Subject. The article focuses on theoretical and practical aspects of economic security. The main hypothesis hereof is that the threat is a key component of the security system, requiring the use of effective methods to identify risks and threats and decide on appropriate measures to be taken for security.
Objectives. I test the index-based method to analyze and evaluate the financial and economic security in order to group regions of the Volga Federal District by difference.
Methods. I apply general theoretical and empirical-statistical methods, including the comparative approach.
Results. I evaluated the differentiation of financial and economic security across regions of the Volga Federal District through the index-based method. The general index is assessed by a set of partial indices of fiscal revenue per capita, Gross Regional Product per capita, investment in the capital stock per capital, the number of enterprises and organizations, percentage of unprofitable enterprises, value of fixed assets per capita. I measured the debt-to-EBIDTA ratio, and the sufficiency of the budget and budget performance of regions in the Volga Federal District. I found that the regions are different in terms of the socio-economic development and the way they use the resource endowment. I propose a conceptual mechanism for the region’s financial and economic security.
Conclusions and Relevance. The regions were found to be different, with five zones of the financial and economic security being aligned, i.e. the model, high, tolerable, critical and hazardous zones. The overwhelming majority of the regions was attributed to the critical and hazardous zones by the financial and economic security. Administrative practices should be fundamentally revised. Decision-makers shall use modern methods to govern the area in order to ensure the long-standing and sustainable economic development.
