Reconsidering Long-term Trends in the Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Russia and the Regions in the post-Soviet Period

Vera A. Barinova – Head of International Laboratory for Research on Sustainable Development Problems Regionalism of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Head of Laboratory of Innovative Economics of the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, Candidate of Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Stepan P. Zemtsov – Director of Centre for Economic Geography and Regional Studies of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration; Senior Researcher of the Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, Candidate of Geographic Sciences (Moscow, Russia). Е-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Alexander A. Mikhaylov – Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Yulia V. Tsareva – Researcher of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Moscow, Russia). E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Traditionally, trends and patterns in the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Russia are assessed without taking into account changes in statistical criteria and methodologies, which can distort the analysis. This article describes and briefly explains the long-term trends in the development of the SME sector over the past 20 years in Russia, including taking into account a single end-to-end methodology of data series construction.

It was found that the number of SMEs in the country has been decreasing in recent years, but still exceeds the values of the 2000s due to the complication of the structure of the sector, the spread of various kinds of franchises and business fragmentation to avoid taxation. Actual employment in the SME sector, excluding the self-employed, has been declining for many years. Negative trends are associated with a decline in personal income and economic activity, especially during the pandemic.

In recent years, the number of forced entrepreneurs, self-employed, and, accordingly, the involvement of the population in entrepreneurial activity has been growing. The SME sector’s productivity is lower than in the economy as a whole, and in the last few years this gap has been growing as the average size of an SME decreases.

The study was carried out within the framework of the RANEPA state task in 2022.

Key words: small and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurial activity, labor productivity, employment, self-employed, Russian regions, pandemic.

JEL-codes: L26, P1.