The paper outlines the nature of the spatial approach to the evaluation of the market capacity of Ukrainian regions, which is based on the evaluation of accessibility and capacity of regional markets and their attractiveness. The paper substantiates the fact that the evaluation of regions’ market capacity requires a complex approach that takes into account the available economic capacity of a region from the viewpoint of evaluation of demand and supply on the regional goods market. The availability of the relationship between the volume of market capacity and the number of economic entities is empirically verified. The declining level of spatial inequality by the market capacity index is revealed. The fact that empirical models of the evaluation of the unequal distribution of economic activity represented in the research of foreign scientists confirm that the most densely populated regions and regions with high employment density have better consumer opportunities is emphasized. Based on regional data, the paper proves that density of population and employment density that characterize the consumer parameters of regional markets and testify to their size from the viewpoint of demand and production density that characterizes the degree of economic activity concentration in regions and shows the size of the regional market from the viewpoint of supply have an essential impact on forming of regions’ market capacity. Retail trade is emphasized as an important component of market capacity. Modern trends of trade development in Ukrainian regions that testify to substantial interregional differences regarding the scale (size) of markets and competitiveness level are characterized. The trends that characterize the dynamics of retail and wholesale trade, structural peculiarities, and specifics of spatial distribution at the territory of trade networks regions, available differentiation in the level of accessibility to trade services are detected. The conclusions on the opportunities to use the results of the evaluation of market capacity in the regions in regional planning are made. 

regional economy, market capacity, employment, population density, market capacity index 

The paper explains the relevance of the research of market capacity forming at regional food market. The author emphasizes that food enterprises play an important role in creation of value chains providing the whole technological cycle of agricultural raw materials processing and are active participants in foreign trade of a country. In order to evaluate consumer capacity of regional market of food products, it is important to not only predict the realization of its entities’ opportunities but also to find the interrelation between the factors of socio-economic development of the region and market consumer capacity. The impact of the range of factors on consumer capacity of food products market in Lvivska oblast is analyzed. The impact of the factors of stimulating and disincentive nature on consumer capacity of the region under research is analyzed based on the methods of economic-mathematical modeling, in particular the equation of linear multiple regression. The results of regression modeling confirm the dominating impact of the level of regions’ economic development, consumer prices for food and changes in households’ incomes on the volumes of realized food products in Lvivska oblast. They also confirm the disincentive impact of imports on the development of food market in the region. The dependence of the market under research on the imports of food products can be explained by geographic location of the region and disincentive price policy regarding the domestic products. The research revealed the range of factors that do not impact the consumer capacity of the food market in Lvivska oblast. The author emphasizes that consideration of these factors is important in the view of possible relevance of decisions made regarding the strengthening and elimination of their impact. For Lvivska oblast, they are average wages, population, aggregate consumer expenses of households and change in the volumes of households’ expenditures. Such situation proves the importance of price policy at the market of food products of the region in case that the share of food expenditures in the structure of consumer expenditures of households remains the dominating one. 

regional market, food industry, internal consumer market, consumer capacity