Assessment of the Socio-Ecological and Economic Welfare of the Russian Eastern Regions Using Sen’s Extended Function

Abstract

The accelerated development of the Russian Far East is among the country’s national priorities. Since the ultimate goal is to increase the well-being of the population, it is important to create a healthy environment. The article presents the comprehensive assessment results of the welfare of the Eastern regions in the context of achieving the strategic goals of the state policy for the development of the Russian Far East. The research aims to assess the character of socio-economic development, as well as to obtain quantitative characteristics of socio-ecological and economic well-being of the Eastern regions using a multiplicative model based on Sen’s extended welfare function. It is hypothesised that environmental factors play an important role in the quality of life in the Eastern regions, meaning that the inclusion of the corresponding component in the multiplicative model will lead to a decrease in the assessment of their welfare. For some regions, the study identified such negative trends as the strengthening of the raw material orientation of economic development, a decrease in the share of manufacturing industries, continuing resource export. The inclusion of the environmental component into the multiplicative model significantly affected the assessment results: in most of the Eastern regions, environmentally adjusted characteristic of regional development was significantly lower than the indicator that does not consider this aspect. Moreover, some border regions showed the worst dynamics of the examined indicators. Advantages of the border situation and accelerated development mechanisms currently implemented in the Far East have not yet contributed to a noticeable increase in the welfare of these regions. The research results can be used in the public administration practice for developing strategic planning documents, socio-economic and environmental programmes, as well as for evaluating the effectiveness of implemented accelerated development mechanisms.