THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF METROPOLITAN CITIES IN THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: ASSESSMENT ISSUES

Abstract

The article examines the social and economic development of territorial entities. The authors focus on the metropolitan cities of Russia, i.e., the administrative centers of the entities of the Russian Federation. The article examines the existing economic and legal literature on the problems and prospects of the social and economic development of cities. The existing limitations in the application of certain assessment methods regarding the territorial aspect are outlined. The authors have developed a methodology for multi-criteria assessment of the social and economic development level (SED index) of cities based on the assessment of key components of the social and economic development of metropolitan cities in the Russian Federation. The methodology was tested based on municipal statistics data from 83 metropolitan cities in the Russian Federation. The study covered the period from 2019 to 2021. The findings were assessed by comparing cities ‒ objects of the study, grouped by population size. The analysis demonstrated differentiation in the level of development of metropolitan cities, with the highest dispersion of values observed in the group of big cities with populations ranging from 250 thousand to one million people. Furthermore, the study found the general downward trend in the dynamics of the level of social and economic development of metropolitan cities in the Russian Federation over the studied period. The proposed methodology can be used to conduct studies of the social and economic development of territorial entities, monitor the level of social and economic development of cities, and make effective management decisions to reduce the excessive distance between city development levels.