Socioeconomic Situation of Russian Urban Agglomerations in 2015–2021

The article gives a comparative assessment of the features and trends in the development of urban agglomerations of the Russian Federation in 2015–2021 based on a set of key socioeconomic indicators. A special feature of the study is the testing of a method for assessing the level of economic development of urban agglomerations using data from the Russian Federal Tax Service on the volume of tax revenues. The analysis confirms that urban agglomerations make an extremely high contribution to the economic development of the country and continue to form the basis for growth of the tax economy. The largest contribution to country development indicators is still made by the largest Moscow urban agglomeration; the concentration of resources within its borders has only increased in recent years. The differentiation of the remaining urban agglomerations among themselves is great, and their total contribution in a number of indicators is comparable to that of the Moscow urban agglomeration. Urban agglomerations with pronounced industrial specialization show the best economic results, but development of the economic complex in them does not have an incentivizing effect on the growth of labor market indicators, household incomes and, as a consequence, service sectors. The least developed urban agglomerations remain those with a high role of shadow sectors in the economy and those that were administratively appointed rather than allocated as a result of natural development (Ulan-Ude, Penza, and Ryazan urban agglomerations). Such urban agglomerations are located in regions of the country with a depressed economic situation. Reduced values are also typical of many urban agglomerations of the Volga region. Within individual urban agglomerations, there is a clear manifestation of center–periphery differences in most indicators; however, the study showed that the level of development of urban agglomeration cores and suburbs is not always high, and the positive influence of the urban agglomeration core rarely extends beyond the near belt. The results of the study give grounds to propose a narrower approach when delimiting the boundaries of urban agglomerations, and also prove that current government measures for the development of urban agglomerations in the country (except for Moscow urban agglomeration) have not yet had a significant impact on accelerating economic growth and expanding the geography of influence of agglomeration factors.