Conditions and factors of dynamic development of the towns and cities of Russia: empirical analysis

The present system of towns of Russia is of hierarchical structure: millionaire cities, big cities, cities, towns and small towns. The living standards and quality of life in the towns of different sizes have significant differences, the most critical of which are the accessibility of education, high healthcare technology and employment of the population. The study of the conditions and factors of the industrial development of the cities encourages making more efficient managerial decisions, which determines the topicality and the novelty of the work. The methodological basis of the study is presented by the author’s economic and statistics model where the resulting indicator is the volume of shipped products per capita in the city as the main criterion of the economic growth. The analyzed factor indicators include the volume of the investment in the main capital per capita, the average number of employees of organizations, income of local budget per capita, the proportion of illuminated parts of city streets. The method has been tested on the towns and cities of the Central Federal District within the period of 2001–2020. The empirical results obtained in the modelling process lead to the conclusion that the main factors of towns’ industrial development are the volume of the investment in the main capital (one per cent increase will facilitate the growth of the volume of shipped products by 0.5%) and the income into the local budget (one per cent increase will facilitate the growth of the volume of shipped products by 1.2%). Dynamic development of a town or a city is ensured by a system of interrelated conditions and factors as well as by favorable natural and geographical conditions: good climate and resource base determining the economic vector of the area. In case of lack of natural potential it is essential to create conditions for the implementation of social-oriented programs, modernization of the infrastructure, support of middle and small businesses, etc. Such conditions will ensure attractive climate for investment, which will act as a driver for migration of well qualified experts and further economic growth. Practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of use of the results by the researchers who deal with the issues of town and regional development as well as by the regional and municipal authorities.