EVALUATION OF THE POSSIBILITY FOR ENTERPRISES TO ENTER INTO THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLUSTER IN THE SPHERE OF HOUSING AND COMMUNAL SERVICES
Authors:   FSAEI HE «Ural Federal University named after the first President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin», Leonova L.B. 
Published: January 2021

The article discusses various methodological approaches to assess the possibility for enterprises to join into the socio-economic cluster in the housing and communal services. A brief description of such approaches as the assessment of the propensity indicator is given; difference in differences and fixed effects; synthetic control; fuzzy sets and regression gap techniques. The advantages and disadvantages of each of the considered methods are revealed. The regression gap technique is discussed more in details in this article. According to the authors of the article, this approach is the most appropriate. To assess the entry into the socio-economic cluster, large management companies (MC) were selected serving more than 300 houses, and large construction companies of the city specializing in the construction of large residential areas in the city of Yekaterinburg. In total, there are 884 MCs in the city, and 1771 MCs in the Sverdlovsk Region. Therefore, for a possible entry into the housing and communal services cluster, 10 large construction companies providing housing services and 10 management companies operating in the field of public utilities were chosen. The gross revenue indicator of the companies was the main criterion. The motivation for the entrance into the cluster of housing and communal services for enterprises was to be a subsidy from the Ministry of Housing in the amount of 500 million rubles for the implementation of the national project "Housing and Urban Environment". Additional financing is possible only in case, if the enterprise joins the socio-economic cluster of the housing and communal services, as well as in the case of the social responsibility of this enterprise, since all housing and communal services enterprises have social responsibility and social orientation. As a result of the study, it was revealed that the proposed approaches are possible for application in areas operating in conditions of perfect market competition or in the social sphere. However, from the point of view of the entry of enterprises into the socio-economic cluster in the housing sector, when a number of enterprises, for example, construction companies, management companies that operate and live according to market laws in a competitive environment, while others are monopolists, for example, resource supplying organizations in the sphere of Housing and communal services, it is not possible to unequivocally assess the positive impact on the activities of enterprises with their participation in the socio-economic cluster. Still, in Russia the housing and communal services stands apart, it is unique, since the laws of the market and perfect competition do not work in it. And who will be a participant or beneficiary of the socio-economic cluster, which means that it will receive budgetary funding, is decided only by regional government bodies represented by the Ministry of Housing and Utilities.