The economy of Russian regions in a pandemic: do resilience factors work?

Abstract

Despite the reason that is atypical for modern economic crises, the differentiation of Russian regions in terms of their socio-economic development in 2020 corresponded to the prevailing ideas about the factors of regional resilience. The degree of economic diversification of the regions and the level of their innovation potential were of key importance. As the result, the largest cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) were in a relatively favorable position, where restrictions in certain types of activity were offset by an increase in demand for a number of complex services (in the IT sphere and others), the accelerated introduction of online formats of activity and remote employment. The specialization of the regional economy also mattered: the decline in the automotive industry was the highest, which is typical for crises. The general decline of the world economy hit the regions with large-scale extraction of fuel and energy resources. In 2020, the traditional factor of regional development was also significant – the capacity of sales markets, which also contributed to the growth of production in the largest cities and regions working for their markets and slowed down the development of manufacturing industries in the Far East. The border position of the regions did not have a clear impact on their development. It is assumed that the state anti-crisis policy allowed to slow down the decline in problem activities,while the increase in the production of goods and services in demanded activities was associated with the objective advantages of the territories.