Regional cultural diversity in Russia: does it matter for regional economic performance?

Abstract

About 80% of the population of contemporary Russia are Russians. The remaining 20% are members of more than 180 other nationalities. In spite of processes of ethnic assimilation throughout Russian history, many ethnic groups retain their cultural identities. Cultural diversity in contemporary Russian society is determined by the historically rooted structure of ethnic and cultural space, and recent international and interregional migration. Although there is in general no relationship in Russia between ethnic heterogeneity and regional economic growth and convergence, there is an association between migration-induced diversity and growth, and there are regionally differentiated impacts of diversity on productivity. Regional spending on education is inversely related to ethnic heterogeneity. Differences between these results and the results of comparable studies of rich countries are considered.

Understanding cultural diversity and economic prosperity in Europe: a literature review and proposal of a culture–economy framework

“…As cultural diversity is theorized to be associated with preference heterogeneity , this may also indicate preference heterogeneity in consumption among culturally diverse consumers, such as in the Netherlands case discussed above (Bakens et al 2013). Alternatively, this may be related to consumption externality, such as the Russian regional case study (Limonov and Nesena 2016). Other evidence is a case study in Switzerland, showing that French, Italian, and Romansh-speaking populations favor social insurance more than the German natives (Eugster et al 2011).…”

“…A case study in Russia revealed approximately 180 nationalities comprising 20% of the Russian population, the rest (i.e., 80%) are Russians (Limonov and Nesena 2016). Accordingly, the index of population diversity (immigrants only) for 2000 is 0.766 out of 1, suggesting a quite high level of birthplace diversity (Alesina et al 2013(Alesina et al , 2016.…”

Immigrants’ housing in the housing market in Russia: from the results of sociological questionnaire

“…They had researched the case of Moscow city. In some geographer and demographer's previous literature (Vendina, 2004(Vendina, , 2005Zaionchikovskaya et al, 2009;Fedotenkov, Mikolajun, 2013;Limonov, Nesena, 2016), they researched the urban space pattern of immigrant labor settlement and their life culture, where do they live in Moscow. Especially since 90's increasing immigrant inflow into Moscow have brought some phenomenon of urban Moscow: 1) the downward pressure of housing price in some districts of Moscow, 2) the urban agglomeration and enlargement, 3) high density of population, 4) ethnic and cultural conflict between residents and immigrants.…”

Impact of ethno‐demographic structure of the population on performance of the Russian regions

“…Ethnodemographic heterogeneity implies the diversity of the population in terms of cultural identities: ethnic, as well as by region and country of origin, resulting from international and internal migration. In this context, the work is a continuation of a study on the evaluation of the impact of cultural diversity on the social and economic development of Russian regions (Limonov & Nesena, 2016).…”

“…All indices used in this study are described and discussed by Limonov and Nesena (2016). Table 1 presents the correlations of the indices with some important demographic, social and economic indicators.…”