Socio-economic situation of Russian urban agglomerations in 2015–2021

Abstract

The article provides a comparative assessment of the key socio-economic features and trends in the development of urban agglomerations of Russia in 2015–2021. A distinguishing characteristic of the study is the approbation of a method for assessing the level of economic development of agglomerations using data from the Federal Tax Service of Russia on the volume of tax revenues. The analysis confirms that agglomerations provide an extremely high contribution to the economic development of the country and continue to form the basis for the growth of the taxable economy. The most part of contribution to country development indicators is still provided by the largest Moscow metropolitan agglomeration, the concentration of resources within its borders has only intensified in recent years. The differentiation of the other agglomerations also stays great, and the cumulative contribution of them (in sum) by a number of indicators is comparable to one of Moscow agglomeration. The best economic results are shown by agglomerations with industrial specialization, but the development of the economic complex in them does not have a significant stimulating effect on the growth of labor market indicators, household incomes and service sectors. The least developed agglomerations are ones with a high role of “shadow” sectors in the economy and “administratively designated” ones (Ulan-Ude, Penza, Ryazan), located in regions of the country with a depressed economic situation. Reduced values of development are also typical for agglomerations of the Volga region. At the spatial level within individual agglomerations, there is a clear manifestation of center-peripheral differences by most indicators, however, the study showed that the level of development of the cores of agglomerations and their suburbs is not always high, and the positive influence of the agglomeration core (with the exception of Moscow) rarely spreads beyond the nearest belt of municipalities. The results of the study suggest a narrowing of the approach to delimiting the boundaries of agglomerations and prove that the current state measures for the development of the agglomerations (except Moscow one) have not yet made a significant impact on accelerating economic growth and expanding the geography of the influence of agglomeration factors.