Evaluation of the effectiveness of administrative-territorial transformations in Russia

In modern studies devoted to the issues of reforming the administrative-territorial division in the present and historical past of Russia, the point of view traditionally prevails, according to which the true goal of such transformations is to create not so much an economically efficient but a state-administrative territorial framework. However, most of these judgments are not supported by empirical evidence and quantitative estimates. Therefore, modeling the problem of the conflict of managerial and economic interests during the reform of the administrative-territorial division of Russia seems to be an interesting research task. Its solution will give a new assessment of the effectiveness of administrative- territorial transformations both in historical retrospect and in modern political realities. The authors collected statistical data for 135 years for studying the evolution of the territorial organization of Russia. The value of real GDP per capita in 1913 prices was chosen as an endogenous variable. As the main variables of interest, dummy variables were used, obtained according to the authors' grouping of historical events and characterizing political and economic initiatives to change the territorial division of the country. As a result of modeling, it was proved that the transformations on the "crossroads" of the administrative borders of the regions (regardless of the declared goals) during the period under review contributed more to solving the political and managerial tasks of the Center than to the economic development.