Public Investments in Domestic Software as a Tool for Accelerating the Economic Development of Russia

Purpose of the study. The state policy aimed at stimulating national economic growth should necessarily be based on justified scientific conclusions and the results of empirical studies. In particular, a relatively new method for accelerating the country’s economic development is state investment in the digitalization of the economy. In this respect, the present study aims to roughly estimate the economic effect of additional public investments in the development of domestic software and databases and the increase in the share of IT specialists in the total employment structure. Materials and methods. The paper used regression analysis methods for panel data based on Rosstat statistics. In particular, the authors applied the econometric fixed effects model. Results. The study demonstrated the higher efficiency of investment in the development of software and databases as compared to the similar efficiency of capital investment in other types of fixed assets. The possible economic effect of additional budget financing for domestic software developers was estimated. The results of calculations clearly demonstrate that additional capital investments in Russian software and databases in the amount from 0.16 to 0.64% of the Russian Federation’s consolidated budget annually (in 2020 prices and in relation to its size for the same period) can accelerate GDP growth in Russia by 0.16-2.44 percentage points per year. At the same time, these calculations hardly make it possible to speak about a strong impact of additional government spending on the increase in the number of people employed in the IT sector. Consequently, it cannot be stated with certainty that it is advisable to further increase the number of state-funded places at Russian universities in IT areas. However, this conclusion is based on panel data, the time interval of which ends in 2020. Taking into account the recent years’ trends can question the relevance of the obtained conclusion. Conclusion. Thus, additional public investment in the digitalization of the national economy and automation of business processes at Russian enterprises is an important tool for accelerating Russia’s economic development. Currently, many domestic enterprises and organizations implement large-scale projects aimed at deepening automation (creating “smart factories”, transferring state-financed institutions’ document flow into an electronic form, introducing artificial intelligence, and many others). Besides, the reduction in the presence of some foreign software manufacturers in Russia makes it relevant to minimize losses associated with the termination of access to foreign software and databases. One of the options for solving this problem is the financial stimulation of developers of their domestic counterparts.