The paper substantiates the methodological foundations of implementation of the rules and regulations of the development of the Arctic region of Russia, which relies on the hypothesis interpreting such development as the biggest integrated megaproject in the history of Russia. The substantiation involves both the project-oriented approach to identify the subject-matter of the research and the systems approach to assess the key opportunities of providing the integrative structure of the megaproject in the conditions of drastic differences between the areal components of the Arctic region, and to study the internal and external factors’ impact on the character, drivers and pace of the region redevelopment. The set of consistent methodological positions concerning their policy implementation by responsible governmental agencies in the foreseeable future of the Arctic is developed. The most important position involves the identification of the objective of the public administration of the Arctic region development as a systemically organized entity of multiple coordinated actions of the federal, regional and municipal authorities, corporations and civil society institutions integrated by the unique policy target and economic, social and infrastructure links. Implementation of the public administration requires the principles of systems approach, the reasonable trade-off between centralization, decentralization and continuity of governance focused exclusively on the Arctic issues. At the same time, the integration of the projects of the region’s areal components development to insure the common targets of the Arctic’s megaproject accompanied by the reconsideration of the earlier developed programs turns into a genuinely new methodological issue. In the article, recommendations to provide such integration are introduced.

The article focuses on the relationship between the concepts of “spatial” and “territorial” development. It is shown that these concepts are different in their content, but at the same time greatly complement each other in the specific studies. Only in the category of “spatial development”, there are general directions of productive forces, the geographical dimension of a certain type of activity, the economic measurement of distances, line communications and other network structure of the economy. The author includes to the concept of “territorial development” the territory itself as an area of natural and economic capital and territorial management based on it. The study of the spatial and territorial aspects of socio-economic development of the European North of Russia has shown that its immediate future is connected not only to the large projects of creation of new fuel and energy, mineral and timber bases but with the improvement of the existing economic systems on the basis of scientific and technological progress and inter-regional integration. The moving from the developed territories to new Arctic and northern locations is associated with huge costs and requires time for scientific and technical preparations. The modernization of existing industries and clusters is a priority in the development of the productive forces of the European North of Russia. Theoretical and practical recommendations as a result of the study of the spatial and territorial development can be applied in the development of state strategic planning documents. Currently, the practice of strategic planning does not fully explain the content of the concepts of “spatial development” and “territorial development”. And this incompleteness is so essential that its overcoming should be seen as one of the major objectives of regional policy.

In modern conditions, for the purpose of preservation a territory’s ecosystem at its involvement in economic circulation, it is necessary to carry out the anticipatory geo-ecological assessment for indicating the degree of resistance to hypothetical anthropogenic influence. The existing methodological approaches for performing the geo-ecological assessment are unified and can often be equally applied to various types of territories. A new methodical approach for geo-ecological assessment is brought forth in the article. It takes into account the specific character of the Ural region’s northern territories. The approach is based on the point assessment of territory, which is explained by its large area, moreover, the point assessment is proposed to carry out before the development of the territory. This approach makes possible to consider the specific features of the territory’s ecosystem, namely its ability for self-restoration and self-cleaning in the process of economic development and after it. It allows carrying out the choice of economic activity direction on the whole and satisfying the condition of the minimization of the damage from violation the territory’s ecosystem and preservation its resource potential. The research results can be utilized in the studies of experts and students working on the geo-ecological assessment of territory.

In the article, the approach based on the authors’ hypothesis is considered: the development of Russia has specific characteristics (on the one hand, its size, mentality and certain closed nature of its economy, on the other hand, the considerable dominating resource and human potential, and, as the result, its real role in the world economic community). The diagnostics of these characteristics (at the level of the individual’s welfare and territory of accommodation) reveals crises, estimates threats to region socio-economic development at early stages and helps to evaluate the state of a region for 3-5 years. In other words, managers have time necessary for rapid response to the crisis phenomena and administrative mistakes, for decreasing the impact of the arising threats. The purpose of the article is to present the theoretical and methodological tools of the appearing threats recognition at their early stages, which allows to enter the crisis period with smaller losses. Computational experiments to classify the prior socio-economic crises have been conducted (9 possible options are considered), the trajectories of change of the main indicators of the individual’s welfare and territory of residence influenced by various factors are digitized. On the basis of the proposed approach (named as the economic tomography), the attempt of the comprehensive assessment of the state of Russian typical representative regions is made.

The article investigates the integration activity of business structures in the regions of Russia. A wide variety of approaches to the study of the problems and prospects of economic integration and the current dispute on the role of integration processes in the regional economic development have determined the complexity of the concepts “integration” and “integration activities” in order to develop the objective conditions to analyse the integration activity of business structures in the Russian regions. The monitoring of the current legal system of the Russian Federation carried out in the area of statistics and compiling statistical databases on mergers and acquisitions has showed the absence of the formal executive authority dealing with the compiling and collections of information on the integration activity at the regional level. In this connection, the data of Russian information and analytical agencies are made from the information and analytical base. As the research tools, the methods of analysis of structural changes, methods of analysis of economic differentiation and concentration, methods of non-parametric statistics are used. The article shows the close relationship between the social and economic development of the subjects of Russia and the integrated business structures functioning on its territory. An investigation of the integration activity structure and dynamics in the subjects of the Russian Federation based on the statistical data for the period from 2003 to 2012 has revealed the increasing heterogeneity of the integration activity of business structures in the regions of Russia. The hypothesis of a substantial divergence of mergers and acquisitions of corporate structures in the Russian regions was confirmed by the high values of the Gini coefficient, the Herfindahl index, and the decile coefficient of differentiation. The research results are of practical importance since they can be used to improve the existing federal programs aimed at evening-out disproportions in the social and economic development of the Russian regions. The qualitative infrastructure formation of the merger and acquisition market and the development of regional policies in order to increase the competitiveness of the Russian regions can be possible on the basis of the presented analysis.

In the article, the authors analyze the conditions of import substitution by types of activity from the perspective of the threat to the economic security of Russia. The factors of import substitution are presented. The main factor is the increase of economic and social security by the modernization of Russian economy. Today, a critical measure of the country’s economic security increase is the implementation of import substitution policy. The issue of economic modernization remains of current interest but stays unsolved, especially in the branches where the issue of import substitution is crucial: industry, agriculture, etc. The types of economic activity that can be labeled as open to import substitution are the ones with the high or medium indicators of competitiveness, investment and innovation activity. Within those types, the import substitution policy can be implemented without a threat to economic security. The analysis of the main features of import substitution such as the levels of competitiveness, innovations and investment by the types of economic activity, — is the basis to work out a smart import substitution policy, which will carry no threat to the country’s economic security. The main types of economic activity with the high dependency on import are metallurgical production, chemical industry, wood processing, electrical machines and equipment production, machinery and equipment production, textile manufacture, fishery and fish farming. In the result of the analysis, the following conclusions are drawn: the level of investment for all the types of economic activity presented is critically law; according to the level of innovation and competitiveness, metallurgic production is seen more advantageous on the back of negative dynamics and chemical industry as less advantageous. The other types of activity will face a threat to economic security if the policy of import substitution is implemented without government financing.

The economic evaluation of renewable natural resources is the urgent and unsolved problem. Today, the assessment of natural resources is a priority for the national strategy of environmental management. In our country, a great influence on this process was provided by the development of market relations, causing the necessity to evaluate the natural resources potential. The state cadastral evaluation of natural resources is the basis for land tax, but it does not allow to assess comprehensively the natural resources potential. The article reveals the concept of economic evaluation, describes its implementation in the Northern regions. In the paper, the authors consider the traditional methodological approaches to the economic evaluation: cost and its modification, rent, market and alternative ones as well as the approaches based on the results of sociological research widely used lately. Also, the methodological approaches using the results of sociological research are utilized. For the assessment of the natural resources, the authors recommend the effective approaches that ensure the comparability calculations and improvement of the reliability of results. The proposed methodological approaches to the measurement of land, forestry, hunting, fishery and biological resources of wild plants allow to take into account the specific features of the Northern territories and implement a comprehensive economic assessment of natural resources potential of the territory. The authors consider the calculation of the unit value index of natural resources potential to rank the Northern territories of the Russian Federation according to the proportionality of project investment for development of natural resources. Methodological recommendations are approved for the conditions of the Berezovsky municipal region of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra.

The objective of this paper is to reveal the impact of spatial concentration of business in the Russian cities on enterprise productivity. The hypotheses are the following: urbanization level and home market potential positively affect enterprise performance; localization economies are positive and start decreasing after some point due to congestion and excessive competition; regional transport infrastructure, business climate and human capital positively affect enterprise performance. We use firm level data augmented with city and regional data. Fixed effects are applied in order to deal with endogeneity. Agglomeration economies are considered in the light of opportunities for knowledge spillovers, input sharing and labor market pooling. Our results confirm that agglomeration economies and home market potential are important for the enterprise performance. We find positive urbanization and diversity economies, while localization economies have an inverted U shape. Results can be used to improve regional policy. For instance, significance of home market potential emphasizes the importance of transport infrastructure. Significance of agglomeration effects implies that if a sufficiently large number of firms work in a city, performance of each firm improves.

For a long period, in the Russian economy, mainly the issues of the location of production and achievement of maximum efficiency from the industrial policy were carried out, which led to the formation of single-industry regions with disproportions in socio-economic development. Today, as in the previous world financial and economic crisis of 2008–2009, the problems grow worse for the single-industry regions of Russia due to their narrow sectoral specialization. The poorly diversified economic structure of the single-industry regions, the reduction of prices for output products, a high dependence on foreign technologies under the natural resource depletion are being the strong deterrent to the development of single-industry regions. Therefore, the need to place special emphasis on identifying the ways to diversify and modernize these regions becomes obvious. The article presents the genesis of the single-industry territories of Russia with the allocation of essential characteristics and problems that prevent the development of single-industry regions. The special attention is paid to the dominating industries determining the regional features of the socio-economic development of these regions. Therefore, the algorithm of determination and classification of the single-industry regions of Russia has been developed and approved. The world experience of modernization and reconstruction of the single-industry regions was analyzed. Recommendations for improving the efficiency of the state policy concerning the single-industry regions on the basis of using the potential of small businesses with the large industry enterprises are proposed. Revealed features of the single-industry regions of Russia allow to draw the conclusion that for the further balanced development of these regions, it is necessary to use entirely new approaches that take into account particular characteristics of the industry, accumulated problems and the current foreign economic position of the Russian Federation.

The article analyzes the influence of natural monopolies on the value of residential property, discusses the basic energy resources affecting it. Oil is defined as the main energy resource, its main brands, and their features are considered. The different authors’ perspectives of the impact of oil prices on the real estate prices are considered (“no effect”, “direct effect” and “indirect effect)”. Schemes (models), clearly demonstrating the cause-and-effect relations of the impact of prices of the main energy resources on each other and on the value of residential property, are provided. The stability of relations between the prices of the major energy recourses (between each other as well as between each resource and real estate prices) and residential property prices in the primary market are analyzed. The interval of “crisis” and “crisis-free” time is defined. The impact of the energy in “crisis” and “crisis-free” time is analyzed. The impact of oil prices on the residential property prices is proved through the cement as the main price-determining element in the construction. The introduction of the state target compensation allowing to increase the availability of residential property is proposed as one of the elements of a comprehensive solution of the “housing question”. The size of the state target compensation in absolute (in rubles) and relative (% prices for residential real estate) values is determined, taking into account the sufficient reproduction of the population, and restrictions on the right to use it are introduced. The total value of the state target compensation per total number of homebuyers is calculated, and its share in the expenditures of the consolidated budget and budgets of state extra-budgetary funds is determined. The realization of the state target compensation based on an average annual growth among the major countries of the world is grounded.

According to the well-known theoretical approach (the Kuznets hypothesis), one should expect a rise in income inequality on the early stages of economic development followed by its decline on the later phases. But there are theoretical models, which suggest alternative paths of income disparity. Empirical evidences of different authors is also controversial. This paper analyses the relationship between income inequality and output in Russian regions. Such study, based on modern econometric techniques, is novel for Russia. The author uses different economic indicators for Russian regions and estimates the fixed effects model for the period from 2000 to 2011. The results indicate that there is a positive relationship between income inequality measured by Gini coefficient and real per capita gross regional product. Hence, the distribution of benefits of economic growth and losses due to economic contraction was unequal in this period. The decline of inequality was attributable to interregional migration processes, the rise in social expenditure and the ratio of employees with a higher level of education to the employees with a lower level of education. However, the increase in the share of firms implemented technological, management and marketing innovations caused the upswing in income disparity due to monopolistic effects. Thus, the statement of J. F. Kennedy that “a rising tide shifts all boats” is not suitable for the developments in Russian regions in 2000–2011.

The article describes the solving of the problem of conducting the componential and cluster analyses of population expenditure for foodstuffs as one of the most important components of the standard of living. The purpose of the analysis is to develop the regional clusters of the Russian Federation, which vary in the structure of household expenditure for foodstuffs. The foodstuffs are presented in absolute units taking into integral account the standard of living index. The methods of intellectual analysis such as component and cluster analyses are applied as the research methods. The procedure for the data intellectual analysis based on the interconnected performance of component and cluster analyses is proposed. The procedure of the data intellectual analysis considers the interrelation between the results received by different methods, and also the possibility to return to the previous method for the purpose of repeating the analysis to specify consistently the clusters composition. Few clusters of the wealthy regions characterized by the high and average level of expenditure for foodstuffs are revealed as well as the quite many clusters of not enough wealthy and not wealthy regions characterized by the low level of expenditure for foodstuffs. It is shown that the growth of standard of living characterized by the size of a gross regional product per capita is followed by the growth of the Gini coefficient, which indicates both the inequality of income distribution and reduction in expenditure for low-value foodstuffs. The results of the analysis can be applied for the development of the decision making support system intended for the analysis of the scenarios of macroeconomic regulation in the field of income policy for the purpose of increasing the standard of living of the population. The analysis of the population expenditure for foodstuffs has allowed to reveal the cluster structure of the regions of the Russian Federation, to show it according to the generalized indications, to formulate the specific characteristics of the clusters of the regions and important management decisions.

The subject matter of the research is as follows: pension reforms conducted by some states define the transformation of pension systems. The choice of countries is stipulated by the fact that each of them has different types of pension systems and preconditions for reforms. The purpose is to develop an approach that allows comparing and evaluating changes in disparate systems. The hypothesis is that the ongoing pension reforms, regardless of initial conditions and their type lead to a similar trajectory of pension systems development in all countries. The methodology rests on the comparative analysis that was carried out on the basis of a single algorithm that allows to determine significant modifiable parameters and the overall direction of reform. The novelty is that the authors research the ongoing pension reform from the viewpoint of pension rights formation and distribution of risks. The results are a single trajectory of reforms implementation for the studied countries, which confirms the authors’ hypothesis. The specific features of the Russian pension system do not affect the reform trajectory, which is similar to all countries. The conclusions are the following: the reducing pressure on pension system requires increasing revenues and limiting the number of potential participants. This is achieved by expanding sources of financing, increasing the dependence of pension on an employee’s contributions, transferring the risks of old age into the individual level, and employment motivation during the retirement period. The principle of the intergenerational solidarity loses its value. The obtained results can be used for the pension reform modification in the Russian Federation, the development of voluntary pension insurance based on the experience of other countries and risks faced by the modern Russian pension system.

The analysis of fertility indicators for cohort gives an adequate assessment of the effectiveness of demographic policy and measurement of perspective fertility rates for demographic forecasts, eliminating the impact of the shifts in birth timing in their dynamics. Traditionally, the average number of children born in a cohort is delivered in population census results. The assessed values of these indicators can be obtained by using age-specific fertility rates. The practical experience suggests that for Russia on the whole, these calculated estimates are undeniably correct. On the regional level, their accuracy raises doubts, as female groups for which age-specific fertility rates are provided, can markedly differ year after year because of inter-regional migration, and vary from population census data. The authors attempt to consider the applicability of such approach to fertility rate estimations for a cohort in the regions of the Ural Federal District. For some regions, summed age-specific fertility rates produce reasonable results. It is thus expedient to take as a basis the average number of born children for cohort according to the population census and add annual age-specific fertility rates for the post-census period. The analysis of average numbers of children born in a cohort (as for the beginning of 2014) has shown positive shifts both for Russia on the whole and for the Ural Federal District regions. The majority of females, which reproductive behavior may be affected by public support measures provided for families with children and introduced from 2007, have not finished their child-bearing process yet. However, it is already possible to report at least about the stabilization of the average number of the second and third births, starting with the cohorts born in the early 1970s. Thus, the shares of females given birth to the second child among those given birth to the first child, and the shares of mothers given birth to the third child among those given birth to the second, were not simply stabilized but have already increased. At the same time, the available statistical and sociological data do not provide evidence of shifts in birth timing toward earlier births of the second and subsequent children. More likely, it is arguable that the births postponed for a long time were fulfilled.

The purpose of the article is the interregional analysis of human potential. In comparison with the quality of life of the population, the quality of population itself is studied far less. The article presents an expanded characteristic of human potential in seven directions: economic activity, demographic processes, physical health, cultural potential, social health, educational potential and the attitude of the population to the environment. On the basis of statistics for 2008–2012 years, 63 indicators of human potential for all directions are selected. In the final result, the correlation analysis has led to the substantiation of the system of indicators consisting of 10 indicators. Three economic and seven social indicators characterizing human potential are included into this system. On the basis of the indicators by means of hierarchical agglomerative methods of cluster analysis, a classification of the Russian regions is carried out in two versions: with economic indicators and without them. The result of the calculations is a stable temporal typology of regions by indicators of human potential covering 74.4 % of the population of Russia. The article provides a substantial interpretation of dividing regions into groups, identifies the strengths and weaknesses of each cluster, shows the specific features of the regions included into the clusters. The obtained results can be used in the development of measures for the reduction of the interregional inequality in terms of human potential. It is possible to define what measures can be effective by studying the strategic directions of the development of regions in the cluster which is the most successful regarding the characteristics of human potential.

In the face of increasing of the regional differentiation of the health systems and compulsory health insurance, the comparative analysis and efficiency assessment of their performance in the context of the subjects of the Russian Federation becomes particularly relevant. Therefore, the research is focused on the regional health systems and compulsory health insurance (CHI), and the subject matter of the study is the analysis of the system performance. In the article, the comparative analysis of the authors’ approaches to the formation of efficiency criteria of the performance of regional health systems and CHI, as well as to the development of a typology of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation based on these criteria is conducted. The authors propose a system of indicators to measure the economic, medical and social efficiency of the systems under consideration. Moreover, a set of indicators of economic efficiency forms two groups of indicators. The first group of indicators reflects the financial performance, and the second — the structural efficiency. A methodological approach to the formation of the rating for subjects of the Russian Federation according to the levels of efficiency, based on the procedures of cluster analysis and fuzzy mathematics are developed. A feature of the proposed approach to the construction of a typology of the subjects in terms of efficiency is the introduction of a reference subject with the national average performance indicators system that allows to qualitatively assess the effectiveness of regional health systems and CHI by comparing them with the «reference subject». The results of the empirical research have indicated a high differentiation of the subjects of the Russian Federation in terms of economic efficiency, have allowed to identify the subjects-outsiders. The theoretical and practical results can be used for the rational choice of priorities of the state policy in the field of the public health and CHI at the federal and regional levels.

The Publisher and Editor retract the paper “Planning Mechanisms for Regional Electric Power Supply System Development” by Malyshev E. A., Kashurnikov A. N., which was published in the 4th Issue, 2015 of Economy of Region, at the initiative of the authors because this paper is a duplicated publication of previously published one: Malyshev Ye.A., Kashurnikov A.N. Rynochnye mehanizmy privlechenija investicij v razvitie jelektrojenergetiki [Market mechanisms for attracting investments in the development of electric power industry]. Nauchno-tehnicheskie vedomosti Sankt-Peterburgskogo gosudarstvennogo politehnicheskogo universiteta. Jekonomicheskie nauki.2015. ¹ 3 (221). P. 73-83. https://institutiones.com/investments/2689-rynochnye-mexanizmy-privlecheniya-investicii.html. The decision is taken by the Editorial Board on the 19th of November, 2021. Key problems of the regional electric power supply systems are examined. These problems result from a lack of regulated interaction mechanisms for uniting the different entities’ resources aimed at the realization of investment activities. One of the main problems of the power supply industry is physical and moral aging of both generating and networking equipment. In the article, the necessity of management system formation to control the development of power sector has been proved. The deficiencies of the modern investment procedure in power companies are described. The absence of continuity between the regional and local strategic planning documents and investment planning of a power company has been found out. The possibility to develop a new mechanism for attracting investment has been proposed. The regulation of joint activities to implement the development program for the regional power supply industry has been proposed. The management system to develop the Russian power industry has been proposed. The comparative analysis of generating capacity development mechanisms has been carried out, such as capacity supply agreement (CSA), investment support mechanism (ISM), and long-term power market (LPM). The interaction procedure of the planning of the power supply infrastructure development has been described. The mechanism connecting the state sectoral and regional planning and corporate planning of power supply infrastructure development has been proposed. The regional aspects of industrial policy and its legislative support have been considered. To successfully implement the public-private-partnership (PPP) projects, it is necessary to create the effective PPP model within the federal and regional legislation framework; to develop the financial model providing the recoverability of investments; to provide a mutually beneficial cooperation between executive bodies and private investors. The possibility to apply the PPP mechanism for regional power supply infrastructure development have been validated. The PPP mechanism application can help to solve the problem of regional and interregional power supply infrastructure development, as it is of vital importance for the regions of Siberia and the Far East.

The article analyses the economic and socio-cultural premises for introducing the open e-learning in the Ural region, as well as the potential economic effect of this type of educational activity. The article strives to prove a regular pattern of the universities’ transition to e-learning, also in connection with the changes of the educational paradigm and the nature of the educational system management. The hypothesis of the paper is connected with bringing the economic dimension to a humanitarian concept of e-learning, which becomes more and more widespread. The methodology of the article is based on the recognition of the fact that the macroeconomic processes in the information society and the processes occurring in a particular industry — higher education — are of isomorphic nature. On the basis of the analysis of global experience and basic theoretical approaches to e-learning, including the Lifelong Learning concept, the authors make a conclusion of the progressive growth of interest in different countries and regions. The e-learning is treated primarily as a tool to improve quality and efficiency of the educational process. The accuracy of understanding functions and peculiarities of e-learning allows one to determine a positive economic effect of its application for the university, the region, and the employers. The article shows organisational mechanisms and financial model of implementing e-learning in the Ural Federal University. The description is made of the cost options for open-type e-learning course development, investment parameters for their establishment, as well as costs of implementing educational programmes with the application of e-learning. The analysis of the activities of Ural Federal University on implementing e-learning gives the opportunity to further imagine the effect from the introduction of e-learning in other universities in the region. The results of the research may be applied in the institutions of secondary and higher education in the decision concerning the volume and form of the e-learning system.

The article describes the methodology for estimating the Russia’s consumer sector and the effect of its application. The monitoring procedure of the Russian consumer sector groups indicators into two units: the unit of the estimation of consumer goods and the services market estimation unit. The estimation unit of consumer goods is composed of two modules: food products and non-food products. This module offers two components that provide an estimation of the consumer sector: marketing (estimates the accessibility of retail trade and services for end users) and production (estimates the domestic manufacture). The results of the estimation show general improvements in the consumer sector in the period of 2000–2014, but overall development is evaluated as low. The analysis revealed that the financing is growing faster than the quality indices of development. As an example, the financing of agriculture has increased by 1.5 times over 15 years (against comparable prices from 2000), while agricultural production has not changed. Another most pressing challenge is the weak differentiation of the Russian economy, as evidenced by the low rates of non-food production (availability of non-foods of own production remains at a low level and averages 20 %). The results of the estimation suggest the need to reform the regulation of the sector primarily concerning priorities for its development and improvement of financial and economic mechanisms to achieve them.

The article considers the technical, technological, institutional and organizational barriers of cross-border transportation of goods. The study uses an institutional approach as a methodological alternative to other approaches. The institutional and organizational problems of border crossing points arrangement, the consequences of the application of unified transport documents, the introduction of electronic communication forms are analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of demonstration actions, the daily practice of reducing the time of customs procedures and reducing the transaction costs of crossborder freight traffic. At the same time, it is specified that the way of effectiveness increase of cross-border transportation of goods is a simultaneous implementation of technical and institutional innovations. Emphasis is placed on identifying the institutional and organizational features of the international transportation of goods by road, in particular, the problems of the evolution of the customs duties guaranteed payment institute, the permission system in the implementation of cross-border goods traffic. It is especially specified that the state support of national businessmen demands the development of a mechanism providing a parity of the Russian and foreign carriers, at least in the field of freight hauling for the state needs with attraction of credit resources of banks with the state participation. It is emphasized that elimination of all informal (shadow) relations in this sphere has to become the first step on the way of improvement of the institutional environment of the international road haulage. The institutional characteristics of transportation of goods in certain areas, in particular, road haulage to China through Kazakhstan, and the challenges and prospects for the use and development of the Kaliningrad region transit potential are allocated. The institutional and organizational characteristics of multimodal transport development in cross-border traffic are showed. The findings of the study suggest that the development of cross-border transportation of goods and the transport and transit potential implementation in Eurasian Economic Union countries — can and should provide income for business entities, the budgets of all levels and the public, as well as become the locomotive of industrial and technological modernization as well as institutional and organizational evolution of economic systems and integration associations.

The paper presents an approach to the analysis and evaluation of integrated investment projects, which consist of infrastructure facilities and industrial clusters, allocated in poorly developed areas rich with natural resources. It shows the feasibility of a public-private partnership during the construction of infrastructure facilities in order to minimize the risks and maximize the benefits. The conceptual framework of developed approach is associated with the ideas and principles of the «impact investing» («creating shared values») and inclusive economic development. These are increasingly used in the world, especially to accelerate the socio-economic development of the backward countries and territories. The article describes an international experience and justifies the relevance of the application of these concepts to the Russian context. We revealed methodical problems associated with the applying of traditional methods to evaluate economic effects of the project investment in conditions of high uncertainty. It is necessary to use models and methods (real options analysis, fuzzy cognitive models), which allow directly to take into account uncertainty and project risks. The novelty of the article consists in methodical tools for evaluating the socio-economic efficiency of the complex projects for infrastructure development and resources development. The elaborated approach has been applied for substantiation of the road construction project in the Berezovsky district of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. It is shown that there are opportunities to generate a complex of institutional, organizational and financial conditions, under which the implementation of the project will be attractive for investors and for the state and will bring socio-economic benefits to the territory. The proposed approach and tools can be used in the socio-economic strategic planning under the justification of infrastructure projects in the new development areas of resource rich regions.

The article reveals the agriculture development potential of the Volgograd region enabling to move to the stable type of reproduction as well as its factors: the natural conditions, location, technological types of production, agrarian structure, horizontal and vertical integration, state support. Methodological approach of the differentiation of green box subsidies is approved, the mechanism of its realization is proposed. The evidence base is substantiated by the long-term research of the soil intensification and soil quality factors influencing the soil productivity in the region. Within the boundaries of the existing natural areas, the following zones of territorial and economic development are allocated: the zones of competitive and efficient grain production; the zone of commercial sunflower production; the zones of territory and priority development. The criterion signs of their development are formulated. Alongside with the natural factor, the following factors were accepted as a criterion: the level of production adaptability and development of rural areas, displacement of population, customary lifestyle, arrangement of production infrastructure, resources, the structure of the agrarian economy. The evolutionary entrance of small agribusiness into the innovative economy have been reasoned as well as the creating on this basis of a special sector of agrarian economy — organic agriculture, which is reasonable to develop in the field of dairy cattlebreeding and vegetable-growing. A strategic analysis of the technological types of production existing in the regional agriculture in the context of organizational units and activities is presented. These are: industrial with innovative elements, extensive and intensive with innovative elements, extensive and intensive, extensive. They provide modernization as a factor of evolutionary formation of the innovative economy in the agrarian sector. Considering the global tendencies, the priorities of increasing the availability of agricultural mass producer in the market realized within a cluster, agricultural holding, cooperative are grounded.

The main purpose of the article is to validate the mathematical models describing the innovative response in the industrial regions. The article gives a deep analysis of trends in the development of the Russian industrial regions, puts forward and tests the following hypotheses: the hypothesis of uneven economic development of different types of industrial regions (regions, strengthening its industrial status, new industrial regions and regions of deindustrialization), the hypothesis of the development identity of certain types of industrial regions, the hypothesis of the catalytic role of the state in the dynamics of innovation, the hypothesis of the existence of the resonance innovation in the economic system. The authors propose the innovative resonance methodology, show the conditions for the resonance in the economic system, describe the types of resonant response. The main methods used are: resonance effects, reproductive techniques and methods of economic-mathematical modelling. In the paper, the authors propose a mathematical formalization of the innovative resonance mechanism in the regional industrial system, which includes: a) the development model of investment by industry and reproductive sectors; b) the dynamic diversified (multi-sectoral) model of reproduction; c) the model of the adaptive management of the innovative self-development of regional industrial system; d) the model of the stability of innovation dynamics and extended reproduction. The authors study the innovative response in the industrial regions of Russia. In the context of innovation resonance, the authors examined the functional industrial policies of a typical industrial region and the resonant responses associated with its implementation. The results of the study presented in the paper can be used in the justification of the mechanisms of the regional industrial policy, as well as for the assessment of the regulatory impact of the existing legal acts.

The article discusses the system analysis aimed to identify the key reasons for the low innovation activity in the regions of the Russian Federation. The research is based on the hypothesis according to which the holism and systematic principles need to be applied for analyzing the reasons of the low innovative activity of small business in the regions,. To implement these principles, the authors have used the concept of «minimum number of descriptive levels of socio-economic system». In the research, the spiritual and cultural, cognitive, institutional, material and technological «layers» of the socio-economic system are investigated. The particular attention is paid to the cognitive and institutional segments. The methodological basis of the research is the methods of correlation and regression analysis, maps of positioning, integrated assessment, the author’s method of assessing the development of the knowledge-based economy and clustering. The quality of innovative small firms’ institutional environment is assessed using the resource approach. The authors have obtained the following results. The rate of demand growth for knowledge in the regions exceeded the growth rate of the regional offers of knowledge, including the innovative development of small businesses. A delayed reaction of the suppliers of innovative ideas to the corresponding demand is showed. The trend of differentiation increase of the Russian regions in terms of the knowledge-based economy’s development is revealed. A significant linear correlation of small firms’ innovative activities and the quality of institutional environment haven’t been discovered. It is shown that the regions are almost similar in the quality of basic socio-economic institutions, and more than 60 % of the regions have the intensity of small businesses’ innovation processes below the national average level. The obtained results allow to expand the scientific and methodological basis to stimulate the innovative activity of small business both at the macro and meso-level. The authors have concluded that since all the selected layers of socio-economic systems are interconnected and in each of them there are a number of «bottlenecks», the active smart measures undertaken by the State for the innovation infrastructure development can not lead to the increase in the small business innovative activity.

The article deals with questions of increasing the management efficiency of the regional financial resources. As the main hypothesis, the idea of the optimization of the management of the regional financial flows based on the multiplicative economic effect is proved. This measure will allow to evaluate more efficiently the impact of the regional socio-economic policy. The article presents a multifactor model of the management of the regional financial flows on the regional level — the matrix of financial flows, based on the principles of the general economic equilibrium theory, the balance method of «input-output» and the methodology of national accounts. The paper introduces a methodology for the integration of the regional consolidated budget balance in a matrix of financial flows. Matrix multipliers of the consolidated budget balance are calculated for some regions of the Russian Federation allowing to model the economic multiplicative effects resulting from impact of different types of exogenous factors on the economic development of the regions, such as to predict the impact of fiscal redistribution on the GRP and income, to assess the impact of foreign investment on economic growth, to explore the effectiveness of the federal tax policy at the regional level. The article shows that the multiplier effect depends on several factors, including the foreign trade relations of the region, its dependence on imports, the share of value added in gross output, as well as the household savings. Various levels of government can use the author’s approach during development of strategies for socio-economic development, in assessing the extent and direction of the influence of exogenous factors on the economy of the territory, as well as in analyzing the investment initiatives from the private sector applying for state financial support for projects. In the conclusion, the ways of improving the management of financial flows on the basis of maximizing the multiplicative economic effects in the short and medium term for regions with a different level of budgetary provision are proposed.

The international integration of the Russian economy is connected to the need of the realization of the competitive advantages of the geopolitical position of Russia, the industrial potential of regions, the logistic infrastructure of transport corridors. This article discusses the design model of the supply chain (distribution network) based on the multivariate analysis and the methodology of the substantiation of its configuration based on the cost factors and the level of the logistics infrastructure development. For solving the problem of placing one or more logistics centers in the service area, a two-stage algorithm is used. At the first stage, the decisions on the reasonability of the choice of one or another version of the development are made with the use of the “Make or Buy” standard model. The criterion of decision making is the guaranteed overcoming of the threshold of “indifference” taking into account the statistical characteristics of costs for options of “buy” and “make” depending on the volume of consumption of goods or services. At the second stage, the Ardalan’s heuristic method is used for the evaluation of the choice of placing one or more logistics centers in the service area. The model parameters are based on the assessment of the development prospects of the region and its investment potential (existence and composition of employment, production, natural resources, financial and consumer opportunities, institutional, innovation, infrastructure capacity). Furthermore, such criteria as a regional financial appeal, professionally trained specialists, the competitive advantages of the promoted company and others are analyzed. An additional criterion is the development of the priority matrix, which considers such factors as difficulties of customs registration and certification, a level of regional transport infrastructure development, political risks and others. Fixing of regional consumers to this or that distribution center can be proved by the solution of open type transport problem. The result of the research is the development of optimal variants for placement of distribution centers based on the multivariate analysis. This model can be used in designing networks to promote products in the territories and regions whose accelerated socio-economic development is supposed.

One of the most relevant issues of the day is the forecasting problem of climatic changes and mitigation of their consequences. The official point of view reflected in the Climate doctrine of the Russian Federation consists in the recognition of the need of the development of the state approach to the climatic problems and related issues on the basis of the comprehensive scientific analysis of ecological, economic and social factors. For this purpose, the integrated estimation models of interdisciplinary character are attracted. Their functionality is characterized by the possibility of construction and testing of various dynamic scenarios of complex systems. The main purposes of the computing experiments described in the article are a review of the consequences of hypothetical participation of Russia in initiatives for greenhouse gas reduction as the Kyoto Protocol and approbation of one of the calculation methods of the green GDP representing the efficiency of environmental management in the modelling. To implement the given goals, the MERGE optimization model is used, its classical version is intended for the quantitative estimation of the application results of nature protection strategies. The components of the model are the eco-power module, climatic module and the module of loss estimates. In the work, the main attention is paid to the adaptation of the MERGE model to a current state of the world economy in the conditions of a complicated geopolitical situation and introduction of a new component to the model, realizing a simplified method for calculation the green GDP. The Project of scenario conditions and the key macroeconomic forecast parameters of the socio-economic development of Russia for 2016 and the schedule date of 2017−2018 made by the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation are used as a basic source of entrance data for the analysis of possible trajectories of the economic development of Russia and the indicators of their ecological efficiency. Calculations show that Russia has reserves allowing its participation in the nature protection initiatives consisting in the nonexceedance of the emissions levels of 1990 by 2020−2025. At the same time, a goal of increasing the ecological efficiency of the Russian GDP is relevant and demands to address this matter urgently. We suppose that modelling results may be in demand by the competent bodies taking managerial decisions.

The energy system in any country is the basis of the whole economy. The level of its development largely determines the quantity and quality of economic entities, periods of economic growth, fall and stagnation. A high percentage of the powerdeficient municipalities in the Russian Federation shows the substantive issues in this sphere that carries a threat to the energy security of the state. One of the promising trends for enhancing the energy security is the renewable energy sources (RES). Their use has the obvious benefits: it provides electricity to power-deficient and inaccessible areas, contributes to the introduction and spread of new technologies, thus solving the important social and economic problems. At that, it is important to determine the optimum ratio using of the recovery of renewable and conventional energy sources (CES). One of the main challenges in this regard is to build a model that adequately reflects the ratio of renewable and conventional energy sources in the Russian energy system. The paper presents the results of a synergistic approach to the construction of such a model. The Lotka-Volterra model was the main instrument used, which allowed to study a behavior pattern of the considered systems on the basis of the simplified regularities. It was found that the best possibility for the qualitative ”jump” in the Russian energy sector was in 2008. The calculations have allowed to investigate the behavior of the Russian energy system with the variation of the initial conditions and to assess the validity of the targets for the share of electricity produced through the use of renewable energy in the total electric power of the country.