Do urban agglomeration economies enhance the social profitability of rural roads? When all goods are traded at parametric world prices, lower transport costs benefit villagers. Urban activities and welfare are unaffected if labour is immobile, but their levels fall when rural workers move freely...

Russian President Vladimir Putin placed an emphasis on priority development of the resource regions of Eastern Siberia: this is related to the large-scale development of natural resources and to the development of modern manufacturing industries. In this context, it is necessary to solve the...