Nowadays, defining the role and position of single-industry towns in regional systems becomes the research object of many studies. The economists, given the bad conditions in single-industry towns, try to prove the feasibility of further development of single-industry towns (through economic restructuring) or its resettlement. The purpose for the study is to determine the position of single-industry towns in the system of town distribution in Russia by using Zipf’s law according to the criterion of the volume of production of goods and services. The methodological base of the research is the rule of “rank-size” (Zipf’s law) the choice of which is determined by the relevance of this empirical law to many economic spheres. Profit distribution of the enterprises of single-industry towns suggests that income statistics is subject to Zipf's law. The research objects are cities and towns of the Russian Federation within corresponding Federal districts. The range of domestic production of cities included in the sample ranged from 10.8 million rubles to 2 160 129 rubles, of single-industry towns – from 1 million rubles to 6 682 545 million rubles. In the Central Federal District there is a strong correlation of “rank – production volume”. In the Northwest Federal District the situation is similar: the volume of production of Saint Petersburg is widely differentiated in the framework of the Federal district. In the Southern Federal District there is a relatively even distribution in terms of cities. In the North Caucasus, Zipf”s law is not followed, in the Volga Federal District there is am even uniform distribution of cities according to the indicator, the correlation “rank – production volume” is strange. In the Ural and Siberian Federal districts the cities are distributed unevenly. In the Far East, the value of Zipf’s coefficient is low: production is concentrated in certain cities. At the regional level (except the Southern Federal Districts and in the North Caucasus), the inclusion of single-industry towns in the sample has led to the violation of the rule “rank-size”. This distortion is the most evident in the Central and Volga Federal districts. The obtained results will be useful for the implementation of economic policy in the development of single-industry towns in Russia
Keywords
productive forces, single-industry town, town, zipf’s rule