Regional Projection of the Agglomeration Economy in Russia

The article examines the functioning of the agglomeration economy in Russian regions, empirically analyzes the performance of enterprises, and studies their dependence on proximity to a large regional market. The information basis of the study is SPARK-Interfax data for 2019–2020. The analysis did not confirm the widespread opinion that agglomeration effects manifest themselves in very limited areas of the Center of Russia. Econometric estimates point to a significant contribution of the agglomeration economy to the performance of companies in different parts of the country. In all geographical zones and federal districts of the Russian Federation, there are regions with both significant and insignificant positive agglomeration effects; in some regions they are negative. The manifestation of agglomeration effects in the regions does not depend either on the density of economic activity or on the level of development of communication infrastructure. Clearly, the lack of cooperation between local producers hinders the realization of the country’s existing agglomeration potential.