Nowadays, folk arts and crafts are not only a form of economic activity, but also a part of the Russian cultural heritage. However, in the context of crisis, slowdown of production volumes, and reduction of output, the independent existence of this industry is threatened. What is more, these factors jeopardize the level of economic security of the territories, where this type of activity primarily creates the territory’s value added and serves as the only source of income for its population. The paper aims to discover such instruments of impact on the development of territories taking into account their industry specificity, as the point pressure on them will lead to economic growth. In this regard, we determined the study’s objectives. They include identification of factors that most affect the industry’s development; calculation of a composite integral indicator for assessing the level of the industry’s development in a particular region; quantitative assessment of the identified factors’ impact on the industry’s development in the pilot regions. The main research methods are integrated analysis for ranking the regions, and correlation and regression modelling for assessing the impact of industry factors on the level of the territories’ socio-economic development. We hypothesise that the creation of conditions for the development of the region’s main industry will not only stimulate its socio-economic growth, but also provide the necessary level of economic security. As a result, we have compiled a rating of the territories (including the Arkhangelsk, Vladimir, Nizhny Novgorod, Moscow regions and the Republic of Dagestan) and identified stimulating and discouraging factors in the industry’s development (historical, cultural, economic and social). Based on these findings, we have determined the instruments for influencing the industry in constituent entities. In conclusion, the proposed approach allowed us to establish the stimulating and discouraging factors in the industry’s development and to determine the tools for influencing the industry of an individual constituent entity in order to increase the region’s level of socio-economic development and ensure its economic security.

The study aims to systematise the existing methodological approaches to assessing the development of smart cities, elaborated by a number of international institutions (organizations). Moreover, it identifies characteristics of the assessment and possibilities of its application in the Russian context. We considered the fundamentals of a smart city’s development as our research object. Methodological approaches to assessing the development of smart cities are our research subject. We analysed scientific research, published in the periodical press, as well as the results of the authors’ study on the digitization processes of socio-economic systems, the principles of the urban environment’s digitization, and the urban development’s fundamentals based on the smart city’s concept. The research method is a logical analysis of modern approaches to assessing the development of smart cities. The paper identifies and analyses the main characteristics and conditions for the effective functioning of smart cities. We consider a model of the development levels of a smart city. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of cooperation among stakeholders in the field of the urban environment’s development, as it creates new opportunities and ensures the long-term viability of smart cities’ projects. We note that one of the most important factors in the development of smart cities is the increment in human capital of their inhabitants. Lifelong learning and advanced training are becoming a condition for the development of modern socio-economic systems. The dominant role of highly-skilled creative work becomes the determining factor for the development of a new type of society and its inherent economy. In the paper, we have described and systemized the main approaches to assessing the development of smart cities. We have formulated a number of principles for constructing a methodology for assessing smart cities. The study has theoretical relevance due to the development of approaches to assessing the development of smart cities. The practical significance of the research lies in shaping possible future studies of rational economic management in the context of the digital society.

The diversification of regions in terms of economic growth rate is largely due to the path dependence: a region’s economy depends on the earlier established industrial structure. Successful regions, formed as an economic “core”, now have more reasons for creating a new economy and ensuring further economic growth. Existing institutions and norms, returns to scale, inertial development are the constraining factors for the path-breaking. The paper shows that the departure from path dependency for the regions is possible through technological innovations and interregional relations. The study aims to develop a method for assessing a region’s path-breaking possibility based on the existing industrial structure and its connection with the economy’s high-tech sector. The proposed assessment method is based on using the localization coefficient for determining the proximity of types of economic activity (that have a comparative advantage in a region) with the economy’s high-tech sub-sectors. The approach has been tested in the regions of Russia. We have shown that certain regions can move further by investing in interregional ties and internal innovations. These two factors contribute to the rapid development, reduce dependence on the established industrial structure, allow maintaining comparative advantages. The research has practical significance as it offers an analytical tool for making decisions about the possibility and directions of a region’s path-breaking. It is important to understand in which direction a region should develop inter-sectoral cooperation for the emergence of the economy’s new sectors.

The article substantiates the need for integrated diagnostics of air quality. Such diagnostics should include the generally accepted indicators and consider the rate of child population’s morbidity with respiratory diseases, recognized by the World Health Organisation, as a criterion for assessing the state of the atmosphere in this area. We suggest a method of integrated assessment of the level and changes in air quality over time on the considered territory. This tool allows determining the ratings of the regions on the quality of atmospheric air, the level of environmental development and the degree of its change. Moreover, it helps assessing the factors that affect the aforementioned processes. We tested the proposed methodological tools on the example of the regions of the Ural Federal district (UFD) and the Russian Federation (RF) in general. The calculations made it possible to diagnose the stabilization of environmental and social threats to air quality in the majority of the regions. We concluded that the threats caused by air pollution are increasing. That fact is confirmed by the growth of child morbidity in all regions of the UFD and the RF, except for Tyumen oblast. We propose methodological tools for diagnostics of the territory’s environmental development through integrated comprehensive indices of the state and level of environmental development in part of the air and water protection activities based on statistical indicators. The diagnostics demonstrated positive environmental development in the sphere of air protection in the UFD and the RF. In general, the dynamics of environmental development in the field of water protection are positive, with the exception of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The mostly positive dynamics of environmental development in the regions of the UFD are a prerequisite for reducing threats in the future.

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was founded in 1991 after the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). The member countries are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine. Turkmenistan resigned its full membership status in 2005 and changed its CIS standing to observer member. Drawing on the methods of Least Squares and Maximum Likelihood Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Analysis, we made estimations to find efficiency scores in the health sector by using the data for the period from 2010 to 2015 of the countries that are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States. In the study, we used various factors as dependent and independent variables, including the number of doctors, medical personnel and hospital beds per ten thousand people, the life expectancy at birth, under-five mortality rate and the incidence of tuberculosis per one hundred thousand people. We have found that such factor as the number of doctors effectively influences reduction of the under-five mortality rates and the incidence of tuberculosis, while the factor “the number of hospital beds” is not very effective. Finally, for the CIS countries we made recommendations to popularize the health insurance, to change the old Soviet form of health management in public hospitals, and to implement liberal socio-economic policies.

Industrial specialization is one of the main elements characterizing and systemizing the economy that in many ways defines the regional development’s level and dynamics. The study discusses the main features of industrial specialization in the context of the need to assess structural factors and prospects for regional development. The research methodology is based on developing the concept of diversified space and involves the analysis of statistical data reflecting the nature and trends of industrial development in the regions. Regional specialization is characterized as a separate phenomenon, assessed in relationship with close categories. Additionally, the paper specifies the place of industrial specialization among the factors of regional development. I describe the features and limitations of medium-term research of industrial specialization in Russian conditions. Then I assess the level and medium-term trends in the industrial specialization of the Russian regions. Industrial specialization is measured for the period from 2005 to 2017 based on official statistical data on the employment aggregated by sector and region. I applied a statistical indicator based on the adapted Spearman’s coefficient for studying the main characteristic s of the relationship between specialization and the regional development’s parameters. The conducted analysis has identified the stable groups of regions with significant trends in the industrial specialization’s level. The relationship between the growth rate s o f regional manufacturing industry, the level and dynamics of relative specialization in various specifications has been empirically studied. In the majority of the Russian regions, the level of relative specialization was positively related with the dynamics of industrial development. Growing industrial specialization could help achieve faster and more stable economic growth. The results can be used in theoretical and empirical studies of regional development, including investment policy. The ambiguity of some results substantiates the directions for further research of various features of specialization in Russian regions: the multidimensionality of measurement, directions of evolution depending on regional potential, spatial and temporal continuity of specialization.

Population’s adaptation to the changing living conditions and its results provoke the transformation of the socio-economic behaviour of different population groups. In turn, this transformation can affect the development of residence territory either positively or negatively. The study’s scientific significance is due to the need to find methodological approaches to the adequate assessment of population’s adaptation to the rapidly changing living conditions. In this context, we are interested in the regional peculiarities of population’s adaptation, based on the economic, natural, socio-cultural differences of the Russian regions. We hypothesise that population’s adaptation to changing living conditions is connected with development of the regional settlement system. Thus, adaptation can be assessed in terms of the system’s dynamics and convergence/divergence of its structural components: environmental, economic and socio-demographic subsystems. In the analysis, we used a set of indicators of socio-economic development for 83 Russian regions taken from the database of the Federal State Statistics Service for the period from 2004 to 2017. The main research methods were statistical data analysis aimed to assess the convergence/divergence of the Russian regions by socio-economic indicators of development. We estimated σ-convergence (analysis of the dynamics of development indicators’ dispersion) and β-convergence (estimation of Barro regression). The study’s results indicate that the socio-demographic subsystem is characterised by more expressed adaptive processes, reflected in the unstable indicators of the σ-convergence due to migration and morbidity. This fact means that the variation of the aforementioned indicators decreases or increases depending on the economic situation in the regional context. Generally, the observed convergence in the dynamics of indicators of economic and socio-demographic subsystems in regional settlement systems demonstrates the adaptive nature of socio-economic and demographic behaviour of population. The results of the research can form an information base for the regional socio-economic development strategies and state programs of the social policies’ implementation.

The increase of minimum wage in 2018 in Russia turned out to be the most pronounced in regions of the Far North and similar localities due to the exclusion of regional compensation payments and Northern allowances from the minimum wage. We are interested in both studying the effects of the minimum wage’s increase and assessing its value’s compliance. The article suggests a new approach to achieving these objectives based on the number of workers’ complaints to the State Labour Inspectorate. We developed and applied an econometric model to reveal the connection between the rate of compensation payments in a region and the number of complaints regarding the problem that “the employer pays less than the law requires”. As the study’s information base, we used the data gathered from an online dataset of the Federal Service for Labour and Employment, Federal State Statistics Service, and the professional database “Ruslana”. We discovered that in 2018, the number of complaints on the considered topic in the North regions was 2.5 times higher than in other regions. An increase in the value of regional compensation payments is associated with an increase in the number of complaints. The largest number of complaints came from employees of small enterprises, budgetary institutions, and firms experiencing financial difficulties. The legal authorities may use suggested recommendations regarding the legislation of the status of regional compensation payments and Northern allowances in the process of determining the minimum wage. We recommend the employers to use the checklists that allow minimizing the risks of consequences of labour law’s violations in the Far North and similar localities.

Assessment of quality of life of patients with HIV infection is of great importance due to the unfavourable epidemic situation with this disease both in the Russian Federation in general and in the Sverdlovsk region. This chronic disease, accompanied by long-term therapy and medical supervision, has adverse effects on lives of people carrying HIV/AIDS. Additionally, it negatively impacts the functioning of all spheres of the society. In the autumn of 2018, we studied the population’s quality of life in the Sverdlovsk region using the methodology of the World Health Organization (the WHOQOL-26 questionnaire). This questionnaire considers quality of life as an integral characteristic of physical, psychological, emotional, and social functioning of a healthy or sick person based on subjective perception. We added specific questions in the questionnaire to assess how the quality of life of a person with a positive HIV status changes depending on whether the respondent receives antiretroviral therapy. The sample included patients visiting branches of the Sverdlovsk Regional Center for Prevention and Control of AIDS. The quality of life of the survey participants was assessed in four dimensions: physical health, psychological well-being, social connections and the environment. The majority of HIV patients assess their quality of life and health by means of averages. However, according to the “physical health” and “social well-being” measurements, the quality of life of people living with HIV/AIDS is lower than in the control group of healthy respondents. The study’s results demonstrate the importance of developing and implementing a program of professional and socio-economic rehabilitation for people who carry HIV/AIDS to maintain social functioning and optimal quality of life.

The assessment of the region’s tourist and recreation potential (TRP) is a basis for determining its competitiveness. In this regard, the improvement of methods for assessing the tourist and recreation potential are becoming relevant. The article considers the applying the methodological tools to the integrated multifactor assessment of the TRP of Northern, Central and Eastern Kazakhstan. We started by determining five groups of assessment parameters: natural conditions and resources, cultural and historical resources, the tourist infrastructure availability, the information availability of tourism, and limiting factors. Then, we identified the criteria for each block and the scales for assessing the parameters. The next stage included selecting an expert assessment, conducting an expert survey, collecting and processing secondary information. Further, we identified private indicators of tourist and recreation potential by blocks. At the final stage, we calculated the integral indicator of TRP in regions. We used two types of calculation: based on official statistics, and based on the expert survey. In the first case, the analysis has shown that Central and Eastern Kazakhstan have a rather high TRP, while the potential of Northern Kazakhstan is estimated at the “below average” level. In the second case, the calculations have confirmed that Northern Kazakhstan has a very high potential for the further development of tourism. East Kazakhstan has the “above average” tourist and recreation potential. According to the experts, Central Kazakhstan has low potential, despite the fact that “the tourist infrastructure availability” was rated highly. The assessment method of expert survey is more objective, since the insufficiency of the indicators displayed in official statistics does not allow for a larger-scale calculation of the regions’ TRP. An expert survey is the best option as it provides an opportunity to flexibly shape a set of factors and subparameters comprising the components of the TRP. The obtained findings adequately depict the real situation and can be used for developing measures in the priority areas of tourism development in the regions of Kazakhstan.

The development of distribution channels in the Republic of Crimea can enhance forming a regional market for organic products. In this regard, we proposed and tested a methodology for studying consumer loyalty to distribution channels. The research methodology includes various research procedures: marketing analysis with the use of a set of economic-mathematical and statistical analysis methods implemented in the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS); mapping with the use of geographical information system (GIS) technology to identify the regions’ geo-information profiles; strategic analysis of the perspective directions for developing the distribution channels depending on different marketing strategies. Quantitative calculation of loyalty indices allowed determining three groups of the distribution channels depending on their consumer appeal. Additionally, we noted the advantages and disadvantages of distribution channels. Marketing research of the target consumer of organic products has shown that the prevailing factors of the “environmental” choice are pricing policy, quality, sell-by dates, breadth of assortment, level of service, availability and comfort when purchasing products. Assessment of the density of distribution channels’ points of presence in the regions has revealed promising areas for the development of channels adapted to the regions’ specializations. The manufacturers of organic products and state authorities can use the elaborated system of assessing distribution channels and recommendations for selling organic products depending on the levels of their demand in the Republic of Crimea can be applied by organic products producers and State authorities, taking into account the real market size.

Entrepreneurship promotes job creation, increase of competitiveness and new forms of economic development and growth of countries or regions. The research aims to understand how it has influenced the intention and entrepreneurial skills of the trainees of the project Apreender 3.0. It is important to examine how various factors, including entrepreneurship education, family background, prior experience/vocational training and propensity to take the risks, will condition the entrepreneurial intention of the respondents of this study. Based on these variables, we formulated four hypotheses. For this empirical analysis of research hypotheses, we used primary data in a form of a sample of 150 responses, collected through the online survey application. We opted for the method of the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), also called Common Factor Analysis (CFA), which can provide important information on the multivariate structure of this study, identifying the theoretical constructs. The obtained results allowed us to conclude that the entrepreneurship education and propensity to take risks influence positively the entrepreneurial intention. As for the factors of family back-ground and prior experience/ vocational training, the research did not provide satisfactory results that would allow us to confirm their influence on the entrepreneurial intention.

One of the promising areas of increasing energy efficiency used in international practice is the demand-side management (DSM). It is implemented through price-dependent management of the schedule of consumers’ demand for electric energy. Considering significant share of expenditures on electric power in the structure of the large consumers’ energy consumption, we analysed the potential for introducing price-dependent management of expenditures on electric power as a tool for managing demand for electricity in the Russian regions. The study’s information base were price characteristics of the supply of electric power, the actual hourly demand for electricity consumption, and the number of hours of the combined daily maximum of the Russian regions’ electric power system for the period from 2016 to 2018. We applied the following methods: analysis and synthesis, mathematical and statistical analysis, method of constructing positioning maps. We developed a map for assessing the predictability of the hour of the daily maximum of a regional electric power system, the level of which determines the possibility of using price-dependent management in general. The map demonstrates the ratio of the developed indicators “Integral indicator of the cyclical nature of the regional energy system” and “Integral indicator of the energy system’s maximum in Russia”. Additionally, we used the unifying characteristics “Integrated indicator of the predictability of the hour of a regional energy system’s combined maximum” and “the coefficient of the price of electric power”. That allowed us to group the Russian regions in accordance with the degree of appropriateness of using price-dependent mechanisms for managing energy expenditures by the component “cost of electric power”. The study’s main result is the development of new tools for assessing the potential of using price-dependent management of expenditures on electric power, such as a “predictability map” and a regional grouping. We elaborated a set of methods for assessing the degree of potential efficiency in the use of price-dependent management of expenditures on electric power by electricity consumers in the Russian regions. The proposed approach can be used for developing federal and regional programs for the integrated demand-side management for electricity consumption.

The industry plays a key role in Russia’s economic security. Significant interregional gaps in the level of socio-economic development made topical the issue of optimizing the distribution of production forces in the constituent entities of the Russian Federation through increasing the efficiency of investment and industrial policy at the meso-level. In our opinion, the efficiency of such policy is impossible without modern methods of economic and mathematical modelling and information technologies. The Cobb-Douglas production function is still an adequate method for an accurate assessment of production capacities of the industry both in the whole country and it’s regions. At present, such method is being actively developed in two directions: the function’s modification through “saturation” with different factors and improvement of the approaches to determining its dynamic (changing in time) parameters. In this study, we hypothesized the possibility of building an adequate Cobb-Douglas production function with static and dynamic parameters, using the case of the Republic of Bashkortostan’s industry for the period from 2006 to 2016. The first hypothesis about using static parameters for building Cobb-Douglas production function was empirically rejected. In contrast, we have confirmed the second hypothesis. We defined dynamic parameters of the Cobb-Douglas production function using the alternative method of linear regression (AMLR). This method accurately assesses production capacities of the Republic of Bashkortostan. The choice of the method is not random. First of all, its use allows, in any case, ensuring a correct economic sign of parameters with factor indicators (labour and capital). Secondly, the original method of calculations, using the growth rates of the indicators, ensures high accuracy of verifying the model parameters. Thus, the conducted calculations have shown that the dynamics of the regular component explains 57.4 % of variance of the initial time series (remainder functions after defining the mode l parameter s using the AMLR) . Combine d with other econometric methods , the application of the developed model will also enable an accurate forecast of the production capacities of the industry in regions. The study’s results can be applied for developing the investment and industrial policy of the Republic of Bashkortostan.

Models of governance of higher education in large and heterogeneous countries with numerous universities significantly differ from approaches to coordinating universities in unitary states. The research literature still lacks in-depth analysis of these differences. At the same time, achievement of national goals for the higher education’s development in federal countries requires an effective model for the distribution of responsibilities between government’s federal and regional levels. The paper studies the structure of a model of federal-regional relations in higher education in the Russian Federation. For this purpose, I consider the history and preconditions for shaping the model of federalism in higher education. Additionally, I examine the present balance of federal and regional powers in governance of higher education. The article analyses the structure of federalism in higher education in the Russian Federation in comparison with eight countries characterised by heterogeneous regional higher education systems. The study’s results have shown that Russian model of federalism in higher education remains one of the most centralised among comparable countries. Budget and tax policies are the prerogatives of the federal government, as the regions have limited opportunities to influence the development of universities, including restrictions on co-financing the federal universities. The model of governance of higher education in Russia is based on the principle of “pragmatic” federalism. This principle implies that the balance of federal-regional relations should solve specific problems facing the country in general, not individual regions. Based on the analysis, the paper suggests directions for changing the balance of federal-regional relations in higher education. They involve the expansion of the principle of subsidiarity between levels of government, with the preservation of the majority of powers at the federal level. Governance of regional higher education systems should enable concentration of federal and regional resources on certain university programs and development projects.

Mining and metallurgical industry, as well as clusters based on it, historically occupy an important place in the economic structure of the Urals. Given that the Ural mining and metallurgical clusters are export-oriented, the problem of global competitiveness remains relevant. A large segment of the Russian academic literature is focused on studying cluster competitiveness. These studies are mainly based on traditional methods of efficiency analysis, including the analysis of sales activities and financial situation of enterprises. At the same time, in the world mining and metallurgical industry, a method of cash cost is actively used for analysing competitiveness. Russian academic literature, however, lacks works examining the use of cash costs for studying the competitiveness of mining and metallurgical clusters. This study suggests and tests a new approach to assessing the international competitiveness of the Ural mining and metallurgical clusters, based on the method of the cash cost calculation. The paper discusses the methodological aspects of calculating the cash cost indicator. Cash costs were calculated for the enterprises constituting the core of the Ural mining and metallurgical cluster. We compared the obtained value with the cash cost indicator of one of the world’s largest copper producers Codelco, as well as with the maximum price cost for this industry achieved in 2018. The calculation results have shown that the Ural mining and metallurgical clusters are commercially viable in the world. This fact indicates the presence of various competitive advantages in the world market, including a relatively great amount of useful components in the producing fields. The main competitive disadvantages are the widespread use of a more expensive underground mining method and the gradual exhaustion of the existing rich deposits.

The article examines the effective use of space information technologies in regional development. The study aims to assess and predict the influence of cross-industry information innovations of the space industry on economic growth of the Russian regions. We formulated and tested a hypothesis on the possibility of simulating the effects from the implementation of the space technologies of a Geographic Information System (GIS) in economic sectors. The research focuses on geoinformation and navigation GIS technologies provided by the space industry for the regional and sectoral development. We used the geoinformation approach for assessing, monitoring and predicting the socio-economic development of the regions. We showed that currently a new class of regional economic and mathematical models is emerging. They are based on neogeography, which is a novel method of reporting economic information. In the context of digitalization, finding new sources of regional economic growth is a relevant task. Using space infrastructure and its information to solve the regions’ economic problems can become such a source. A number of economic growth models demonstrated that, in the short term, labour productivity can grow due to an increase in the competence level in using space information. In the long term, this growth can be caused by increasing the body of space evidence, improving the quality of its economic processing, and developing technologies for using this information for managing regional economic processes. We have considered the effects from using cross-industrial information innovations of the space industry in the Russian industrial regions. Moreover, we rated the industries in accordance with the intensity of the use of space GIS technologies. Further, we have compared the obtained results with the structure of the industrial regions’ gross regional product. We came to a conclusion that in the context of an active digitization of key industries based on GIS technologies, the economic growth of the industrial regions will be determined by total factor productivity connected with the effects from the introduction of such technologies.

Growing interest of international and Russian business in the cooperation with modern Africa and the strengthening of the developing countries’ positions in the world brought us to explore the foreign trade of African countries. The research aims to identify trends and new segments for the development of economic relations. We hypothesise that, despite the difficulties in national development, African countries has managed to create areas of successful development by changing the foreign trade structure under the influence of regionalization. The research is based on statistics gathered from international organisations, including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank Group, and foreign trade statistics from Côte d’Ivoire. We used the academic literature in the field of foreign trade as the methodological base. The article analysed all types of foreign trade structure (geographical, territorial, organisational, and commodity ones) simultaneously at the global, regional and country levels. As a result of the analysis at the global level, we created a classification of African countries, which identified groups with positive changes in foreign trade structure. Thus , such countries can become leaders in the modern international cooperation. The analysis at the regional level determined some regional integration groups belonging to the category of "growth platforms". The main research result at the country level (on the example of Côte d’Ivoire) is the authors’ typology of internal districts. It allowed us to identify "core-regions" and "growing regions" and offer them as perspective points of interaction. These results can be used for economic cooperation with Africa in the framework of implementing the decisions of the "Russia-Africa" summit and economic forum (October 24, 2019, Russian Federation).

Multinational companies (MNCs) are geographically widespread production networks that can coordinate operations and activities in more than one country. MNCs transfer innovations, expertise, knowledge and advanced technologies to their host countries through their subsidiaries. Therefore, multinational companies are seen as transfer intermediaries distributing international technologies and innovations. MNCs help to bridge the existing technology gap between developed and developing countries. Due to the multilocation nature of MNCs, the study aims to examine the various drivers that influence Hungarian MNCs’ R&D collaborations, making them choose to collaborate either with local partners or with partners in the countries of their headquarters. The paper reports on the preliminary findings of an on-going comparative research focused on understanding the key drivers of innovations and competitiveness in Hungary. For our empirical analysis, drawing on data from the Eurostat’s harmonized Community Innovation Survey 2010–2012, we used the probit regression model. Since many studies have shown that innovation processes in companies are based on the same principles or similar framework, it is possible to generalize the results of the analysed data and successfully put the recommendations into practice. Our analysis provided mixed results; it has demonstrated that marketing orientations, expenditures devoted to research and development, absorptive capacity, firm size as well as funding support provided to Hungarian MNCs influenced their choice of collaborating partners. Hungarian MNCs were highly probable to collaborate with both local and foreign partners in the enterprise group, while preferring to cooperate with local universities rather than foreign ones.

In recent years, inter-regional cooperation has increased in one of the most important areas of economy, namely, its innovative development. The Strategy of Spatial Development of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025 set various aims for scientific, technological and innovative development of the country. Inter-regional cooperation is one of the means for achieving these aims. Thus, we decided to examine interactions between closely located innovation-active territories such as entities of the Russian Federation and promising federal centres of economic growth. The study focuses on 8 industrialised innovation-active entities located on the territory of the Urals, Volga region and Western Siberia. The administrative centres of these regions rank as promising centres of economic growth and have opportunities to establish world-class Research and Educational Centres. For assessing the level of interaction between the regions in terms of innovation activity, we applied a method of spatial autocorrelation. Drawing on the Moran’s test, we assessed the autocorrelation between geographically close territories based on the data for 2007, 2013 and 2018. We took into account possible transformations of dynamic spatial effects caused by external and internal changes. According to the study, in 2007, a trend of regional clustering in terms of innovation activity was identified in certain areas of the Siberian Federal District (Novosibirsk and Tomsk oblasts). By 2013, this trend only increased due to the inclusion of Omsk oblast in this group of territories. Moreover, in the same year the signs of regional clustering in terms of innovation activity caused by spatial effects were discovered in the territories of the Volga Federal District. They appeared due to similar processes occurring in the special industries for these regions, such as petrochemistry and engineering. In 2018, the noted trends continued, while in Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk oblasts the spatial effects (calculated based on a single innovation activity factor) were not discovered. Legislative and executive authorities can use the research findings for shaping and updating drafts of State programs and strategies of spatial development of the entities of the Russian Federation.

The transition to digital economy based on new technologies becomes one of the main tools of innovative technological development in Russia. This research examines the means for implementing digital technologies that effectively enable rapid innovative development of the Russian economy. I hypothesise it is necessary to develop a methodological system of techniques and algorithms of artificial intelligence filling neural networks of digital technologies for managing finance in the conditions of uncertainty and risk. A wide variety of methods was used in the study, including dialectic and integrated approaches, fundamental economic laws, deductive and inductive methods, statistical comparisons, descriptive methods of analysis. Moreover, I apply such methodologies as the theory of constraints (TOC), methods of lean manufacturing, Kanban-methods as a tool of IT-management, scrum methodology for software development, and other. The statistical and empirical data confirm the validity of the conclusions and results. The paper considers how to create capital in the form of innovative products and technologies in the digital environment. As a result, the study has revealed relations between digital technologies and engineering account, economic analysis, material production, highly skilled creative work, environmental protection, and sustainable development. The article explains how to include automated information and analytical functions for the compensation and generation of missing information into digital technologies. The transition from the database to the knowledge base, which fills neural networks with the artificial intelligence, provides the generation of management decisions and sustainable innovative development in the conditions of uncertainty and risk. The paper recommends currencies for digital payments. I conclude that applying the suggested recommendations is necessary for providing digital technologies with the algorithms of extraction and implementation of knowledge from the data asset, as well as for compensating for the missing information, generating information flows, and making decisions in the conditions of uncertainty and risk. The research can be of use for PhD students, doctoral students, scholars and practitioners in the field of economy.

This paper examines the influence of monetary policy on comparative advantage and trade balance of capital-intensive industries (technology-intensive industry and human capital-intensive industry). Ever since Indonesia implemented the Inflation Targeting Framework (ITF) in 2005, the average interest rates have been gradually declining, making capital more affordable. The Heckscher-Ohlin-Samuelson (HOS) model states that lower interest rates will improve comparative advantage and trade balance of capital-intensive industry. In our research we used annual export and import data for the period from 2000 to 2017, drawing on the three-digit Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) revision 2 from United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database (UN-COMTRADE). The study combines Revealed Symmetric Comparative Advantage (RSCA) and Trade Balance Index (TBI), used for analysing Product Mapping. Additionally, we applied the Difference in Differences (DD) model to measure the real impact of the ITF on capital-intensive industries choosing unskilled labour-intensive products as a control group. For analysing the effect of the ITF on probability of positive changes of comparative advantage and trade balance we used the Logit model. Based on product mappings, we cannot conclude that the situation for capital-intensive products is better in 2014 than in 2000, pre-ITF. However, the DD and the Logit model show that the ITF positively influences comparative advantage and trade balance of capital-intensive products and significantly impacts trade balance of un-skilled labour-intensive products. The study concludes that the ITF have positive impact on comparative ad-vantage and trade balance of capital-intensive industry in Indonesia.

In the Russian economy, foreign direct investments (FDI) are distributed very unevenly between the regions. This inequality is caused by differences in the regions’ economic characteristics, as well as by varying effectiveness of regional policies to attract FDI. The assessment of a region’s potential to attract FDI could serve as a guide for analysing the effectiveness of local authorities in terms of creating a positive environment for foreign investors. The research focuses on constructing and assessing an econometric model of FDI determinants at the regional level. The theoretical foundation for this model is a gravity approach. We used estimates obtained with the help of Poisson’s method of quasi-maximum likelihood estimation for calculating the potential of foreign direct investments. Using the data for the period from 2015 to 2017, we identified the crucial factors influencing the inflow of foreign direct investment in Russia at the regional level: availability of the workforce, level of bureaucracy, level of income, population density, and the financial results of the regional companies. Based on the calculated potentials, we identified successful and lagging Russian regions in terms of FDI inflows. We analysed and systemised the volume of FDI inflows as well as the ratio of actual/potential FDI of the Russian regions. The largest Russian regions in terms of FDI inflows have limitations in growth because they either exceed their potential level already (Moscow oblast, Krasnodar krai, Samara oblast) or are close to it (Moscow city, Leningrad oblast, Saint-Petersburg city). At the same time, more than a half of the Russian regions (41 out of analysed 82) not only have very low potential to attract FDI inflows, but also operate at a level lower than potential. A significant increase in FDI inflows across the country may be provided by a small group of regions with medium and high levels of FDI inflows but with considerable unrealized potential. This group includes such regions as Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of Tatarstan, Sverdlovsk oblast, Udmurt republic, KhMAO–Yugra, Orenburg oblast, and Belgorod oblast. The suggested methodology for assessing a region’s FDI potential and comparing it with actual FDI inflows can be used for goal setting for relevant regional authorities and subsequent control of their efforts to attract FDI.

The need for the sustainable spatial development enables an analysis of the causes of the regional differentiation of consumer price growth rates for further development of relevant policies at the federal and regional levels. Therefore, the paper aims to examine how various supply and demand shocks in the tradable and non-tradable sectors as well as labour market imperfections influence price growth rates in the Russian regions. The considered regions are Sverdlovsk oblast and other regions of the Russian Federation (RF). Developing a regional model of general equilibrium contributes to the analyse. The model’s parameters were assessed using the Bayesian method based on the statistical data on the economies of Sverdlovsk oblast, other regions and the Russian Federation in general. Two types of models were considered, with flexible and rigid wages, indicating perfect and imperfect labour markets. The influence of supply and demand shocks in the tradable and non-tradable sectors on price growth rates in the considered regions was analysed using the impulse response functions and variance decompositions of endogenous variables. The study concludes that price growth rates in the regions differ mostly due to technological shocks in the non-tradable sector. The contribution of productivity shocks in the tradable sector to the inflation differential is limited, especial ly in the context of perfect labour mobility. Labour market imperfections cause an increase in the differentiation of consumer price growth rates in the regions. Moreover, this process is more pronounced in Sverdlovsk oblast and is typical for both tradable and non-tradable sectors and services. The study demonstrates the absence of the Balassa — Samuelson effect at the regional level. The findings can be used for elaboration of an effective regional policy of sustainable spatial development.