Regional Social and Economic Imbalances: Evidence from Data Envelopment Analysis in Kazakhstan

The problem of territorial socio-economic imbalances remains one of the key issues in Kazakhstan's regional policy, as differences between the economic potential of regions and the achieved social results persist even with sustained economic growth. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the transformation of economic and infrastructural resources of the regions of Kazakhstan into social results, primarily in reducing poverty and unemployment. The methodological basis of the study is the nonparametric method of Data Envelope Analysis (DEA), which makes it possible to assess the relative effectiveness of regions as decision-making units in converting resources into social outcomes. The results of the DEA analysis showed that 13 of the 20 regions achieved full efficiency, while 7 regions demonstrated relative inefficiency, including Almaty с. (0.8087), Mangystau (0.8840) and Pavlodar (0.9327) regions. At the same time, a territorial differentiation of social indicators was revealed: the depth of poverty varies from 0.3 to 1.6, and the proportion of the population with incomes below the subsistence level ranges from less than 3% to more than 8%. The results showed that a high level of economic development in the region does not guarantee proportionately high social efficiency, and territorial imbalances are associated with differences in management efficiency and resource use. A promising area of further research is to expand the time coverage of the analysis through the use of panel data, which will allow us to assess the dynamics of the relative effectiveness of regions and identify trends in the transformation of economic resources into social outcomes.