DEVELOPMENT OF DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE RUSSIAN REGIONS

The paper proposes the use of expanded Mankiw - Romer - Weil model of economic growth (MRW), which includes additionally intellectual, social, infrastructure and integration capital. Based on regression modeling using panel data for 2011-2016, the importance of the digital infrastructure for the economic growth of Russian regions is justified. The indicators of the so-called digital infrastructure capital, which includes the degree of penetration of access to broadband Internet, the intensity of the use of server equipment and local computer networks in regional enterprises, are significant in the models built. In addition, the hypothesis was confirmed on the existence of permanent elasticities of the gross regional product and gross regional product per capita for the above-mentioned indicators of the digital infrastructure. As a result of adding digital infrastructure capital variables to the model, there is a transition from the production function with constant return to scale (constant return to scale) to the production function with increasing return. In addition, the total contribution of digital infrastructure indicators, estimated by the sum of their elasticities, is half of the contribution of traditional factors - labor and physical capital. Also, most of the differences in gross regional product per capita and in the regions of Russia are determined by indicators of digital infrastructure. This fact clearly demonstrates the prospects and importance of digital transformation in Russia. It is worth noting that the mobile Internet, which is one of the important attributes of the digital economy development, as well as a condition for the development of modern forms of social capital, has been increasing its influence over time.