Priority development areas as a tool for enterprises support in Russian monotowns

Abstract

This paper aims to estimate the effectiveness of the Priority Development Areas (PDA) program in Russian monotowns at the firm level. Using data from the SPARK-Interfax database on Russian companies in 2014–2018, the authors estimate the effect of the PDA residency on the firms’ revenue growth in monotowns in Russia. The authors test two hypotheses. First, the status of the PDA resident is obtained by firms that have been successful in previous periods. Second, the PDA resident status does not have a positive effect on firm growth. To measure the treatment effect, the authors use the nearest neighbor propensity score matching method, which allows drawing conclusions about causality, as opposed to the ordinary least squares (OLS) method. The regressions consider the firm size, industry, and geographic location of the city. According to the results of the study, both hypotheses are confirmed. Resident status is determined by the gains in the company’s revenue for the two previous periods (the coefficients are significant in all specifications at the 5% level). The influence of residency on the firm’s revenue growth is neglected (becomes insignificant) when comparing enterprises with the same pre-2015 trends. Thus, the authors conclude that the success of the PDA program in Russian monotowns in terms of business support is questionable. The findings of the study are valid for enterprises established before 2015.