Abstract

The relevance of the research undertaken at RANEPA in 2021 is due to the fact that it is devoted to identifying perspective specializations of Russian regions, the targeted federal support of which will ensure the maximum effect in the growth of GRP, labor productivity, innovation activity and export volumes in the regions. The specialized types of economic activity of the regions are the subject of the study. To achieve the goal of determining the existing and perspective development of regional specializations, the following tasks were solved: a review of foreign and domestic experience in development of regional specializations was conducted, the author's methodological approach was developed, a comprehensive assessment of the specializations of the regions of Russia was carried out, and measures of their targeted federal support were proposed. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that three localization indicators (products shipped, number of employees and investments in fixed assets in 173 economic activity types) were used together for the first time to identify the specializations of the regions (based on Rosstat data for 2017-2019). A comprehensive assessment of the prospects for the development of regional specializations includes defining their national and regional significance, labor productivity, innovation, and export activity, and considers their impact on the region’s development based on sectoral multipliers in terms of gross value added and the number of employees. Research methods include systemic analysis, factor analysis, statistical analysis of regional features of sectoral development, index method, etc. Using the proposed approach, the results of the evaluation of perspective specializations for 35 regions (for priority geostrategic regions and regions with individual development programs) were obtained, for which a set of sector-wide and specific measures of federal support was proposed. The application of the author’s approach is recommended for informational and methodological support and increasing the effectiveness of the state regional policy of Russia.