Features of regional economic development in Russia in 1999–2013

Abstract

Significant changes have taken place in the spatial structure of the Russian economy since the launch of market reforms. The paper studies its peculiarities in 1999–2013 in terms of formal (recorded by statistics in current prices) and real changes in the spatial structure of the economy. The relevant performance is calculated from real GRP indices, changes in the number of employed in the economy, and the dynamics in electric energy consumption. It is concluded that real changes in the spatial structure of the economy are much less significant than those recorded in statistics. This can be attributed to the fact that the region whose economic results have been recorded does not always coincide with the region where goods are actually produced and transported. Another aspect of the problem is demonstrated: a very high interregional differentiation in the indicators of per capita GRP. The main reason for this differentiation stems from the huge disparities in the indicators of value added per employee according to types of economic activity. Some of these comparable indicators have only been used in Russian statistics since 2005. Labor productivity indicators for different types of activities differ by more than an order of magnitude. Lists of leaders (mining, financial activity, and wholesale trade) and outliers (agriculture, education, and healthcare) do not change with time. For the most part, these differences cannot be removed; because of this and the almost complete resistant to changes characterizing the current specialization of regions, no significant changes in the existing regional differences can be expected in the long run in terms of per capita production.