THE IMPACT OF ETHNO-CULTURAL DIVERSITY ON ECONOMIC GROWTH AND SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT OF US CROSS-BORDER TERRITORIES

Abstract

1The article examines the key issues that reveal the impact of ethno-cultural diversity on the economy of territorial entities that differ in the specifics of their spatial organization. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study was the interrelated concepts of theoretical economics in the field of evolutionary-genetic, institutional, spatial and socio-cultural concepts, as well as the provisions of the new economic geography. The level of research is defined as mesoeconomic regional. The cross-border territories of the United States with Mexico and Canada are chosen as objects of research/empirical observation, characterized not only by the different cultural distance of diverse, sometimes extremely polarized, ethnic groups, but also by the multidirectional influence of the latter on the economic growth and spatial development of these territories. The chronotope of the study covers 1970—2020. With a forecast up to 2030. Through the use of methods and techniques of statistical and economic analysis and econometric regression modeling, results were obtained that reveal the dynamics, direction and nature of the desired influence of ethno-cultural diversity on economic processes in space-time, expressed through the impact of the effects of cultural diversity and spatial effects. The hypotheses put forward by the author have found full theoretical and empirical confirmation based on the results of the study. It is concluded that there is an objective increase in contradictions that contribute both to mesoeconomic regionalization in the United States in the short term and to a change in the socio-economic genotype of transboundary territories, understood as the most affected by ethno-cultural diversity in space-time.