Abstract. In this paper, we study the reasons for extremely high difference in energy intensity of the Russian regions under different methodological approaches. We compare the most popular measures of state's energy efficiency policy in Russia with best world practices and investigate the factors of their effectiveness. We test the hypothesis that the level of development of regional innovation system determines how the regional economy reacts to the removal of market barriers to energy efficiency. Our findings reveal that in the face of rising electricity prices, regions with well-developed regional innovation systems induce technical and other kinds of innovation in the field of energy efficiency, while other regions are not able to reduce their energy intensity. The main practical implementation of the study is that market measures for improvement of energy efficiency do not work in the regions with underdeveloped innovation systems.
Subject. The article addresses circular models of production systems organization. In Russia, the circular economy concept has not been significantly developed, either theoretically or practically.
Objectives. We focus on developing a method for quantitative assessment of the current level and a potential for circular economy development in Russian regions. The method rests on the analysis of business environment. The proposed approach to measuring the level of circular economy development was tested on the data from the Central, Northwestern and Southern Federal Districts for 2017.
Methods. The study employs general scientific methods.
Results. Our calculations show that Moscow, the Chechen Republic, the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, the Orel and Bryansk regions had the highest level of circular economy development in 2017. As for the Chechen Republic, this result is explained by the fact that the region has zero environmental expenditures, including the organization of the waste management system. Therefore, in the practical use of the offered method, we propose to exclude objects with zero and extremely low cost of environmental management from sample data.
Conclusions. The lack of reliable data on circular economy development creates significant management problems, making it difficult for government departments to forge an adequate strategy for production models systems, which are specific to the circular economy, as well as a system of measures to boost it.
We apply window Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to the solution of the problem of assessment of the efficiency of regional production systems in Southern Russia. The proposed method allows to monitor the changes in efficiency of regional economic systems throughout time and has a high discrimination power. The simplicity of the technical implementation of the proposed method and the availability of the necessary software for its use allow one to hope for its wide implementation in the modern practice of regional environmental management.
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