Economic growth and technological renewal: Structural dynamics

Abstract

The study centres on discovering and analysing structural-technological problems of national economic growth using the case of Russia. The theories of economic growth and institutional theory form the methodological basis of the research. For the purposes of the study, the author applies the taxonomy method, structural and econometric analysis and obtains a two-sector economic model describing various modes and conditions of growth. The model shows the influence of the structure “old-new” technologies” depending on investments in this structure and the risk of doing business in manufacturing and transaction and basic materials sectors. The author investigates the unevenness of technological development in some Russian regions and proposes basic models of technological dynamics. These models mutually determine structural changes and economic growth, defining the impact of price dynamics, wages, emergence of new technologies on changes in the economic structure and growth rates. The author obtains a condition for the growth rates of new technologies depending on the development of the transaction and basic materials sector, and models technological development according to the structure of investments in technological renewal. On the basis of the technological development matrix and calculation of technology-intensity for individual regions the researcher demonstrates the different impact of investments in new and old technologies on the level of technology-intensity, which dictates the necessity to allow for the model of regional economy’s technological development while designing individual methods of structural and industrial policies. At the same time, the structural imbalance in the Russian economy extends its influence to the regions and this requires reducing the risk in the manufacturing sector in order to improve the possibilities of technological renewal of the Russian economy. The research findings can be taken into account while formulating the macroeconomic policy and used as an empirical evidence for further investigation of structural-technological and institutional changes’ impact on the long-term growth.