Assessment of the Contribution of Inter-Territorial Interaction in the Development of the National Economy

Abstract

Determination of the main indicators of economic growth is a key research question. In the course of solving this problem, many scientists agree that one of the drivers of economic development is interregional interaction. This article contains the results of a quantitative assessment of the role of interregional interaction for the Russian economy. The study is based on a modification of the Solow economic growth model which includes the level factor of interregional interaction. For a quantitative assessment of the effects of interregional interaction on economic development, a set of factors was determined that make it possible to assess the advantage that localization in a particular region can give to economic agents. The selected indicators have a direct impact on the potential and intensity of interregional interaction. The database for assessing the coefficients of the models and calculating the index of interregional interaction was formed on the basis of data from the website of the Federal State Statistics Service for the period from 2010 to 2018 for 83 regions of Russia. To select the best model of economic growth, considering interregional interaction, the authors evaluated different types of models: fixed effects model, time fixed effects model, random effects model, and time random effects model. The thesis about the importance of interregional interaction as one of the most important factors of production in modern Russia has found its empirical confirmation: the share of interregional interaction in ensuring the economic growth of Russian regions in the years 2015–2018 averaged 33%. The developed model of economic growth and the consideration of interregional interaction is universal and can be applied to various administrative-territorial units.