THE IMPACT OF DIGITAL PLATFORMIZATION ON THE ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY OF REGIONAL SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

Abstract

Within a few years, digital platforms have turned from a niche phenomenon into an infrastructure through which employment, trade and access to services pass for a significant part of the Russian population. Their impact on regions is ambiguous: platforms expand earning and sales opportunities beyond large centres, yet at the same time shift onto workers and small businesses risks previously shared between the state and employers. The aim of the article is to identify the channels through which digital platformization affects the economic sustainability of regional socio-economic systems and to determine the balance of stabilizing and destabilizing effects. The methodology includes a systems approach to regional sustainability, a comparative analysis of Russian estimates of the scale of platform employment and the platform economy, and the construction of a matrix of impact channels with monitoring indicators. Estimates of the number of platform workers in Russia are shown to differ by more than five times, which in itself complicates governance. Four impact channels are identified: the labour market, entrepreneurship, the socio-fiscal sphere and spatial structure. In the short run platforms increase the adaptability of regional systems, whereas in the long run they create risks associated with the lack of social protection, the concentration of market power and growing spatial polarization. Calculations show that only about 0.4% of the self-employed pay pension contributions. The practical significance lies in the proposed system of indicators enabling regional authorities to take platform employment into account in socio-economic development strategies.