Modeling spatial development of national and world economies: evolution in approaches

Forty years passed since the fist long-term forecast of the spatial economic development in the USSR based on an interregional input-output model had been made. That fact stimulated the start of a new direction in the studies carried out by the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, namely the economic-mathematic researches devoted to the spatial development aspects in economic systems. The studies started by the Novosibirsk academic school have been continued by many other research centers. The paper analyses the results and lessons obtained, such as the application of the interregional models to USSR’s centralized economy; creation of the theory and tools to study the interregional relations existing in a decentralized market economy; how regions operate within the national economy; the existed economic relations between the union republics before the USSR’s collapse; results of studies carried out in cooperation with V. Leontyeff and with the UN Secretariat and devoted to world economy models, as well as the models concerning the spatial economic development in Russia at present. The author presents voluminous literature.