The Impact of Spatial Effects on Regional Development

In this paper, an assessment of regional development using spatial econometric models was carried out. The literature review presents the application of econometric spatial instruments. In this paper, we chose variables for constructing regression equations and several types of weighting matrices that allow us to quantify regional interaction. 75 regions of the Russian Federation are investigated in the period from 2005 to 2013. The main conclusion of the study was that truly spatial effects have a strong impact on the development of regions. This means that regional development programs should be directed not to specific regions, but to groups of geographically neighboring regions. The sample was divided into two parts - the Western and Eastern regions, for which regressions were tested. Significant spatial relationships were found for the Western group of regions. The spatial relationships for the Eastern regions turned out to be weak.