Tag: spatial development

SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE RUSSIAN EUROPEAN NORTH IN THE POST-SOVIET PERIOD

Sergey KOZHEVNIKOV

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

kozhevnikov_sa@bk.ru

Abstract

The article explores the features of the spatial development of the European North of Russia in the post-Soviet period. It is shown that there are processes of polarization and disintegration of the region’s space, which is manifested primarily in the concentration of both the population and economic activity in the “nodal” points, which, as a rule, are large cities, administrative and industrial centers, as well as an increase in the area of the economic periphery. The prospects for the development of resettlement systems are substantiated, and an assessment of the connectivity of the northern territories based on an analysis of the level of development of their transport and logistics infrastructure is given. The necessity of forming several reference points in the economic space of the European North of Russia is substantiated, which, in our opinion, should become a kind of “counterbalance” to the large cities of the central regions of the country and will allow to overcome the negative trends associated with the compression of the region’s economic space.

Keywords: spatial development, economic space, space connectivity, urban agglomerations, small and medium-sized cities, transport and logistics infrastructure, European North of Russia.

JEL classification: R12

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PATTERNS OF SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT: EVIDENCE FROM RUSSIA

Veronika MASLIKHINA

Ph.D. in Economics, Associate Professor of  Department of Management and Law, Volga State University of Technology, Yoshkar-Ola, Russia

Maslikhina_nika@mail.ru

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyze the trends of spatial inequality in Russia in 1994-2015 based on the convergence concepts. Russia faced the problem of inter-regional inequality as well as most countries. The situation is aggravated by the external economic and domestic factors in recent years. The fall in energy prices and Western sanctions had a negative impact on the country’s economic development. Russia is compelled to take into account geopolitical interests in the implementation regional policies in some regions (the Far East, the Crimea, the Kaliningrad region, the republics of the North Caucasus, the Arctic). Many regional budgets have budget deficit, highly debt load. They optimize spending on the social sphere and reduce investments in the real economy. Russia is emerging from the crisis despite the difficult situation. A review of the theoretical positions of the four types of convergence concepts (σ-, β-, γ-, ρ-convergence) was made. The spatial inequality evaluation was carried out on the basis of σ-convergence and absolute β-convergence concepts. The Williamson coefficient, the Hoover index, the Theil index and the Atkinson index were used to analyze spatial inequality based on the σ-concept. Differentiation has increased over the analyzed period, but gap decreased after 2005. The  convergence speed  is 1.79% in Russia. Regions with a low initial level of development have higher growth rates than regions with a higher initial level of development

Keywords: spatial inequality, spatial development, β-convergence, σ-convergence, Russia

JEL classification: D63, O52, R1, R58
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