Influence of Interregional Spatial Effects on the Economic Development of Russian Regions

The paper analyzes interregional spatial effects and assesses their impact on the development of Russia's regions. Given the differences in the geographical location of the regions, as well as the peculiarities of the regional economy in each constituent entity of the Russian Federation, a topical issue is the assessment and analysis of interregional spatial interactions for the development of modern regional development programs. The purpose of this research is to study the heterogeneity of the regions of the Russian Federation by identifying interregional spatial interactions. The paper presents a methodology for assessing interregional spatial effects and selects indicators for identifying and assessing them. The study uses data on 77 regions of Russia. When assessing spatial effects, we considered the regions that became part of the Russian Federation in 2014: the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. The key dependent variable in the econometric models is the GRP growth rate. Among the independent variables, we consider 17 indicators that also characterize regional development for the period 2015-2020. The study revealed that interregional spatial effects are present for all regions of Russia: for the western regions these effects are positive, and for the eastern ones they are negative. It is shown that the level of innovative development in one region has a stronger impact on the growth rates of GRP in neighboring regions than in the region itself. It is revealed that a reduction in investment in fixed capital contributes to an increase in the growth rates of GRP, and that an increase in imports in one region leads to a decrease in the growth rates of GRP in others. The results obtained are stable to the choice of weight matrices and indicate that comprehensive measures affecting all regions are necessary for the development of the western regions of the Russian Federation - in this case, the effect of these changes will be enhanced due to the presence of spatial effects. In some eastern regions, on the contrary, it is necessary to develop individual development programs for each individual region.