Value-added interregional inequality assessment of border regions in Russia

Abstract

The economic development of Russian border regions is accompanied by a high level of interregional disparities both within the group of border regions and across the country. The purpose of the article is to assess the degree of interregional inequality of border regions in comparison with inner ones. Based on the key indicator of regional economic development, Gross Regional Product (GRP) per capita, various indicators of interregional inequality (coefficients of variation, the ratio of the maximum value to the minimum value, the Gini and Theil coefficients) were calculated, and σ-convergence and absolute β-convergence were estimated. Estimations of all indicators show that sharp changes in inequality, as well as the level of interregional inequality itself, are characteristic of border regions. For the interior regions, the dynamics are smoother, and the degree of inequality is significantly lower. This allows concluding that the main reason for the formation of interregional inequalities in Russia is inter-regional inequality in the group of border regions.