In modern conditions, the role of territorial aspects of the development of economic systems is increasing both at the macro and mega levels, which is caused by socio-economic disproportions in regional development, which are particularly acute in the context of the transformational crisis associated with the transition to a market-oriented economy. The decline in production, the growth of unemployment in depressed regions, hyperurbanization, acute environmental problems, centrifugal trends in the regions of many countries require a scientifically based approach to solving the problems of managing regional development. Taking into account the acuteness of these problems, as well as the depth and thoroughness of domestic and foreign research in the field of economic and social aspects of regional development, today the economy and management of the region can be considered an independent, well-formed branch of science, even though some scientists tend to identify it with economic geography.
Economics and management of the region is a branch of economic science that studies the totality of socio-economic factors that determine the formation and development of productive forces and social processes in the regional system of the country and in each of its regions, as well as effective ways of purposeful influence on these factors.
The subject of the study of the economy and management of regions are the features and patterns of the distribution of productive forces and the development of regions, the factors of regional development and methods of influencing them in order to achieve the planned results.
As the name of the subject itself implies, the object of study of the economy and management of the region are the regions.
In the most general sense, the term “region” denotes an object isolated by one or another feature from the whole, basic according to the accepted classification criteria. Using this approach, the following can be classified as a region:
the part of the earth’s surface that differs in the relief of the terrain (the region of mountains, the region of the plains, etc.), the location (the European region, the North American, the Asia-Pacific region, etc.), climatic conditions (the region of low temperatures, the region of humid climate, etc.), the specifics of inhabited plants or animals (the region of subtropics, the region of deciduous forest species, etc.) and other conditions; area, place in space; a separate part of the world or the universe; field of science or art; administrative-territorial unit (district, district, region, etc.); areas with special living conditions (region of radioactive contamination, region with other rules of management), etc.
Synonymous, close in meaning to the term “region” is the concept of “district”. However, today the word “district” is more identified with the administrative-territorial division of the country, while “region” is used mainly to refer to territories that have certain common features.
We will adhere to the following definition. A region is a part of the country’s territory that has a common natural, socio-economic, national- cultural and other conditions. Moreover, the region does not necessarily have to coincide with the borders of the subjects of the states – in some cases it can be fully part of them or be located in the territories of several.
There are several types of regions, which include:
groups of countries (for example, caribbean countries, Asia-Pacific region, North African region, etc.) – mega-regions; the territories of the country, including several more or less large administrative-territorial units (Western Belarus, the Eastern zone of Russia, the West Coast of the United States) – macro-regions; large administrative-territorial units (region, region, etc.) – mesoregions; parts of the territory within regions or edges, sometimes called microregions.
As a scientific discipline, the economics and management of the region is based on the following research methods:
balance sheet, which consists in drawing up regional balance sheets that allow you to choose the right ratios between the branches of specialization of the region and industries that complement the territorial complex; cartographic, based on the use of various maps (geographical, places of occurrence of minerals, settlement of inhabitants, pollution, etc.); economic and mathematical methods and modeling related to the study of the properties of idealized, including formalized models of regions and the processes occurring in them; statistical, based on the collection and analysis of statistical information on the regions; comparative (comparative), associated with comparison, comparison of different regions, etc.
The discipline of economics and regional management is closely related to a number of other sciences and, above all, to economic geography, although, unlike it, it is engaged not only in the passive study of the fundamental problems of the regions, but also aimed at applied, practical research results, including active transformative influence, management of regional development. In addition, the economics and management of the region is based on the achievements of such scientific disciplines as economic theory, macroeconomic planning and forecasting, branch economies (economics of industry, agriculture, transport, etc.). It studies not only economic, but also social, demographic, environmental problems of regional development, is closely related to the theory of management and the basics of management. Nevertheless, widely relying on the achievements of the above sciences, integrating their foundations, economics and management of the region is a completely independent scientific discipline, the importance of which is immeasurably increasing in the context of global trends in globalization and regionalization.