Regional Differences Assessment in the Level of Economic Development and Life Quality

The main purpose of this article is to examine theoretical and methodological framework for assessing the differences in the level of economic development and quality of life in the regions. The study of existing approaches to the regional classification led to a conclusion of insufficient use of opportunities in the comparative analysis of such research angles as comparison at the federal level and examination of the situation in the territory in dynamics to determine the rates of change of the measured indicators. In connection with this, the author elaborated a method of static and dynamic analysis of differences in the level of economic development and quality of life based on the developed system of indicators, and formed a typology of regions on the basis of this system. The typology involves the division of territories into four clusters according to their level of development under static conditions (in absolute terms at the Russian level) and in dynamics (in relative terms at the national level). The end of the article presents the results of application of this method in the Siberian Federal District (SFD) (analytical framework for 2003-2013), according to which the social and economic indicators of the SFD fall significantly behind the national average ones under static conditions, but have higher dynamic estimates. In some regions, the situation varies considerably. The article also contains the methodology for determining the relationship between indicators of the level of economic development and quality of life to assess the impact of the crisis on satisfaction of the population needs