INTEGRATION PROCESSES IN THE ECONOMIC SPACE OF RUSSIA’S NORTHERN REGIONS

Sergey KOZHEVNIKOV

Candidate of Sciences (Economics), Leading Researcher, Deputy Head of Department, Vologda Research Center of the RAS, Russia

kozhevnikov_sa@bk.ru

Abstract

The article reveals the essence, provision factors, and development stages of the spatial integration of regional economies on the basis of a critical analysis of the scientific literature. The author studies the features of integration/disintegration processes in the economic space of Russia’s European North in the post-Soviet period. The paper shows that cooperative relations of the region with other entities of the Russian Federation, which have been preserved since the USSR, can become an objective basis for the development of integration processes. However, they are constrained by a significant export orientation of the Northern region’s economy, negative demographic and migration processes that limit the integration development in the region’s labor market, and a decline in the level of spatial transport connectivity. The author substantiates conceptual areas, priorities, and tools for ensuring the spatial integration of the Northern region’s economy at the intra- and interregional levels.

Keywords: economic space, spatial integration, disintegration, connectivity of space, European North of Russia.

JEL classification: R12

 pp. 193-208

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