Interregional Imbalances Research Articles

Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation: Old Problems, New Solutions

The current Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2025 has not solved a number of tasks in this area. The level of differentiation of the socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation, their budgetary and infrastructural security remains high. Citizens have not been provided with equal access to State-guaranteed services. The current mechanisms for the allocation of productive forces and the resettlement of the population are often non-systemic in nature. In addition, the external and internal conditions for the development of the country's economy and social sphere have changed significantly by now. The Russian Federation includes 4 new regions. The concentration of population and infrastructure facilities in the largest urban agglomerations hinders the overcoming of regional imbalances. The task of ensuring the unity of the legal, economic, financial, social, cultural and educational space remains urgent. The issue of the ongoing population decline in the territories of the North, Siberia and the Far East, as well as the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, is acute. Insufficient development of transport and energy infrastructure limits the potential of the regions, hinders the solution of tasks to increase the connectivity of the country's territory. In this regard, the task of smoothing out interregional imbalances by maximizing the full disclosure of the regions and municipalities’ own potential, and creating a comfortable living environment for citizens throughout the country is of strategic importance. This is the aim of the draft Strategy of spatial Development of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030 with a forecast up to 2036. The article attempts to answer the question: how much is the new version of the Strategy able to solve the accumulated problems in this area?

Directions of entrepreneurial activity stimulation in the context of modern challenges: territorial context

The outbreak of a full-scale war has had a negative impact on the entrepreneurial sector in all regions of Ukraine without exception, which requires a serious review and search for opportunities for Ukraine’s transition from states with unstable institutions and inability to develop an entrepreneurial environment to the circle of countries that stimulate entrepreneurial activity. The spatial dimension of these processes is crucial for Ukraine, as the regions differ significantly in the quality and level of development of the entrepreneurial environment. The article aims to identify the main problems of the entrepreneurial sector caused by the full-scale war and to determine the ways to overcome them in the context of reducing interregional imbalances. The article emphasizes the need to find tools and mechanisms that help stimulate entrepreneurial activity, taking into account the spatial dimension of these processes, which is extremely important for Ukraine since regions differ significantly in the quality and level of development of the entrepreneurial environment. The author identifies specific factors that reduce the capacity of certain groups of regions and territorial communities, including the security factor, relocation of enterprises and displacement of labor resources as a result of forced mass displacement of the population, withdrawal of a significant part of land from economic circulation, including due to contamination with explosive devices, destruction of budget-forming enterprises or infrastructure facilities, etc., loss of powerful logistics capacity and tourism as a significant area of economic development, reduction of state support for development, complete loss of logistics capacity, irreversible changes in the development of the agricultural sector (inability to use the territories and deterioration of soil conditions due to contamination by explosive objects, the explosion of the Kahovska hydroelectric power station and the impact on soil fertility in the southern oblasts) and the logistics of agricultural products, and increased burden on engineering and social infrastructure given the growing number of residents due to IDPs and relocated businesses. The article notes that the issue of overcoming regional imbalances in the functioning and development of the entrepreneurial sector in the context of war is, on the one hand, directly related to ensuring the sustainability of economic entities and, on the other hand, is a prerequisite for ensuring resilient spatial development in Ukraine. The author proposes mechanisms and tools to restore economic capacity and entrepreneurial activity in the recovery areas, areas with special conditions for development, as well as promising mechanisms for scaling up the positive economic effects of regional growth poles and sustainable development areas. The article determines that the implementation of the mechanisms and instruments mentioned in the article on the basis of a systematic approach will help to overcome spatial imbalances in interregional and intraregional development and will allow to create an integrated economic space of the state.

Evaluation of Resources and Environment Carrying Capacity Based on Support Pressure Coupling Mechanism: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Resource and environmental carrying capacity (RECC) is an important basis for achieving sustainable urban development, and analysis of the relationship between regional resources and human activities is of great significance for sustainable regional development. Taking the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as the study area, this study establishes a framework for analyzing RECC based on the resource and environmental support capacity (RES) and the pressure on the resource and environment (REP), calculates the RES and REP of 110 cities in the YREB from 2009 to 2018, and analyzes the main constraints on RECC. The results show that (1) there are inter-regional imbalances in RECC within the study area, with cities that are more economically developed or at a higher administrative level usually having more severe problems with RECC. (2) The RES and REP indices of cities in the YREB show an overall increasing trend, but the relative growth rates of the RES and REP indices of cities at different levels differ. (3) The built-up area, green space in built-up areas, total gas supply, and length of sewage pipes are hindering factors for most cities to improve their RES. This study contributes to a comprehensive understanding of the current situation and changing trends of RECC in the YREB and can provide a reference for decision-making on sustainable development of the region's large river basin.

Траектории финансового развития регионов российской Арктики

Priority development of the Arctic territories is particularly relevant in conditions of unstable en-vironmental balance, significant climate change, and territorial vulnerability. The Arctic regions have com-mon natural and climatic conditions, geographical location, the availability of natural resources on their territory, the level of technical and technological development of the branches of the national economy, however, they are characterized by heterogeneous conditions of socio-economic development, therefore, the imbalances in the functioning of these regions are manifested more clearly. Elimination or levelling of the emerging interregional imbalances is an objective necessity for the sustainable development of regions, ensuring their financial stability. The authors, on the basis of private financial indices (budget, economic, investment), carried out a pinpoint adjustment of the development of the Arctic territories and determined the trajectories for the implementation and expansion of potential financial opportunities, taking into account the identified threats and drivers that affect the economy of the region. This approach made it possible, firstly, to assess the financial capabilities of the regions in terms of different aspects (budgetary, economic, etc.,); secondly, to identify the dynamics of their financial development; and, thirdly, to rank the regions according to the level of financial solvency. As a result, three clusters were identified: regions with a high value of the economic index; regions with a high value of the investment index and regions with a high value of the budget index. For each group, a vector of financial development has been determined, which makes it possible to effectively use all the possibilities of the Arctic regions to ensure their both social and financial and investment development.

Post-Graduate Geographical Education in China: Can Talents Meet the Need of Sustainable Development?

As widely acknowledged and targeted in Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, talents education and training is an important measure to systematically solve the problem of economically, societally, resource, and environmentally sustainable development, and so as the post-graduate geographical talents education and training. Whether post-graduate geographical talents education and training can meet the need of sustainable development is an increasingly significant issue in geography science. Therefore, from the perspective of population scale, education quality, and education input, taking Chinese post-graduate geographical education as an example, the paper empirically investigated the spatial differentiation and talents production mechanism. With the support of spatial analysis tools by ArcGIS and GeoDa software, the strong inter-regional differentiation and imbalance characteristics of post-graduate geographical talents education were detected, outlining a general east-west geographical pattern in China. Moreover, the spatial production mechanism of post-graduate geographical talents has its own global and national scale, regional comprehensive and province-related characteristics, and production of the talents education and training in human geography, physical geography, and cartography. GIS also has its own focuses and demands.

Chinese Urban Development under the “New Type Urbanization” Policy

The Chinese 7th national population census (2020) was held in the recent year of the "urbanization of a new type" state program. The successful management of the entire complex of urbanization processes becomes an important social and political task. Improving the living standards and social security of migrants acts as important components of the reduction of inequality and development of human capital. Census data shows that the program helped the government not only to support the growth of the number of urban dwellers but also to improve the quality of the process. The share of urban dwellers in Chinese population increased from 54.3% in 2014 to 61.4% in 2020, the number of cities larger than 5 million inhabitants reached 21. The Government lifted restrictions on obtaining permanent registration in cities less than 3 million inhabitants and issued more than 100 million intermediate type registration documents (juzhuzheng). Transparent and unified point-quota registration rules have been introduced in large cities, which usually rank applicants according to their age, education, length of residence, tax history and other parameters. These measures made possible expansion of the coverage of rural and nonresident migrants and their children by the social protection system. At the same time, contrary to the program's guidelines, population of the largest cities continued to grow rapidly, and significant interregional and intraregional imbalances remained sharp. Share of the north-eastern part in the urban population of China continued to decline. The continuation of the program "urbanization of a new type" was not formally announced, however it is clear, that the urban system of the PRC will develop in line with the program’s guidelines in the next decade.

СИСТЕМЫ СОВМЕСТНОГО ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСТВА В РЕГИОНАХ РОССИИ: СТРУКТУРНО-КОЛИЧЕСТВЕННЫЙ И ДИНАМИЧЕСКИЙ АНАЛИЗ

Any state strives to invest not only its own funds in the development of its economy, but also to attract foreign investment. This makes it possible to open new production facilities, as well as attract advanced technologies and experience of foreign specialists. This article discusses the problems of the development of joint entrepreneurship systems in the Russian Federation at the latest historical stage. The subject of the study is the organizational and economic relations that have arisen and developed in the course of the activities of joint ventures with the participation of foreign capital. The purpose of the study is to determine the current situation of joint entrepreneurship in Russia. To achieve this goal, a structural and quantitative analysis of the indicators of the development of joint entrepreneurship in macro-regions (federal districts) was carried out Interregional and intraregional imbalances have been identified, factors negatively affecting the development of joint forms of doing business in the country have been identified. As a result, based on the data obtained, it was revealed that during the period under review there was a decrease in the number of joint ventures on the territory of the Russian Federation. Foreign investors are afraid to invest their funds in long-term investments due to the unstable economic situation in the country. The presence of sanctions also does not add to the investment attractiveness. An analysis of the activity of joint entrepreneurshi p by region showed that only a few have developed programs for the development of foreign capital participation in joint ventures. The rest are practically not developing in this direction. As a result of the work performed, the author formulated measures to support and stimulate the development of joint entrepreneurship in the country as a whole and in certain regions of Russia in particular

КОНЦЕПТУАЛЬНЫЕ ПОДХОДЫ К ТРАКТОВКЕ ЭФФЕКТИВНОСТИ РЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ

The persisting interregional imbalances in the level of socio-economic development of the country’s regions and the absence of a unified state regulatory framework (specifying the goals, objectives, mechanisms and instruments of regional development) «revives» the question of interpreting the term «regional policy» itself. In such conditions, the assessment of the effectiveness of regional economic policy (REP) becomes not only dependent on the subjective interests of researchers, but also multivariate according to the applied methodological approaches. However, outside the context of a clear positioning of the content of basic terms in a given object-subject area, it becomes unlikely that a reasonable adjustment of the applied measures to optimize the socio-economic development of the region becomes. The article examines the factors that significantly affect the spatial development of the economy of the country’s regions. An overview analysis of conceptual approaches to the interpretation of the sources of economic growth is carried out. The specific features of macro- and micro-approaches to assessing the effectiveness of measures to support regions are characterized and a subjective model of the «pyramid» of regional development factors is presented. On the basis of the author’s interpretation of the term «efficiency of regional economic policy», general conclusions are presented on the dynamics of the emerging research mainstream in domestic publications and in the context of the effectiveness of tools for implementing the selected REU model. The alternative points of view on the feasibility of using specific indicators for assessing regional economic policy, proposed by domestic and foreign researchers, are presented. Taking into account the key problems in the changing geo-economic dynamics, a primary review of two basic approaches to the study of the specifics of the problems of the country’s regions is carried out

Cobb – Douglas Production Function: application experience in the North Kazakhstan region

In the conditions of the existing significant interregional imbalance of socio-economic development of regions, the issue of increasing the effectiveness of government decisions, including through forecasting, is of particular importance. The quality of such solutions is impossible without the use of modern methods of econometric modeling and information technology. Despite the considerable period of its existence, many scientists still consider the Cobb-Douglas production function to be a method that makes it possible to reliably display the opportunities and prospects of the economic component of the development of the region or its industrial sector. Within the framework of the study, the authors answer the question about the possibility of constructing an adequate Cobb-Douglas production function with static parameters to characterize the development of the North Kazakhstan region and its industrial sector. Empirically, both hypotheses were refuted. If in the first case one of the obtained coefficients did not satisfy our idea with its sign (it was negative), then in the second – using the least squares method, the parameters of the model were determined that did not satisfy the purpose of the study. The choice of the model is not accidental. If its development is successful, its application would make it possible to provide local authorities with a convenient, accessible and understandable tool for analysis and forecasting. However, the results obtained during the study indicate that it is necessary to consider other variations of the production function, and possibly other econometric methods and models, to synthesize several methods in order to develop an adequate model of the economic development of the region and the industrial complex of the region.

Развитие методов оценки цифровой зрелости организации с учетом регионального аспекта

Digital transformation has reached all regions of the Russian Federation. In this regard, it is essential to assess the digital maturity of various companies. Simultaneously, digital transformation projects should take into account interregional imbalances and regional specificities. The present study aims to develop an economic tool for assessing the digital maturity of organisations considering the regional aspect. To achieve this goal, we analysed theoretical approaches to assessing the digital maturity, presented a system of indicators that consider regional aspects, and created an assessment algorithm for interpreting the results. The developed economic tool allows the assessment of internal and external digital maturity in terms of quantitative indicators. Internal digital maturity considers scientific and technical, as well as production factors. In the presented methodology, external digital maturity considers four regional aspects: human, financial, consumer, infrastructural. Digital maturity was calculated using data normalisation methods to ensure their commensurability and analytic hierarchy process to consider the weight of each factor. Based on the presented scale, obtained via the method of simple grouping into equal intervals, digital maturity of organisations can be classified as basic, emerging, medium, advanced or high. Additionally, the conducted assessment of digital maturity allowed us to identify the “bottlenecks” in organisations that should be eliminated in order to increase the effectiveness of digital transformation. The developed economic tool was tested on the example of high-tech enterprises of the Russian Federation. The relationship between the calculated estimates and digital development of Russian regions was demonstrated. The obtained results can be used to implement strategies for managing the digital transformation of organisations, as well as to develop regional policies.

Регионально-отраслевой анализ с точки зрения идей солидарной экономики (на примере промышленности северных регионов России)

The article analyses the industry in the northern regions of Russia from the point of view of assessing the practical results of the traditional theory of competition. The purpose of the study is to develop the theoretical and methodological foundations of the transformation of economics from the ideas of rivalry to unity and harmony in social relations. The relevance of the topic is determined by an active public discussion about the possibilities of Russia's transition from a market-capitalist to a social, human-oriented economy. It is shown that the main existing model is aimed either at the individual benefit of organizations, or at the attractiveness of industries for corporate or state interests, but not at the needs of the common person. The idea of the increasing attention to “people of labor” by bringing all the analyzed indicators to a single denominator — one employed — is defended. The following empirical research methods were used: observation, comparison and visualization. On the example of industry of the northern regions of Russia, ultra-hight intersectoral and interregional imbalances were revealed, arising, according to the author, due to the lopsided orientation of enterprises to maximize profits and the export and resource structure of the economy. The ratio of value added elements by region is demonstrated, the classification of territories is carried out depending on the combination of these components. The low-suitability of the classical understanding of competition to solve issues of capital overflow and equalization of profitability is indicated. The thesis is put forward about the possibility of overcoming the existing problems by the internal spiritual and moral transformation of managers and workers themselves, the transition from competition to cooperation. The prospects of the study are associated with the expansion of the toolkit due to social indicators, as well as in the study of the micro-level — municipalities, sub-sectors, and the primary reporting of organizations.

Universities of World-Class Scientific and Educational Centers and Their Importance in the Performance Indicators and Development of Regions

The article considers the sphere of education as one of the directions of political and managerial practices for the development of regions. The importance of educational institutions of higher education as part of world-class scientific and educational centers (RECs) created in the context of the implementation of the national project “Science” is evaluated. The task assigned to the centers to activate interregional interaction, as expected, will contribute to the innovative development of the subjects of the Russian Federation and the economic and technological connectivity of the territories. In the context of the task, data from the official REC websites, data from the international rating THE, the Moscow international rating MosIUR for 2020, regulatory legal acts, as well as secondary data on the problem under study are analyzed. It is shown that RECs have become a kind of superstructure (construction), uniting several groups of actors under one sign of the center: universities, scientific organizations, organizations from the real sector of the economy, supported by the subject of the Russian Federation under the personal control of the governors. The peculiarity of such centers was not only the association of universities with high international ratings from different regions, but also the participation of the same university in several RECs. Such an organizational technique, by pulling together the north and south, the west and the east, the inclusion of the same universities in different RECs, suggests that this, on the one hand, strengthens interregional interaction, increases the values of the performance indicators of the project participants, but on the other hand, complicates the objective assessment of the REC activities themselves. Based on the study, the hypothesis is expressed that the existing approaches to assessing the effectiveness of REC generate a variety of imitation forms of activity, including reporting, and need to be improved. It is concluded that the activities of RECs will contribute to the breakthrough development of those regions on the territory of which they are formed, but at the same time strengthen interregional imbalances.

Comparative assessment of the level of financial and economic security of regions in the Volga Federal District: Studying the interregional differentiation

Subject. Economic security issues are recognized as the country's priority. The existence of interregional differentiation poses a risk to the achievement of national sustainable economic development goals. Objectives. The study aims to underpin the fundamental role of financial and economic security, being the key element of economic security in overcoming the inter-regional territorial imbalance. Methods. The study employs general scientific methods, including the methods of systems analysis, comparative analysis, logical, and deductive analysis. Results. I use the case of the Volga Federal District regions, to calculate indicators, characterizing the differentiation, based on the components of financial and economic security. For this purpose, I include the volume of gross regional product per capita, the amount of investment in fixed capital per capita, the number of employed in the economy, the income of consolidated budgets of the subjects of the Russian Federation, the retail turnover per capita, and the volume of fee-based services rendered to the population. The paper clarifies the concept of financial and economic security through the terminological analysis and highlighting various features. Conclusions. The analysis revealed uneven growth in security indicators and, as a result, threats to balanced sustainable development of the regional socio-economic system. A qualitatively new approach to economic policy is required. It should combine recent scientific and technological developments and efficient use of human potential.

The effect of imbalance in resource management on regional social economic development

Socio-economic consequences in oil-producing regions are defined by the balance in subsoil use developed under the influence of different factors. The research hypothesis suggests that imbalances in resource management, the key criterion of which is a balance between reserve addition and oil recovery, differentially influence the social and economic development of the regions involved, the choice of which is conditioned by similarity of geologic, industrial and economic criteria. The research methods are descriptive statistics, variance analysis (ANOVA), Cobb-Douglas regression function, Data Envelopment Analysis with MPI (Malmquist productivity index). The research results have shown that the part of reserve addition and oil recovery in per capita gross regional product vary from negative to positive, which is explained by the degree of depletion and exploration of a field and is a result of the effect of existing institutional environment. According to the DEA method, the efficient boundaries are formed by the Russian Federation entities where the potential of oil-and-gas industry has not been fully used as a driving force of socio-economic development, which is supported by the results of the Cobb-Douglas regression model and variance analysis. The research results are an additional confirmation of interregional imbalance in socio-economic development, one of the factors of which is an imbalance in resource management.

Конкурентная политика в системе стратегического планирования

The article considers the potential of linking the methodology and tools of competition policy with the main mechanisms of strategic management planning aimed at achieving the priority goals of the state, including the processes of goal setting, forecasting and planning the socio-economic development of the Russian Federation and the positive dynamics of its competitiveness. The article analyzes the trends and highlights the principles of deployment of the process of forming a systemic springboard of competition institutions as an element of state economic policy. Special attention is paid to a new spatial strategy containing proposals to counteract inter-regional imbalances and mitigate imbalances in the socio-economic conditions of individual regions. The main trends and problems of development of the national economic space are analyzed. The role of the human factor as a leading specific factor in competitive relations is emphasized. The author analyzes regional development imbalances that are systemic in nature and, of course, have a negative impact on markets and the quality of their competitive environment, as well as macroeconomic indicators. The role of transport infrastructure in reducing the level of interregional differentiation in the socio-economic development of the subjects of the Russian Federation and stimulating competitive relations is updated. The assessment of the level of competition development in the country is given; the work carried out by the state at all hierarchical levels of the economy in the field of competition development, including the influence of the state on business activity. There are two main directions of activation of competitive relations in the framework of strategic planning: methodological and organizational and economic.

Regional management: foreign experience

Regional management is currently considered as a combination of administrative, economic, political impacts on economic, social, demographic, resource-economic and other processes taking place in the region with the aim of ensuring a sustainable and balanced development of the region and the improvement of the life quality of the population today and in perspective. The diversity of regional economic systems forms the basis of the mechanism for identifying and disseminating the positive experience of the national economy management. This aspect determines the relevance of the study. The article discusses the patterns and features of the regional governance on the basis of the socio-economic development of two polar states in order to illustrate the national interests of each country. The problems of the socio-economic development are shown from the position of systematic approach principles and methods. The main goals of the regional management are also formulated, along with the ways of smoothing the levels of the socio-economic development of regions by overcoming existing interregional imbalances. As a part of the study of the patterns and features of China’s regional management the institutional approaches of the regional policy have been indicated taking into account the ranking of territories and the directive planning of the national economy. Organizational and economic mechanisms focused on the improvement of the human resources potential have been studied on the base of the German model of regional policy. Based on the results of the study, relevant conclusions were made.

On Housing and Utilities in the Context of Implementation of National Goals of Strategic Development in Russia

The presented study addresses the problems of accessibility of high-quality services provided by the housing and utilities system for the population from the perspective of achieving the strategic goals of creating a comfortable and safe environment, including those formulated as national objectives by the President of the Russian Federation.Aim. The study aims to determine trends in the funding of the housing and utilities system from the consolidated budget of Russian regions in comparison with the dynamics of paid services in the field of housing and utilities, and to identify approaches to solving the problems of accessibility of highquality services and reducing regional disparities in the provision of these services.Tasks. Through the example of the North-West macro-region, the authors examine the goals, objectives, and priorities in the housing and utilities sector reflected in regional socio-economic development strategies; identify the expenditure pattern of the consolidated budget of the North-West macro-region; determine the dynamics of expenses on housing and utilities from the consolidated budget of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation located within the North-West macro-region and paid services in this field; determine the amount and dynamics of unit expenses on housing and utilities from the regional consolidated budget and compare it with household expenditure; draw a conclusion regarding the directions for improving the accessibility of high-quality services provided by the housing and utilities system for the population.Methods. Based on the statistical analysis of the 2012–2018 dynamics of the structure and absolute amount of expenditure from the consolidated budgets of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation located within the North-West macro-region and the dynamics of household expenditure on the paid services of the housing and utilities system, this study identifies the major trends and inter-regional imbalances in the funding of the housing and utilities system as a factor of realization of national priorities in ensuring a comfortable and safe environment.Results. The study shows that a number of problems persist in the regional housing and utilities systems despite the efforts made by the government, regional and municipal authorities. The constituent entities of the Russian Federation integrate guidelines for the development of this system in their socio-economic development strategies and prioritize increasing the accessibility and quality of housing and utilities services, which is reflected in regional socio-economic development strategies. One of the reasons for the persisting problems in regional housing and utilities systems and low accessibility of services for the population is the lack of a unified approach to the budgetary funding of this system. Different regions, particularly in the Russian North-West, exhibit multidirectional trends in the funding of the housing and utilities system and its support from the consolidated budget of the region. This generates and amplifies the differences between regions in the amount of budgetary funding of this system, creating unequal conditions for the population of the respective regions in terms of access to high-quality housing and utilities services. Thus, it becomes obvious that a more grounded regional budget policy is required — one that would make allowance for the existing imbalances in the funding of such services.Conclusions. To solve the identified problems, it is advisable to develop a more grounded regional budget policy that would make allowance for the existing imbalances in the funding of housing and utilities services. Mechanisms for overcoming the existing inequality of access to housing and utilities services for the population should be established not only during the development and adjustment of regional socio-economic development strategies, but also during the formation of strategy at the level of a federal district.

REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL POTENTIAL AND THE OBJECTIVES OF REGIONAL INDUSTRIAL POLICY IN TERMS OF DEINDUSTRIALIZATION

Introduction. Under the conditions of increasing interregional economic imbalances and deindustrialization of the economy the industrial potential of regions as a catalyst for regional leveling and economic growth becomes particularly important. Due to the development of manufacturing and other activities included in production chains the economies of backward regions can be revitalized. Purpose. The purpose of the article is the development of recommendations of the regional industrial policy implementation using the industrial potential of regions to level out interregional imbalances. Method (methodology). The statistical analysis based on variation coefficients and mapping approach are used for assessing the extent of socio-economic regional imbalances. Using the correlation analysis the relationship between the industry’s share by the number of employees in a regional economy and GRP per capita is estimated. The evaluation of industrial specialization of the regions is performed by industries’ localization coefficients. The regional industrial potential is determined according to the current production performance and its possible increase, internal and external investment resources and human capacity. The recommendations on directions and instruments of regional industrial policy are developed using the generalization of domestic and international experience according to new challenges of industrial and regional development of Ukraine. Results. It is determined that during 2010-2017 the level of regional divergence in Ukraine has significantly increased. The industrial, investment and labour potentials of the regions that may become a driving force for regional leveling are disclosed. The forms of inclusion of the regions with low industrial potential in interregional production chains are substantiated. The new objectives of the modern regional industrial policy arising from modern paradigms of neoindustrial, innovative economies and industrial policy are determined and are directed on overcoming centrifugal trends of regional development in terms of decentralization reform.

Сучасні тенденції соціального розвитку регіонів Украї­ни

Social changes in the country cause the execution of the systematic identification and diagnosis of the problems of social development of the regions for the constant adjustment and improvement of state administrative activity that defined the objectives of the given work. The article reveals the state and general trends of the territorial dynamics of social processes, the level of interregional differentiation by main aspects of social development for the period 2007–2017. It has been demonstrated that, despite a certain positive dynamics, the current state of social development in most regions of Ukraine is unsatisfactory and is characterized by low quality of life indicators (in almost 70% of regions the level of regional human development is below the average Ukrainian figures). Interurban asymmetry is fixed (overall urban settlements in almost all aspects have better results of social development). There is an imbalance in social development by its main elements, which creates a significant imbalance in providing opportunities for the realization of the social rights of the population depending on the place of residence (a number of regions which are leading according to one social indicator are simultaneously outsiders in others). The growth of disproportions in the social development of regions is indicated by a number of features, first of all, by the rates of approaching target values; indicators characterizing the comfort of living of the population, social environment, material well-being, employment of the population. It has been found that interregional imbalances of social development are the result of a combination of external and internal factors, including weaknesses in public administration at the national and regional levels. The necessity of concentrating the attention of the authorities on the most problematic aspects of the development of the social and humanitarian sphere in each region, strengthening the regional component of state policy, activating the regions themselves in solving specific social problems, increasing the effectiveness of state-management mechanisms for social equation of regional development were proven.

Guidance for assessing interregional ecosystem service flows

Ecosystem services (ES) assessments commonly focus on a specific biophysical region or nation and take its geographic borders as the system boundary. Most geographical regions are, however, not closed systems but are open and telecoupled with other regions, such that the use of ES in one location is dependent on ecosystem processes and ecological management in other locations. Interregional ES flows often affect national economies and may trigger issues of national security and global equity. To date, however, methodologies for assessing interregional flows of ES have been published in dispersed literature. This paper provides a three-step guidance for how to assess four different types of interregional ES flows (traded goods, passive biophysical flows, species migration and dispersal as well as information flows). This guidance is intended to complement national and regional ecosystem assessments. The three steps are to (i) define the goal and scope of interregional ES flow assessments, (ii) quantify the interregional ES flows using a tiered approach and (iii) interpret results in terms of uncertainties, consequences and governance options. We compile different indicators for assessing interregional ES flows and evaluate their suitability for national and regional ES assessments. Finally, to assess the implications of interregional ES flows for environmental sustainability and human well-being, we relate our flow indicators to the Sustainable Development Goals. This guidance towards systematic assessment of interregional ES flows provides a first step to measure and quantify externalised environmental costs and can contribute to the development of indicators to address interregional imbalances in trade, foreign policy and beyond.