Examining Russian Regions from an Import Substitution Perspective

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)INTRODUCTIONThis work represents a continuation of author's research on foreign economic activity of the Russian Federation. For example, in an article titled "Typology of Export Specialization of the Russian Regions" the authors developed a typology of Russian regions based on export statistics from perspectives of determining structural specifics of regional specialization (Kashbrasiev, R.V., Stepin, A.G., Shtanchaeva, M.R., Maklakova, N.V. ,2014, p. 453). The assumption of balance in using financial resources from the sale of exported goods to resolve urgent tasks of regionalization of import substitution provided the background for the study of imports. The problem of import substitution by intensifying domestic production indirectly begins to be traced from the period of global financial crisis in 2008-2010. It was during this period that the direction connected with modernization of national productive forces was declared in Russia (Connolly, R., 2011, p. 428; Aleksashenko, S., 2012, p.31). Currently, this problem has become obvious, palpable, and urgent (Fal'tsman, V. K.,2015, p.15).In the work (Kashbrasiev, R.V., Stepin, A.G., Shtanchaeva, M.R., Maklakova, N.V. ,2014, p. 453) traditional methods were used to identify the types of regions according to commodity groupings used in Russian state statistics. Sequence of these groups is retained in the study of Russian imports, too. However, first, a new model, which we characterize as a "spider web" because it is based on a specific kind of a diagram, was used for typing regions' import. This model is a modification of the model used on the eve of introducing mathematical methods in geographical research in relation to the classification of urban settlements (Blazhko, N.I., Grigor'ev, S.V., Zabotin, J.I, 1970, p. 146). Second, compared with (Kashbrasiev, R.V., Stepin, A.G., Shtanchaeva, M.R., Maklakova, N.V. ,2014, p. 453), innovation is an index to measure the homogeneity of the structure of imports, which is used in the context of both individual subjects of the Russia and their trade groups forming types and subtypes.METHODS AND DATAAn analysis of the existing sectoral and territorial characteristics of foreign trade activities of Russia is proposed to conduct through using the typology of regions by main product groups. In this case, typology (classification) is a basis for determining ways to streamline the import (import substitution), most clearly appeared in the difficult socioeconomic conditions of the modern period. Next, we consider the basic theoretical positions, which may be regarded as the authors' methodology of scientific research in the given direction.Assume that the structural organization of foreign trade activities is presented:n - commodity groups, andm - regions (subjects).Then for each territorial entity with the number k, where k is defined as a sequence of natural numbers from 1 to m, which is symbolically written in the form (k = 1,2, ..., m), the economic result of foreign trade activity (in this paper it is import activity) for the . . commodity group i (i = 1,2, ...,n) for the region k is set as a^sup (k)^^sub i^. The overall result of foreign trade activity of the region k in this case is as follows:... (k=l,2,...,m).A share of a commodity group i is calculated according to the following formula:... (k = 1,2,...,m; i =1,2,...,n).For a given k (k = 1,2,... m) we determine the maximum value, which we denote as d^sup (k^sub o^)^^sub i^ . Then each of the values of the weighting factor of a commodity group i is divided by an amount corresponding to the maximum value. A dimensionless vector (it is recorded in the form of a row vector in aim to save space(β^sup (k)^) is obtained, which is composed of values β^sup (k)^^sub i^:...where ... (k = 1,2,...,nr, i =1,2,...n). It should be noted that any of the variables try β^sup (k)^^sub satisfies an unequation 0 ≤ i^β^sup (k)^^sub i^ ≤ 1. …