PROBLEM REGIONS: ESSENCE AND IDENTIFICATION CHARACTERISTICS

The article proves the conclusion that the problem regions are not only those where the production growth recession, the fall of living standards and the growth of other negative trends in economy, social sphere and environment are higher then the all-Russian, but also those where the growth rates of the key socio-economic indicators are lower then the averages of the national economy. It causes the historically developed heterogeneity of the economic space.

The authors propose an approach to the identification of problem regions from the perspective of the intensity of economic activity, the financial self-sufficiency, the attractiveness of the region as a place of residence, and innovation activity. The article gives the classification of regions according to the GRP per capita, the share of uncompensated receipts in the revenues of consolidated regional budget, the value of the migration gain coefficient, and the innovation activity level.

The study showed that the industrial and metropolitan regions with the post-industrial economic structure are considered to be the developed regions of the Russian Federation. The problematic regions are characterized by agro-industrial or agricultural sectoral structure.

The authors prove that the most problem regions are the ethnic regions of Russia. Their lag is caused by the irresponsiveness of the ethnic economy to the processes of modernization by means of importing of western institutions and the loan of foreign philosophies. The accelerated development of the problem ethnic regions can be achieved only under the implementation of the regional policy model, which focuses should be shifted in favor of the development of conditions for integration of ethno-economical structure into the system of regional reproduction. The regional reproduction can be achieved by the inclusion of ethno-economical component in the structure of developing regional economic clusters as a supplier of raw materials, the production of ethnically branded goods and their subsequent promotion to the regional and national markets.