Economic value of single-industry municipalities: A methodological approach to research

The Western sanctions pressure, global supply chains undergoing a significant transformation, volatile commodity markets, and the necessity for the accelerated import substitution increase the strategic value of single-industry municipalities. Many of them locate high-tech and systemically important production facilities, which are essential for the sustainable spatial development of the country. The above explains the rationale for assessing the level of the single-industry municipalities’ development in the Russian Federation in order to identify the most efficient methods for managing them. The paper aims to create a methodological approach to the research of the economic value of the single-industry municipalities in the economic space of a region. The methodological basis of the study consists of the theoretical propositions of spatial economics, urban studies, as well as the value-based and localisation approaches. The study relies on the methods of systematisation, generalisation, functional analysis, and synthesis. The formulated methodological approach to the research of the economic value of the single-industry municipalities encompasses a consecutive evaluation of their participation in the functioning and development processes of a region’s economic space, as well as an assessment of their functional utility, which is the result of them performing city-forming and city-servicing functions. The theoretical and practical significance of the methodological approach lies in that it allows evaluating the economic value of the single-industry municipalities as unique research objects simultaneously linking it to the functioning and development of a region’s economic space.