Mining and metallurgical industry, as well as clusters based on it, historically occupy an important place in the economic structure of the Urals. Given that the Ural mining and metallurgical clusters are export-oriented, the problem of global competitiveness remains relevant. A large segment of the Russian academic literature is focused on studying cluster competitiveness. These studies are mainly based on traditional methods of efficiency analysis, including the analysis of sales activities and financial situation of enterprises. At the same time, in the world mining and metallurgical industry, a method of cash cost is actively used for analysing competitiveness. Russian academic literature, however, lacks works examining the use of cash costs for studying the competitiveness of mining and metallurgical clusters. This study suggests and tests a new approach to assessing the international competitiveness of the Ural mining and metallurgical clusters, based on the method of the cash cost calculation. The paper discusses the methodological aspects of calculating the cash cost indicator. Cash costs were calculated for the enterprises constituting the core of the Ural mining and metallurgical cluster. We compared the obtained value with the cash cost indicator of one of the world's largest copper producers Codelco, as well as with the maximum price cost for this industry achieved in 2018. The calculation results have shown that the Ural mining and metallurgical clusters are commercially viable in the world. This fact indicates the presence of various competitive advantages in the world market, including a relatively great amount of useful components in the producing fields. The main competitive disadvantages are the widespread use of a more expensive underground mining method and the gradual exhaustion of the existing rich deposits.

In the Russian economy, foreign direct investments (FDI) are distributed very unevenly between the regions. This inequality is caused by differences in the regions' economic characteristics, as well as by varying effectiveness of regional policies to attract FDI. The assessment of a region's potential to attract FDI could serve as a guide for analysing the effectiveness of local authorities in terms of creating a positive environment for foreign investors. The research focuses on constructing and assessing an econometric model of FDI determinants at the regional level. The theoretical foundation for this model is a gravity approach. We used estimates obtained with the help of Poisson's method of quasi-maximum likelihood estimation for calculating the potential of foreign direct investments. Using the data for the period from 2015 to 2017, we identified the crucial factors influencing the inflow of foreign direct investment in Russia at the regional level: availability of the workforce, level of bureaucracy, level of income, population density, and the financial results of the regional companies. Based on the calculated potentials, we identified successful and lagging Russian regions in terms of FDI inflows. We analysed and systemised the volume of FDI inflows as well as the ratio of actual/potential FDI of the Russian regions. The largest Russian regions in terms of FDI inflows have limitations in growth because they either exceed their potential level already (Moscow oblast, Krasnodar krai, Samara oblast) or are close to it (Moscow city, Leningrad oblast, Saint-Petersburg city). At the same time, more than a half of the Russian regions (41 out of analysed 82) not only have very low potential to attract FDI inflows, but also operate at a level lower than potential. A significant increase in FDI inflows across the country may be provided by a small group of regions with medium and high levels of FDI inflows but with considerable unrealized potential. This group includes such regions as Republic of Bashkortostan, Republic of Tatarstan, Sverdlovsk oblast, Udmurt republic, KhMAO-Yugra, Orenburg oblast, and Belgorod oblast. The suggested methodology for assessing a region's FDI potential and comparing it with actual FDI inflows can be used for goal setting for relevant regional authorities and subsequent control of their efforts to attract FDI. © 2020 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

The study aims to systematise the existing methodological approaches to assessing the development of smart cities, elaborated by a number of international institutions (organizations). Moreover, it identifies characteristics of the assessment and possibilities of its application in the Russian context. We considered the fundamentals of a smart city's development as our research object. Methodological approaches to assessing the development of smart cities are our research subject. We analysed scientific research, published in the periodical press, as well as the results of the authors' study on the digitization processes of socio-economic systems, the principles of the urban environment's digitization, and the urban development's fundamentals based on the smart city's concept. The research method is a logical analysis of modern approaches to assessing the development of smart cities. The paper identifies and analyses the main characteristics and conditions for the effective functioning of smart cities. We consider a model of the development levels of a smart city. Furthermore, we demonstrate the importance of cooperation among stakeholders in the field of the urban environment's development, as it creates new opportunities and ensures the long-term viability of smart cities' projects. We note that one of the most important factors in the development of smart cities is the increment in human capital of their inhabitants. Lifelong learning and advanced training are becoming a condition for the development of modern socio-economic systems. The dominant role of highly-skilled creative work becomes the determining factor for the development of a new type of society and its inherent economy. In the paper, we have described and systemized the main approaches to assessing the development of smart cities. We have formulated a number of principles for constructing a methodology for assessing smart cities. The study has theoretical relevance due to the development of approaches to assessing the development of smart cities. The practical significance of the research lies in shaping possible future studies of rational economic management in the context of the digital society. © 2020 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

The article substantiates the need for integrated diagnostics of air quality. Such diagnostics should include the generally accepted indicators and consider the rate of child population's morbidity with respiratory diseases, recognized by the World Health Organisation, as a criterion for assessing the state of the atmosphere in this area. We suggest a method of integrated assessment of the level and changes in air quality over time on the considered territory. This tool allows determining the ratings of the regions on the quality of atmospheric air, the level of environmental development and the degree of its change. Moreover, it helps assessing the factors that affect the aforementioned processes. We tested the proposed methodological tools on the example of the regions of the Ural Federal district (UFD) and the Russian Federation (RF) in general. The calculations made it possible to diagnose the stabilization of environmental and social threats to air quality in the majority of the regions. We concluded that the threats caused by air pollution are increasing. That fact is confirmed by the growth of child morbidity in all regions of the UFD and the RF, except for Tyumen oblast. We propose methodological tools for diagnostics of the territory's environmental development through integrated comprehensive indices of the state and level of environmental development in part of the air and water protection activities based on statistical indicators. The diagnostics demonstrated positive environmental development in the sphere of air protection in the UFD and the RF. In general, the dynamics of environmental development in the field of water protection are positive, with the exception of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. The mostly positive dynamics of environmental development in the regions of the UFD are a prerequisite for reducing threats in the future. © 2020 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Population's adaptation to the changing living conditions and its results provoke the transformation of the socio-economic behaviour of different population groups. In turn, this transformation can affect the development of residence territory either positively or negatively. The study's scientific significance is due to the need to find methodological approaches to the adequate assessment of population's adaptation to the rapidly changing living conditions. In this context, we are interested in the regional peculiarities of population's adaptation, based on the economic, natural, socio-cultural differences of the Russian regions. We hypothesise that population's adaptation to changing living conditions is connected with development of the regional settlement system. Thus, adaptation can be assessed in terms of the system's dynamics and convergence/divergence of its structural components: environmental, economic and socio-demographic subsystems. In the analysis, we used a set of indicators of socioeconomic development for 83 Russian regions taken from the database of the Federal State Statistics Service for the period from 2004 to 2017. The main research methods were statistical data analysis aimed to assess the convergence/divergence of the Russian regions by socio-economic indicators of development. We estimated σ-convergence (analysis of the dynamics of development indicators' dispersion) and β-convergence (estimation of Barro regression). The study's results indicate that the socio-demographic subsystem is characterised by more expressed adaptive processes, reflected in the unstable indicators of the σ-convergence due to migration and morbidity. This fact means that the variation of the aforementioned indicators decreases or increases depending on the economic situation in the regional context. Generally, the observed convergence in the dynamics of indicators of economic and socio-demographic subsystems in regional settlement systems demonstrates the adaptive nature of socio-economic and demographic behaviour of population. The results of the research can form an information base for the regional socio-economic development strategies and state programs of the social policies' implementation. © 2020 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

The article demonstrates the states growing responsibility in making management decision in the context of the world and national economies’ unstable development. Industrial policy is one of the key instruments for implementing managerial decisions. We identified the notions of industrial policy (in a broad sense) and structural policy. Further, we classified concepts of industrial policy according to the scale of regulation subject and the states role in economy. The appearance of a network aspect of industrial policy focused on the concept of digital state (e-state) was noted. 200 years of industrial policy’s evolution demonstrate its constantly growing obligation to be the guarantee of social welfare. Nevertheless, in Russia legal understanding of industrial policy does not include any aspects of social guarantees. Therefore, we analyzed industrial policy theoretical foundations showing the necessity for its reconstruction using a theory of new structural economics. We established premises and tools for the theory’s successful realization. Industrial Development Fund plays an important role in implementing industrial policy’s priorities as a variety of important programs including “Industry digitalization†are financed by this organization. On the level of regional economics, different regional funds are involved in the process of structural transformations.

The importance of considering mining wastes (MW) as a factor of increasing the balance level of subsoil management in regions is growing. Firstly, it happens because of the gradual exhaustion of mineral deposits. Secondly, the formation of significant volumes of mining wastes (regularly generated and already accumulated over a sufficiently long period of time) represents a unique reserve of minerals. These trends are accompanied by the lack of effective waste management programs built on a fundamental theoretical and methodological basis for assessing mining wastes in terms of the balanced subsoil management. One of the key steps is the development of tools for assessing the balance level of subsoil management taking into account MW. An analysis of the domestic and foreign research revealed the lack of works directly related to the development of such methodological approaches. We hypothesise that there is a direct correlation between the creation and use of the fundamental theoretical and methodological basis for assessing MW from the standpoint of the balanced subsoil management (including the methodological tools for assessing the balance level of subsoil management considering MW as a managing tool) and the efficiency of the policy regulating subsoil use and regional waste management. The study’s key result is the creation of the the improved tools for assessing the balance level of subsoil management taking into account MW. We have proven that application of these improved tools for subsoil management increases its efficiency through constant monitoring of the dynamics of the key indicators of the balanced subsoil management. We tested the improved methodological tools for assessing the balance level of subsoil management taking into account MW on the example of the Sverdlovsk Region. The results have demonstrated the indicator of 52.62 %. Nevertheless, consideration of mining wastes positively affects the level of subsoil management. That result indicates the importance of considering MW as a source of reproduction of the region’s mineral resources base. © 2019 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

. . ) , . . , , ) , . . ) , . . ) ) . . (

Russia ranks third in the world after the United States of America and Germany by the number of migrants. Migrants bring health risks for the population of host territories. Combined with social factors, this fact differently impacts the indicators of public health. The paper aims to assess the possible impact of various aspects of the internal and external migration in the Russian regions on the prevalence of the socially dangerous diseases: HIV, active tuberculosis, syphilis, drug addiction, acute and chronic viral hepatitis B and C. Correlation and econometric analysis are the main research methods. The main research methods we use are correlation and econometric analysis. We constructed panel models for each of the considered diseases. The models test various socio-economic indicators (including money income, housing improvements, population’s education level, and the incidence of alcoholism), as well as climatic, geographical and demographic indicators. Moreover, we tested various indicators characterizing labour immigration, migrants’ inflow to the region from other countries and other regions, and a share of people born outside the region in resident population. Additionally, we considered the impact of morbidity rate and proximity of some countries’ borders. We tried to track the changes of the factors influencing spread of diseases as time passes. As a result, we established a positive significant statistical correlation of the following indicators of migration and incidence: 1) employment of foreign citizens and incidence of syphilis in 2005; 2) share of internal migrants in the population and incidence of drug addiction in 2005; 3) employment of foreign citizens and incidence of drug addiction in the period from 2006 to 2016; 4) inflow of foreign citizens and detection of chronic viral hepatitis in 2010; 5) inflow of foreigners and incidence of acute viral hepatitis C in the period from 2011 to 2016. The obtained results can be useful for experts and researchers interested in the issues of regulating and optimising the region’s socio-economic policy and medical and demographic processes. © 2019 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

In the article I introduce the concept of "the scientific and research forces of society". The concept characterises an independent factor of economic growth that includes a system of searching for new knowledge along with the mechanisms and structures for transferring it into production. I demonstrated the difference between the scientific and research forces of society and the scientific and intellectual potential of society. The general condition for the forces' development is the establishment of the creative spirit in society, that is the positive attitude to search for new technological, economic and social ideas. The weak development of the society's scientific and research forces is the reason for the restrained growth of the territories' technological potential and the associated level of the population's welfare. I analysed the dynamics of the number of personnel engaged in research and development. Further, I hypothesised that in Russia there has been a tendency for science to leave the region and concentrate in "capital territories". That tendency leads to the possibility of the regional peripheral economy's emergence. Thus, I substantiated the necessity of expanding the regional and urban research activities in order to form regional and urban scientific and research forces of society. Such forces will ensure the transition of the country, regions and municipalities to a new level of technological development. I proposed the measures for strengthening the relationship between science, government and business by creating a fiscal mechanism, reflecting the interests of entrepreneurs and society. The mechanism should include the creation of the fund for the development of science in Russia and its regions. © 2019 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.