The Formation of Industrial Clusters as a Factor in the Region's Economy Development

In the conditions of tough international competition, states are forced to resort to changes in the instruments of economic activity. One such tool is the use of the cluster concept at the regional level. In my masters thesis examined the evolution of the concept "cluster", its characteristics, classification of modern economic clusters, and the analysis aimed at identifying statistically significant relationships between the presence of industrial clusters in Russian regions and their main socio-economic indicators. The analysis was conducted by means of software product R using the method based on point scoring and the PP method. The results of the study revealed a relationship between the indicator of the presence of large industrial clusters in the region and indicators of the economically active population; the number of persons employed in the region; unemployment rate; share of high-tech products and knowledge-intensive industries in GRP; indicators of transport infrastructure. The identification of these dependencies allowed us to generate a series of recommendations for effective functioning of the clusters in Russia and concluded that on the basis of the results of the study can be optimized process of creation and functioning of clusters in the regions that really need it. In other words, clusters should be formed primarily in regions with a high unemployment rate and low proportion of the economically active population. In addition, the cluster is to create with the innovative potential of the regions, namely in regions where there is a favourable innovation environment, as the emergence of industrial clusters can contribute to the development of new business solutions and products.