Cluster-Agglomeration Effects: Mechanism of Generation and Evaluation

Abstract:

the relevance of the article is due to the global processes of the formation of agglomerations in the world space and their increasing impact on the economic development of the territories. Of particular importance are the studies of problems of cluster and agglomeration effects due to the fact that in the Russian Federation urban agglomerations have not yet become the drivers of economic development of the territories. Therefore, the article poses the problem of considering the processes that generate cluster-agglomeration effects: territorial concentration in leading industries and the formation of clusters; compact living of the population and urbanization. The aim of the work is to assess the strength of cluster-agglomeration effects caused by the specific functioning of enterprises of various types of economic activity in 11 Russian cities with population over 1 million people. The research was based on the following methods: calculation of city specialization coefficients, estimation of industrial concentration by calculation of the Herfindahl index, analysis of cluster-agglomeration effects. The results of the research: 1) within a city, the strength of the impact of agglomeration effects of different types of economic activity is different due to the sector specific nature of the resources used, human capital, exceptional factors of production and technology; 2) there is a significant territorial heterogeneity of the force of agglomeration effects generated by the same type of economic activity for different million cities; 3) dynamics of agglomeration effects by types of economic activity (extraction of minerals, processing industries, provision of electric energy, gas and steam, air conditioning) for 2005-2015 indicates that the most "cluster-agglomeration effects" are generated by the "manufacturing industries". Key findings: the proposed tool allows to diagnose the mechanisms of cluster-agglomeration effects formation and to develop the goals and directions of the state policy of cluster-agglomeration initiatives development and projects at different levels of management: at the regional, at the city or local level.