EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF CLUSTER STRUCTURES ON THE ECONOMY OF THE REGION

The article defines the necessity of forming complex production groups and technologically connected chains incorporating different business entities in order to achieve concrete economic results within one administrative territory. The authors propose a hypothesis of positive influence of cluster structures on the economy of the region. In order to assess the economic sustainability of the region and an evaluation system itself which is aimed at identifying priority cluster structures the authors conducted an analysis which identified the main elements of conjugation between the two evaluation systems: employment and investment in fixed assets. Based on the analysis it could be concluded that it is possible to use two methods to assess the impact of cluster structures on the economy of the region: 1) the comparison method based on the ranking of indicators by the degree of remoteness from the threshold value by the normalizing functions; 2) Shift-Share method. Approbation of the specified estimation methods was carried out in two groups of regions: 1) regions with no cluster structures; 2) regions with a dominant cluster development. Results of the assessment has proved the positive influence of cluster structures on the economy of the region and has revealed the advantages of using each of the proposed methods. The results of the research can be used by regional government bodies during the managerial decision making process regarding the formation of economic policy that ensure the sustainability of regional development through the implementation of cluster approach.