Methodical approach to the assessment of the impact of infrastructure availability on social and economic development of Russian regions

Abstract

The necessity to assess infrastructure availability in Russian regions and its impact on social and economic development determines the importance of the study. The justification of the trends of infrastructure availability specified by the population and economic needs suggests the development of corresponding tools. The purpose of the study is to validate methodological approach to the analysis of infrastructure impact on social and economic development of the regions of the Russian Federation. The system of static and dynamic indicators for the assessment of infrastructure state and dynamics of the regions has been presented considering structural and functional content of the infrastructure. It suggests a complex assessment of the impact of each infrastructure element (production, financial and social) separately and in the interaction. The tools for determining the level of provision of the Russian regions with certain types of infrastructure for the ranking of the regions, as well as their comparison with indicators of social and economic development of regional economic systems have been suggested in the research. The results of the econometric analysis of infrastructure factors influence on regional growth and also the cluster analysis of regions by k-means which is based on the summary and integrated indicators of infrastructure provision of the Russian regions have been presented in the article. Using the analysis results we have considered a number of trends that will improve the infrastructure of the Russian regions. Among the most acute trends are the overcoming interregional differences in the availability of infrastructure facilities, the increase of investment in infrastructure development, including through the active use of public-private partnership mechanisms that considers Russian and foreign experience. The research results will improve management decision making for the development of infrastructure both at federal and regional scale. Further studies will be devoted to the monitoring of dynamics of infrastructural development of the Russian regions using the suggested static and dynamic indicators.