Economic regionalization of Belarus. Determination of quantitative parameters of administrative units

In order to increase administrative efficiency, formulate regional policy, identify issues of local development, allocate resources, etc., most countries in the world subdivide their national territory into administrative units (regions). However, according to many scientists and practitioners, the established administrative units, despite their official status and stability, in most cases have some limitations and disadvantages associated with obtaining the necessary information about their development, especially when it comes to international comparability. That circumstance arouses great interest among the scientific community and practitioners in the issues of economic regionalization.In foreign literature, the identification and delineation of regions is usually based on the concept of local / regional labor markets. At the same time, local labor markets are influenced by a large number of external factors and are not stable over time, which complicates the procedure for determining the optimal number and quantitative parameters of administrative units. The article presents a methodology for determining the quantitative parameters of administrative units of various levels, based on the application of the “random forest†algorithm for the classification of territories using quantitative and categorical variables characterizing the level of their socio-economic development. Approbation of the methodology as exemplified by the Republic of Belarus made it possible to establish the critical values of the quantitative parameters of the administrative units of the first and basic levels, the achievement of which will ensure the uniform development of the selected regions.