Population shrinkage and economic growth in Russian regions 1998–2012

This paper analyses the relationship between demographic decline and economic development in Russian regions in the period 1998–2012, demonstrating how shrinking regions undertook different economic growth patterns. In some cases, population decline was associated with an effective restructuring of the regional economic system. Successful shrinking regions appear to have, at the beginning of the period, a higher endowment of private capital and a higher share of the young population than the other shrinking regions. In 2012, these differences were even broader, suggesting the potential occurrence of a vicious cycle for the unsuccessful shrinking regions, for which the process of depopulation did not probably stop here.