Structural Transformations Management in Old-Industrial Regions of Ukraine: The Concept of Public Policy

The concept of public policy of structural transformations in old-industrial regions of Ukraine has been grounded. The necessity to separate old-industrial region as an object of public regional policy has been proven, as well as to manage structural changes with the obligatory orientation on the principles of “new regionalism”. This grounding is based on the studies of historical and economic prerequisites of old-industrial regions' emergence in the world and in Ukraine; on the theoretical generalization of the essence of a category “old-industrial region”, clarification of the characteristics of old-industrial regions, specifying its properties, generated by the regularities of long-time development of these regions at the industrial basis; on the critical generalization of world experience of structural reconstruction old-industrial regions, rethinking this process based on practical faults' analysis, finding out its causes and evolution of approaches to economic structure of the regions improvement; on the determination of specific features of old-industrial regions (structural and social inertia, endogenous depressiveness, low adapting capacity, low inclusiveness of development) as structure-creating determinants, that set general and specific imperatives of overcoming structural contradictions of its economic development (diversification, smart-specialization, restructuring of “basic” industries of economy of the regions); on finding out of the basic features of posttransformation model of the economy of old-industrial regions of Ukraine – the “post-industrial synthesis” model – as the result of structural changes in its economy. The implementation of the model is indicated by the formation of a number of substantial features (structural lability, social initiative and adaptiveness, territorial cohesion and economic inclusiveness, capacity to endogenous growth).