Modeling of Structural and Institutional Factors of Development in Regions Unfavorable for Agriculture

The paper aims to assess the influence of structural and institutional factors on agricultural development in the regions where rural areas are qualified as unfavorable for agriculture by the government of the Russian Federation. The discussed factors particularly include rural unemployment, sectoral structure of the regional economy and agriculture, and forms of ownership of food producers. The proxy used as a gauge of regional agricultural development level is the output per person employed in the sector of "agriculture, hunting and forestry" as it is defined for statistical purposes. The application of economic and mathematical methods of analysis helped to create a set of regression models, which showed several distinctive geographical groups among the unfavorable regions. Each group of regions calls for specific individual strategies of transition to sustainable development of the disadvantaged agricultural territories.