Trends in Social Sustainable Development Indicators for Russian Oil-and-Gas Regions

The article presents an assessment of social sustainable development indicators for Russian oil-and-gas regions. Natural energy resources are one of the most important factors in ensuring the competitiveness of regional economy. However, the resource sector development leads to a subnational resource dependence and to a decline in the quality of life indicators. Natural resources could be a motor of economic development. For this purpose, local authorities should enhance the social and market infrastructure, innovation and investment activity, create institutions that support diversification and prevent the overindulgence of resource companies. The natural resources’ impact on the quality of life for Tomsk Oblast, the Komi Republic, the Udmurt Republic, the Republic of Tatarstan, and Samara Oblast was assessed. These regions have small energy resource (oil and gas) reserves, but mining creates 15 to 30% of the regional product. Extractive industries employ 2% of the workforce. World economy trends in 2008-2018 had a significant negative impact on the mining sector of these regions. Dependence on oil prices has led to a reduction in subnational budget revenues, the Gross Regional Product growth rate has declined, the poverty rate has increased, and the quality of life indicators have decreased. Demographic indicators (fertility and mortality rates) have also worsened. The social and economic development indicators in most of the considered oil-and-gas regions became worse than the same indicators in Russia. This fact indicates a high level of resource dependence of subnational economies (resource curse). Only in the Republic of Tatarstan the resource sector became the motor of the regional economic performance, despite the decline in oil prices. As a result, Tatarstan occupies a leading position in the rating of the quality of life indicators. The level of poverty in Tatarstan is lower than in other resource regions and in Russia. Tatarstan also has a high level of population growth, low unemployment, and higher rates of economic growth than Russia. The worst situation is in Tomsk Oblast and in the Komi Republic, in which the share of the extractive sector in the Gross Regional Product is 30%; therefore, the indicators of the socioeconomic development are highly dependent on the oil-and-gas companies’ performance. Low diversification, transport accessibility limitations, poor natural and climatic conditions, as well as a decrease in the income of oil-and-gas companies due to the fall in oil prices leads to an increase in poverty rates in these regions, increases the out-region migration of the working-age population, which reduces regional competitiveness. Thus, the economies of most of the considered oil-and-gas regions cannot be considered sustainable.

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