Structural changes in the economy of the Russian Northwest: spatial dimension

This paper identifies and explains trends in the economic transformations in the Russian Northwest (NWFD). It studies changes in the structure of the gross regional product (GRP) and economic specialization of the NWFD regions. The authors suggest approaches to managing structural changes in the economies of the NWFD regions. The authors propose a new method for the identification of the regional economic specialization based on the regional economy sectoral development rate. The article describes a methodology for identifying the development of the regional economic sectors using the gross value added index calculated per capita and per sector against the national average. The article presents the analysis of the structural changes in the NWFD gross regional product. The proposed gross value added index helps to identify the upward and downward trends in each sector compared to the national average. Based on this analysis, the authors describe the nature of changes in the NWFD sectoral specialisation, which correlated with the distance to large economic cores - Moscow and St. Petersburg. The authors prove that the economic development of the Northwest macroregion follows the core/periphery pattern. The regional economy structure depends on the position of a given region in relation to the core. Concrete approaches to managing structural changes in the economies of periphery regions are proposed.