Methodology of research on the development of the digital economy in the regions of the Russian Federation

A comprehensive study of digitalization is of fundamental importance for the development of the national economic system – an assessment of the features of the development of the digital economy in the regions of the Russian Federation. In order to identify the competitiveness of Russian Federation in terms of digitalization, the authors performed international comparisons on the values of various digitalization indices. In order to study the level of development of the digital economy in the regional context, the authors formed a system of indicators. The article highlights groups of indicators that characterize the readiness of the population, organizations, and public administration. The paper gives the characteristics of the fluctuation of the values of indicators that characterize the level of development of the digital economy in the subjects. According to the results of comparing the indicators that characterize the readiness for the digital economy in the federal districts in 2018 with the average Russian value, the authors identified the leading and lagging federal districts. The study performed the ranking of federal districts according to the values of indicators characterizing the development of the digital economy, as a result of which, received conclusions regarding the uniformity of the development of the considered components of the digital economy. The paper systematizes recommendations for the implementation of multidimensional groupings of regions both in individual areas and in the entire set of indicators proposed for analysis. Based on the results of grouping by the method of cluster analysis, the authors formulate key conclusions for groups of subjects of the Russian Federation.The analysis made it possible to see not only the differentiation of the subjects of Russian Federation in terms of the level of development of the digital economy, but also the “weak points” of digitalization in different regions. The results obtained in the study can be useful for statisticians and economists when conducting research on the degree of informatization of the population and the economy both in the country as a whole and in its territories.