We analyze what new has been observed in the regional studies bibliography compiled in the EconLit Internet-catalogue. The novelty criteria applied are the absolute and comparative growths of publications of all kinds and the number of new interdisciplinary publications concerning regional issues. We proposed a technique to identify new areas of regional studies through the analysis of intensity of the publication activity and of how often the software utilities were applied to textural-morphological analysis or works with bibliographic data bases.
The paper considers the principle provisions of the Draft Concept of a new regional policy in the Russian Federation developed by the RF Ministry for Regional Development in the summer 2008. Our general conclusion is that the present document is much more advanced than the previous one based on substituting the principles providing equalization of the levels of the socio-economic development in regions for a "polarized development" policy which assumes the support to "regions-locomotives".
The paper is devoted to the methodological tools serving to model different variants of the regional socio-economic policy aimed at creating the necessary preconditions for sustainable development in regions. We offer an indicative planning model, apply it to a resource region, and describe mechanisms which allow of maintaining a sustainable development trajectory for the region having exhausted local natural resources.
The paper analyses the issues of federalism in Russia such as the advantages and conditions for its successful adaptation, on the one hand, and on the other hand, the limitations which have been observed during the time of intensive economic reforms and the following period of stabilization and economic growth.
The paper presents the findings of investigation concerning retrospective tendencies of how a spatial structure of the Russian economy changed and how it will change in long-term perspective. We analyze the main factors which define the difference of the production and consumer indicators in regions, including the predominant ones such as sectoral specialization of regions, external-economic factors and structures of the added values obtained by different economic agents. We assess the regional tendencies of such changing structures, and show that a relatively instable character of these indicators has been caused by the quality of Russian statistics at present.
The paper considers the alternative development strategies - inertial and innovative - for the Siberian Federal District. We assume that the SFD economy is adequately provided with labor resources. Both strategies are analyzed by taking into account a demographic factor and assuming that there is labor migration in the region. In our research, we applied a multi-industry optimization development model. The assessment of strategies was carried out on the base of a system of models aimed at researching and forecasting money flows.
We applied a small modified simulating model to assess the multiplier effect obtained by regulating measures made at the regional level to provide food security. Our assessments are given in their dynamics up to 2010 within a case-study for the Altai area. The model calculations show that higher employment gives rise to higher incomes of the population and better economic availability of food. At that, the increase of regional fiscal expenditures would provoke a higher volume of available food 1.58 years later in average.
The paper analyses the population dynamics and peculiarities of reproduction of a middle class on the base of the data presented in the Russian Economic Climate and Public Health Monitoring. The Russian middle class includes 16-20% of all the population, and it is a rather stable fragment in a socio-economic structure of the population. In the 1990s, this class remained unworn by unfavorable socio-economic environment and had high indicators of its reproduction.
The paper describes the findings of investigation concerning the differences between the population's health indicators in the units of the Russian Federation. On the base of retrospective information and applying statistical methods, we attempted to find basic reasons of the health degradation in regions, and concluded that all reasons are interrelated, an ecological factor being dominating.
We present the assessments of links between the indicators of push-pull labor migration in the Moscow area, per capita incomes and the remoteness of the regions from Moscow. We show the level, a spatial pattern of commuters working in Moscow, their shady incomes and a volume of such passenger traffic as well as the difference of the commuters' incomes employed in Moscow and those employed outside.
