Challenges of regional socio-economic polarization in Russia: is the state policy successful?

The article focuses on the topic of regional inequality in Russia. It considers two types of inequality – economic and social – and analyzes the impact of government policy on their dynamics. The results of the study show that, according to theoretical assumptions characterizing developing countries, economic growth in Russia does not lead to a reduction in regional economic inequality, and governmental policy in this area is of limited effectiveness. One can speak about regional polarization as a consequence of certain types of state policy (investment policy, distribution of nondiscretionary transfers), while the equalization policy (equalizing transfers) has low impact on reducing inequality. Thus, in the economic sphere, the achievement of the state policy can be recognized as the containment of the growth of regional inequality, which, however, is not constantly manifested. In terms of social policy, contradictory trends have been recorded in recent years. On the one hand, in some spheres the government policy does have a more obvious impact on the reduction of regional inequality, but on the other in many cases this equalization occurs against the background of stagnation or deterioration of the indicators themselves. In particular, the reduction of inequality between regions is characteristic of infrastructure and human resources indicators in the spheres of education and health care. In several examples, in contrast, there is an increase in inequality, which is characteristic of wages policy. In some cases, the growth of inequality becomes the reverse side of the improvement of the overall level of indicators, as demonstrated by the indicator of doctors’ salaries.

1. Barua A., Sawhney A. Development policy implications for growth and regional inequality in a small open economy: the Indian case. Review of development economics. 2015, Vol. 19, N 3, P. 695–709.

2. Borts G.H., Stein J.L. Economic growth in a free market. New York; London: Columbia university press, 1964, 235 p.

3. Friedmann J., Bloch R. American exceptionalism in regional planning, 1933–2000. International journal of urban and regional research. 1990, Vol. 14, N 4, P. 576–601.

4. Galvis L.A., Meisel A. Regional inequalities and regional policies in Colombia: the experience of the last two decades. Regional problems and policies in Latin America.

5. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2013, P. 197–223.

6. Gilbert A.G., Gugler J. Cities, poverty, and development. New York: Oxford university press, 1992, 331 p.

7. Leonov S.N., Sidorenko O.V. Region-wide and selective policy of foreign countries: regularities and peculiarities of implementation. Federalism. 2013, N 2, P. 63–78. (In Russ.)

8. Martin P. et al. Can regional policies affect growth and geography in Europe? The world economy. 1998, Vol. 21, N 6, P. 757–774.

9. Martin P. The geography of inequalities in Europe. In: Spatial Disparities and Development Policy. Washington: World Bank Publications, 2009, P. 239–256.

10. Myrdal G., Sitohang P. Economic theory and under-developed regions. London: G. Duckworth, 1957, 167 p.

11. North D.C. et al. Institutions, institutional change and economic performance. Cambridge: Cambridge university press, 1990,159 p.

12. Piketty T. Capital in the twenty-first century. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard university press, 2014, 685 p.

13. Shvecov A.N. System-wide and selective state regional policy. Problem analysis and public administration projection. 2009, N 2, P. 38–50. (In Russ.)

14. Silveira‐ Neto R. M., Azzoni C. R. Social policy as regional policy: market and nonmarket factors determining regional inequality. Journal of regional science. 2012, Vol. 52, N 3, P. 433–450.

15. Singhal A., Sahu, S., Chattopadhyay, S., Mukherjee, A., & Bhanja, S. N. Using night time lights to find regional inequality in India and its relationship with economic development. PloS one. 2020, Vol. 15, N 11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241907

16. Turovsky R.F., Dzhavatova K.Yu. Regional inequality in Russia: can centralization be the cure? Political science (RU). 2019, N 2, P. 48–73. (In Russ.)

17. Wei Y. D. Spatiality of regional inequality. Applied geography. 2015, Vol. 61, P. 1–10.

18. Williamson J.G. Regional inequality and the process of national development: a description of the patterns. Economic development and cultural change. 1965, Vol. 13, N 4, Part 2, P. 1–84.

19. Zubarevich N.V. Development of Russian Space: barriers and opportunities of regional policy. The world of new economy. 2017, N 2, P. 46–57. (In Russ.)

20. Zubarevich N.V. Regional development and regional policy in Russia. ECO. 2014, N 4 (478). (In Russ.)

21. Zubarevich N.V., Safronov S.G. Regional inequality in large post-Soviet countries. Regional research of Russia. 2011, N 1, P. 15–26.