Abstract: The report analyses key issues in cooperation between the government and private investors in a resource-rich region with significant deficiencies in transport and energy infrastructure. The lack of effective public-private partnership institutions (rules of interaction and mechanisms to ensure compliance with these rules) is most acute here, and the institutional features of the process of shaping the investment climate are playing an increasingly important role. These factors primarily include high transaction costs, which generally remain outside the scope of management. The imperfection of existing state institutions regulating the extraction of natural resources leads to an underestimation of this aspect of the problem and ignores the fact that the mechanism of interaction between high transaction costs and the principles of economic policy formation is quite complex and requires special tools. The report formulates the basic methodological principles of institutional design in subsoil use, based on the Stackelberg game. The key elements of the methodology are the Stackelberg model in the form of a bilevel mathematical programming problem; a set of metaheuristics that allow solving large-scale problems; principles for forming a database using predictive simulation models; and a method of numerical experimentation based on scenario analysis. The possibilities of this approach are demonstrated by the example of forming a consortium of subsoil users that would undertake the construction of the necessary public sector production infrastructure (railways, motorways, power lines) and the subsequent development of the region's natural resources. To this end, a triad of models is formulated, covering the most economically interesting organizational forms of such collaboration between the government and business. Based on information from the Trans-Baikal Territory, a comparative analysis of the equilibrium solutions of these models is carried out under different assumptions regarding the scenario of external conditions.

Cite: Lavlinskii S.
The Stackelberg model and the design of Russian subsoil use institutions: a methodology for solving practical problems
Mathematical Optimization Theory and Operations Research 2026 06-11 Jul 2026