Regional disparity in Russia: Can centralization become a remedy?
https://doi.org/10.31249/poln/2019.02.03
Abstract
Russian Federation keeps one of the highest rates of regional inequality in the world which creates a great potential for political instability and regionalism. Regional social and economic inequality rose up after collapse of the Soviet Union and its planned economy. Attempts at smoothening if not erasing striking spatial differences were made in the course of both liberal reforms of the 1990 s and centralizing efforts done by president Putin. In this empirical study authors starts with analyzing the very magnitude of Russia’s spatial using variance coefficients and Gini indices for economic (gross regional product), financial (regional revenues), and social (people’s income) indicators. The research question is about the impact of post-Soviet institutional reforms and regional policies (in general and in relevant periods of time) on regional inequality in Russia. The main idea is to give in-depth analysis of institutional factors influencing spatial inequality in comparison with general economic factors. Using cross-correlation and regression analysis the author concludes about partial success of Putin’s centralization in terms of fixing economic spatial disparities at a certain level while reducing social disparities.
About the Authors
R. F. Turovsky
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
K. Yu. Dzhavatova
National Research University Higher School of Economics
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
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