Inter-Regional Inequality and Convergence of Russian Regions In 2000-2016

The purpose of this master's thesis is to assess inter-regional inequality and convergence of the Russian regions. The relevance of this study is due to the importance of assessing inter-regional inequality and inter-regional equalization of the socio-economic situation of the regions within the framework of regional policy. As part of this master's thesis, the following tasks were performed: (1) Absolute and conditional beta convergence, as well as sigma convergence of GRP per capita, real average monthly wages, budget revenues per capita, own per capita incomes at different periods of time were analyzed. (2) Absolute beta convergence of various types of wages was analyzed, namely, real average monthly wages, nominal average monthly wages, nominal median wages, real median wages for three periods 2005-2009, 2009-2015 and 2005-2015. The main conclusions of this master's thesis: (1) We found the presence of convergence (among all samples) of real wages per capita, nominal median wages, real median wages, budget revenues per capita, own budget revenues per capita. Unfortunately, we did not find a convergence of GRP per capita. (2) We found the negative dynamics of beta coefficients in all samples and among all indicators (except GRP per capita), which implies a movement towards divergence. Among some indicators in the last study period, we can observe a divergence