Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2013 number 4

The paper considers an evolution of the federalism, spatial development, and regional policy in the post-soviet time - the 90-s and first decade of the new century. We show the specifics of the Russian transformations observed in these spheres by comparing them with the world trends; their defects and problems; and how to improve them. We also present a brief review of a current state of the Russian regional studies, and assess whether they are of the world level and considered to be applicable as a scientific support to modernize the spatial development of the Russian economy and society.

The paper offers a concept of how the Russian economic space could be structuralized on the base of building contrast clusters of the national economic agents. We describe the major drivers of economic activity in clusters and also present the procedures of how to arrange an estimator of driver matrix for clusters and techniques to arrange the consolidated indices of drivers which integrate partial estimates of their activities in different clusters as well as consolidated indices of drivers which integrate partial estimates of different drivers. We offer and assess by consolidated indices the theoretical incentive strategies for economic activity (strategy of public paternalism, market romanticism, pan-regionalism, and perfect universalism). The variants of such strategies are presented to assess the impacts of echeloned incentives towards economic activity. The variant of the technique is applied to analyze the investment activity in RF regions. Our analysis of investment processes made by such techniques shows that the concepts of «pure market» - a lack of the governmental intervention and effective regional competences - dominate in Russia.

The paper analyzes how different countries developed their Arctic polices and strategies in the context of the globalization processes, climate changes, and geo-political and economic trends. We also analyze the innovation aspects, resources, risks and uncertainties, and new drivers of their Artic development; problems of their sovereignty and national security; and feasibility to make such risks, uncertainties and instability less through international cooperation. A special focus is on the economic aspects of the Russian North and Arctic in the context of the global instability, risks and threats.

The paper analyzes whether a budgetary system could be decentralized in the process of current building and operating of local governments. It presents key factors which define a centralization/decentralization ratio. A special focus is on the principles of distinction between budget expenditures and revenues, and variants of correcting vertical and horizontal misbalances in the national budgeting system. We show the role which a local government plays as a key link in a federal form of governance. We offer the structure of the regional and local budget revenues and our recommendations how a local taxation should be built.

The paper discusses strategic defects of a concept of the railway transportation reform. We prove that a regional decomposition of the Russian railway network will be a factor of a strategic importance in time. To prove this thesis, we use a cluster analysis of Russian railway traffic flows. We present our arguments for the Trans-Siberian Railway to be classified as a natural monopolist. Theoretical variants of the Russian Railway Company decomposition show that we would benefit at the national level due to competitiveness between natural monopolists on a domestic railway market. A system-oriented analysis of such benefits and those obtained by a united and hierarchically governed railway system would allow making reasonable institutional decisions on how the railway reform could get away from the current institutional trap out.

The article considers what results the first steps of the Social and Economic Development Strategy for Siberia 2020 contributed to building a regional innovation system. We compare expected and actual targets of the innovation development in Siberia and several subjects of the Siberian Federal District. Having analyzed several major projects, we show the problems the innovation development variant for Siberia may face in its implementation.

The paper considers attitudes of the student-age population in the Zabaykalsky Krai towards migration and whether they are feasible within the objectives and goals of the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the Russian Far East and Baykal Region 2025. An empirical subject of our study is the students of the largest university in the Zabaykalsky Krai - Zabaykalsky State University. We can conclude that a significant share of young specialists being educated here may leave the region as early as in the years to come. In the context of a regional human resource competition, the Strategy goals could be likely achieved with no measures aimed at building favorable conditions in the years to come in order the educated youth would be able to find jobs in regions of Siberia and the Far East.

The paper considers the strategies and forms of international education programs realized by universities of Chita (Russia) and Almaty (Kazakhstan). We also consider how international cooperation programs are realized at the national level (a strategy for internationalization of higher education) and at universities (universities' programs) by two leading universities (according to educational mobility indicators). We describe the strategy for internationalization of higher education being realized by Russia and Kazakhstan and key risks of their realization (brain drain, asymmetric flows of educational migration, and regional differentiation). We can conclude that regional differentiation should be necessarily taken into consideration in making decisions on the development of international education in Russia.

The paper analyzes the dynamics of the ethnic and demographic situation observed in the Siberian Federal District in connection with migration processes. We consider ethnic aspects of the human development in the SFD cities. We can conclude that a reduction of the population with a western trend of internal and external migrations has been observed in the SFD for a long time, and such demographic losses due to migration could not be compensated. An unequal migration exchange, including the labor migration, has taken place. We can also state that the more intensive character of mosaic structure of the SFD population as well as of variety of ethnic standards can be observed as well as higher competitiveness in labor markets and sociocultural spheres, including those by ethnic features and acceptance of intolerant behavior patterns. Currently, the indicators of the SFD population display the critical problems for its future development. The migration and migration-induced transformations taken place in the ethnic, social and demographic structure of the SFD regional communities, including urban ones, generate zones of risks.

The paper proposes an approach how to develop the mechanisms of governmental support for investment projects being implemented by oil-and-gas chemistry clusters in Eastern Siberia and the Sakha Republic. The approach is based on the application of a network and simulation model for assessing efficiency of the East Siberian oil-and-gas megaproject. Having analyzed to what degree the investment resource and timing schedules for producing and processing sectors are coordinated within different megaprojects, we offer our variants of governmental support for the clusters within the framework of the State Development Plan for Gas-and-Oil Chemistry in the East of Russia 2030.

The paper proves an urgency of applying an evolutionary approach to study how economic systems progress, and it presents the structure of the Russian steam coal facilities considered as a system of interacting agents and described by an agent-based model developed by the author. The model, in the authors' opinion, could be regarded quite applicable to analyze the industry dynamics as well as an «alternative history» of the industry in terms of competition between agents of the economic system.

We analyze market power of large firms through application of indicators for tracking the quality and stability of leadership. Our calculations are made on the open source data published by Expert Journal (Russia) concerning the leading corporations in Russia, Kazakhstan, and a number of Russian regions. To identify leaders, we use such indicators as business sales, profit-earning capacities, level of capitalization, and turnover growth. We can state that the characteristics of leadership are regionally heterogeneous. We also present our estimates of the further development and redistribution of market power.

The paper shows a necessity to develop a model of mechanisms to manage the economic and social activity. We analyze the application of the current management mechanisms and environment of the economic systems considered as a space where such mechanisms are applied. We present our model of socio-economic mechanisms; describe the elements of the environment where the mechanism are designed; and offer a scheme of a step-by-step technique for designing economic and management processes.

Having revised the theoretical and applied models for assessing competitiveness, the paper proposes a regional simulation model of endogenous economic growth where the endogenous factors of competitiveness are modeled on the base of system dynamics. To have a comprehensive assessment of regional competitiveness, we econometrically test the endogenous factors of growth. We present our conclusions which could be recommended to be applied in developing the modernization and innovation policies for the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The article deals with the current legal issues of Russia's constitutional development and its federal system. The author considers the lines of potential transformation of territorial organization of the Russian Federation within the actual constitutional framework and demonstrates the possibilities of shifting the virtual territorial organization without affecting the constitutional declarations regarding federal system of Russia. Recommendations aimed at overcoming the related theoretical and practical problems are proposed.