level stated in the Constitution of the Russian Federation as equal subjects of the Federation, obliged and able to guarantee the extended innovative development of an area. There is a need in elaborating, deliberating and implementing a national (federative) plan of innovative development of the country that will involve all federal subjects, municipalities, and market agents by selecting programs and business projects on a competitive basis. Economic science aims at formulating ways and methods to restore and strengthen the innovation-renovated manufacturing status of Russia - by consolidating the community through systematic modernization, organizing innovatively active population, rationally distributing innovation powers and available resources among all the parties to socio-economic and social relationships

The article presents the results of a study of regional differences in spatial bank distribution between Moscow, Russian federal districts, subjects of the Federation and their capitals. We define three-stages of fluctuations in the number of banks in a region. Using an example of the Siberian Federal District, we characterize each step fixing real institutional changes in power, particularly the state participation in the banking sector, as follows: liquidation of captive banks owned by regional authorities and reduced focalization of banks in regions. We test the hypothesis for a positive connection between the regional economic potential (according to its GRP) and the allocation of regional banks and branches of Moscow banks. The article describes the features relative to the existing hierarchy of regional financial centers and factors explaining the reasons why such centers emerge outside the capital. Despite the financial institutions concentrated in Moscow, regional financial centers have also evolved. It means that some metropolitans attributes are somewhat present in other cities besides Moscow.

This article systematizes the objectives for the state regulation of regional development. We describe an ideal multiregional system model and analyze the barriers to an efficient regulation of regional development. We formulate approaches to evaluating the impact that a public socio-economic policy has on regional development. Here we propose a concept for coordinating macroeco-nomic and long-term regional solutions following the transfer of defining scenario conditions over the levels of the territorial hierarchy of the economy. We present a framework and structure for the four-level system of hierarchical calculation that assemble the outline of inter-level and horizontal data flows of incoming, defining and estimate indicators. As for the eastern regions of Russia, we provide a roadmap segment for transferring macroeconomic scenario conditions to the federal subject level and some test results

Since the beginning of market reforms in Russia, the spatial structure of its economy has been transforming much faster than it did in Soviet times. The article discusses the peculiarities of the period between 1999 and 2013 regarding formal (statistically registered on a current value basis) and real changes in the spatial structure of the economy calculated with quantum indices, differences in the spatial structure of employment, and the dynamics of power consumption. The author concludes that the real changes in the spatial structure of the economy are far less dramatic than the ones shown by statistics because the region where the results of economic activity are registered does not always coincide with the region where the actual product manufacturing and transportation take place. The article reveals another aspect of the problem: a very high interregional differentiation of GRP per capita. It is mainly caused by substantial discrepancies in value added per employee among industries. They cannot be eliminated; moreover, under the current unchangeable regional specialization, the existing interregional differences in per capita production rates will maintain in the long term

The Program for Reindustrialization of the economy of Novosibirsk Oblast until 2025 was prepared by a team of researchers at the Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of SB RAS as assigned by the Oblast Government. The article uncovers the peculiarities of the program, its ((architectures, the reindustrialization potential in the form of nine integrated flagship projects reflecting strong competence of science and industry in Novosibirsk Oblast. We show the formation trends for the innovation and engineering belt at the Novosibirsk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences and academic science. A special emphasis is put on strategic initiatives-the creation of the Siberian Science City, which may become the largest area of advanced innovative development. We conclude that the Program for Reindustrialization of the economy of Novosibirsk Oblast should be an essential element of strategic planning for the region and can be seen as an important pilot project of federal significance that could serve as an example to process new elements of interaction between government, business, and science to enhance innovative areas of regional development. We demonstrate that this Program and its participants have a strong integration potential mobilized thanks to the public nature of its development.

The article evaluates standards of living and employment, attitudes to work and education for senior citizens in the northern regions of Russia. We show Russian major pension coverage trends, the ratio of average pension to wage, and the ratio of average pension to the subsistence minimum for a pensioner. In the majority of northern territories, especially in regions rich in raw materials, the pensioners' financial standing should be considered more problematic against the background of the generally high cost of living. Based on a sociological survey, we have discovered social feeling and employment characteristics of the third age population, assessed elders' cognitive abilities, and identified basic determinants of labor activity in older age groups. The study shows that two-thirds of survey respondents of retirement age estimate their income as sufficient and acceptable. Until the age of 65, people have a strong desire to work. Pensioners have an attitude to work equally as exacting as working-age people do: about a third of them would like to change their place of employment. Almost one-fifth of unemployed senior citizens want to find a job. The strongest determinants of labor activity for the elderly are age, level of education and attitude to education. Thirty percent of respondents not only recognize the ability of older people to learn but also would personally like to acquire new knowledge and skills. We conclude that any form of age discrimination in employment and education should not be practiced; instead, it is necessary to create conditions for the better use of the resource potential of older people.

The article shows that the particular imbalance problem of markets of educational services and labor, which emerged in the post-Soviet period, is currently growing into a more general contradiction between the process of human development and the public demand. Using data from the state statistics, sociological surveys of the economically active population and employers, interviews with various experts (representatives of administrative struclures, educational institutions, enterprises, and organizations), the authors found out that the process of modernization of the Russian professional education system, whose terminal indicator of success is graduate employability, still does not radically improve the conditions of human development of youth. The observed imbalance is expressed at the behavioral level in a way that young professionals cannot unlock their professional potential while employers are not satisfied with the available competencies of young employees.

The paper considers the dynamics of spatial redistribution of labor resources in Irkutsk Oblast, characteristics of labor supply and possible reserves of economic activity. The choice of this region derived from the fact that Irkutsk Oblast concentrates problems typical of many regions of Siberia and the Far East (high dispersion of settlement, migration outflow and relatively high unemployment). We show how migration affects the age structure of the region population and give the characteristics of jobs and employment by type of settlements, as well as the features of unemployment. Data collected in sociological studies show that, starting from the age of 45, the share of employment monotonically decreases while the proportion of people who do not want to work increases. At the same time, there exists a strong group ofpotential labor-force participants (age group of 61 to 63 years) who would like to work. An analysis of labor force participation at older ages captures differences in the levels of participation by types of settlements. As factors limiting the participation, we consider job characteristics, the prevalence of labor commuting and rotation-based work, and weak demand in the labor market. The article outlines the assumptions about reserves of economic activity in the region and the conditions for their utilization.

The capabilities of innovative development, as well as designing and devising an innovation-oriented model to explore natural resources in a region, have numerous aspects. Among them, the most crucial ones are regional factors and conditions. An analysis of controllable factors is ofpractical interest. The article examines the theoretical base and innovation development experiences of most successful primary producing countries. The analysis shows that the state assumes the key role in the development of innovation; national innovation systems are forming with due regard to the specific commodity-centered nature of the economy. Government control focuses on comprehensive promotion of entrepreneurship and private sector initiative; therefore a significant proportion of R&D investment is provided by the industry. The practices of inno-vatively developed Russian regions rich in raw materials (Tomsk Oblast, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the Republic of Tatarstan) assure that the development of the innovation sphere helped improve their public image and conditions for attracting investment and highly skilled professionals. An innovative component can give impetus not only to developing traditional industries but also addressing social and economic problems of territories. There is a tendency to take into account the peculiarities of commodity profiling in strategies of regional innovation development, but a deficiency or absence of relations between the innovation sector and mineral companies in a region are still present. The share of minerals sector in the economic structure is not a determining factor allowing for successful innovation (or preventing it) because there exist other relevant factors and conditions. The regional level of government plays a critical role in forming and developing innovative processes: along with technological innovations, managerial, organizational and marketing ones are becoming increasingly important; institutional change, political competence and the role of regional authorities are coming to the fore; good performance can be achieved through active participation in federal initiatives devoted to promoting innovation.

The paper is devoted to the empirical analysis of the Russian urban system. As sources we use official data of the Federal State Statistics Service and resources from the «Economy of Russian cities» database. Analysis methods are kernel estimates of density functions, Zipfs curve, statistical functions of average, variation and dispersion, as well as Herfidal-Hirshman index. Estimation results show that the Russian urban system did not demonstrate the rapid growth expected at the beginning of the market reforms, the main reason for which was an unfavorable demographic situation in the country. The concentration characteristics of the Russian urban system are comparable with the ones of developed western economies. There are significant interregional disparities in the Russian urban system; they are related to the size and structure of the regional urban population. An essential heterogeneity among federal subjects is observed in the concentration of the urban population and the variety of the cities' sizes. Our conclusion is that a universal spatial policy is probably ineffective; we need to study regional and municipal experimentations to find successful models of urban system governance.

The article analyzes the methods and models of urban agglomerations management in Russia to find effective management models that meet the requirements of the local self-government reform. Under the conditions in contemporary Russia, the models based on inter-municipal cooperation proved to be impracticable, and now it is required to devise new approaches. This study follows data obtained while examining legal framework and practical experience in shaping urban agglomerations in Siberia and the Far East. We conclude that, in the current Russian economic and political situation, urban agglomerations management and development can only be implemented at the state level

The article studies the dependence of competitive intensity in a horizontal economic system on the specifics of this system. The analysis was carried out using agent-based modeling in the case of a conventional cluster. It has been shown that systems with the maximal intensity of internal competition operate in highly profitable fields and are characterized by high market concentration. Two fundamental processes that are often opposed to each other in clusters, namely competition and cooperation between agents, are linked within one model. We have found out that cost-free imitation of technologies generally does not affect competitive intensity within the cluster while costly imitation decreases internal competition. In both cases, the profitability factor is more significant than the structure one (or market concentration). Competitive intensity within low-profitable clusters with the prevalence of small business decreases as imitation costs grow. The highest level of competition under the costly interaction of cluster's participants, characterized by a different ability to sustain contacts, could be achieved in companies systems with more connections. In the clusters of this type, competitive intensity increases with growing imitation costs. We have demonstrated the possibility to achieve different combinations of competition and cooperation processes, which could be independent, contra- and co-directional under different conditions. These results confirm a necessity to consider the typological features of a managed object while developing regulatory mechanisms.

The article analyzes the evaluation rules for large-scale capital-forming projects implemented by the commercial state-controlled natural monopolies (Gazprom, Transneft, and Russian Railways). It demonstrates that the evaluation techniques developed by the monopolies or suggested for them by government agencies do not account for uncertainty. In addition, the Gazprom's method evaluates only commercial efficiency, whereas the public efficiency of its gas projects of multinational importance is not under analysis. Although they operate within the same country, all three strategic players in Russia's raw materials sector employ substantially different evaluation models for their strategically significant projects. We conclude that the main direction to improve methods for evaluating large-scale investment projects does not only consist in improving evaluation tools, but also in identifying the «naturalness» of monopoly abuse in relation to the implementation subjects of these infrastructure projects, as well as in changing the character of their interaction with the state.