Impact of infrastructure on socio-economic development of Russian regions: methodology and analysis

Relevance. Regional infrastructure development directly affects economic growth, social development and the quality of life. To identify the key areas of infrastructure development in Russian regions, it is necessary to develop a methodological approach to the analysis of the impact of infrastructure on socio-economic development, which determines the relevance of this study.Research objective. This study aims to improve the methodology of assessment of the role infrastructure plays in the socio-economic development of Russian regions.Data and methods. The analysis relies on a system of general and integral, static and dynamic indicators used to assess the current state and dynamics of infrastructure in regions. The analysis takes into account the structural and functional features of infrastructure. The proposed methodology comprises methods for obtaining comparative estimates of regional infrastructure development, which can be applied to compile regional rankings. The study also uses methods of econometric and K-means cluster analysis.Results. A comparative analysis of the infrastructure development of Russian regions allowed us to assess the infrastructural potential of these regions, the discrepancies in infrastructure development and compare the infrastructure-related characteristics of the leading lagging regions. The results of econometric analysis as well as cluster analysis of regions based on general and integral dynamic indicators are discussed.Conclusions. The methodological approach proposed by the authors has been tested by using the data on Russian regions. The analysis has revealed the most typical problems faced by Russian regions. These problems should be taken into account in strategic decision- and policy-making.