THE READINESS OF REGIONAL ECONOMIES TO MODERNIZATION
Today one of the actively used methods of assessing the situation in the subjects of the Russian Federation is their rating by levels of socio-economic development. This is widely spread opinion that such rating allows not only to determine the contribution of regional economies to the development of the Russian Federation, but also to assess the effectiveness of the regional executive power. Accepting certain correctness of this assumption, it should be noted that the place in the regional rankings of a particular region of the Federation does not always determine the readiness of its economy to self-development. This place, for example, can be determined with the assistance, rendered to the region by the federal Centre, since formally it demonstrates the growth of the regional budget revenues. As concerns the evaluation of the effectiveness of the regional management decisions, the situation here is even more complicated: the change of investment period with the period of technological innovations' development, gives as the “output” the visibility of a fall in economic activity. The study, conducted by the authors of the article, proves that in some cases the place in the ranking does not correspond to the real state of affairs. The economy of the region, which occupies last places in the ranking, may have obvious growth potential and the economy of the subject of the Federation, which is a member of the group of leaders, may be characterized by stagnation or even decline.