Ideas and Ideals

The article examines the development of the Russian economy in its modern capitalist period. The authors emphasize that when analyzing the dynamics of GDP, there are five stages that have significant differences: growth rates, models that stimulate growth, sources of financing for economic growth, and other reasons, the totality of which determines the ‘face’ of each of the selected stages. The authors substantiate the necessity and possibility of using the potential of the financial market to stimulate economic growth. At the same time, considerable attention is paid to the justification of the impact of indicators that characterize the financial market within the framework of the institutional (financial institutions) and instrumental (financial instrument markets) approaches. The authors highlight five stages of Russia’s economic growth: economic (transformational) decline (1991-1998), rapid recovery economic growth (1999-2007), decaying recovery economic growth (2008-2012), stagnant economic growth (2013-2019). The article shows the importance of the financial market for the implementation of the main tasks at each stage from the standpoint of expert assessment of indicators of the development level of the financial market: depth (the importance of institutions and financial market instruments relative to macroeconomic indicators), availability of services provided by institutions and financial instrument markets, stability (the ability of financial institutions to continue providing services in the event of force majeure and financial market volatility), efficiency (the attractiveness of the market for business).

The authors of the article believe that in 2020, a new fifth stage of Russia’s economic growth began, the potential of which can be revealed through the use of financial boost tools. At present, Russia is in a unique situation of a combination of a crisis based on both a demand model and a supply model. The authors propose specific measures to use the potential of these models. The combination of the measures used will reveal new opportunities for the development of the economy and society. These opportunities can be obtained by using the ideology of the strategy of accelerated financial development of the economy – financial boost.

In recent years, the digital revolution and, especially, the problems associated with the transformation of the economy have become more and more interesting. However, few studies are devoted to issues related to the development of new methods of risk assessment and their impact on social processes in the context of the formation and development of the digital economy. It is unknown how the consequences of the digital revolution will affect the processes taking place in society. The purpose of this work is to study possible risks that may arise in the process of transforming the economy into a digital one, and primarily social ones. To study the risks of the digital economy, we use hierarchical methods that are characterized by a sequential algorithm for dividing a given set of items into subordinate subsets. The results of the study indicate that the risks of the digital economy have specific features that distinguish them from traditional ones. The authors demonstrate the classification of digital economy risks and show the place of social risks in it. A dynamic model of social risks in the digital economy is proposed. It is established that social risks in the digital economy are growing more and more from year to year. Research has shown that there is an urgent need to address the issue of skills imbalance in the labor market. It is necessary to increase the number of competitive employees who have a huge amount of knowledge, skills, and competencies necessary for this time, and constantly update them. The implementation of all this is impossible without the involvement of the state, the education system, public figures and the population.

The article deals with debatable questions about the relationship between economic growth and financial development. Both foreign and Russian authors have opposite points of view on the relationship between economic growth and financial development. The article states that financial development for developing countries is a factor of economic growth. The authors give a review of the literature proving the influence of financial development and its mechanism – the financial market – on economic growth. To illustrate this conclusion, they analyze the research aimed at studying the theoretical aspects of assessing the ratio of the level of financial market development and economic growth. The authors also investigate the formation of a methodological framework for assessing the impact of the level of financial market development on economic growth; identify the methods to quantitatively measure the level of financial market development and economic growth. The article analyzes the recommendations to develop measures to enhance the significance of financial market for economic growth of the country.

Due to the extremely low level of current Russian economic scientists and practitioners, we can only place our hope on the younger generation. In this regard, the article considers the textbook on Economic Theory recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation for students of 10-11^th grades, currently in its 26th edition. The textbook arouses no interest, only antipathy to Economics among school students. It is unjustifiably focused on economic theory, not practice. The textbook is too complicated and boring, almost completely ignoring the economic problems of Russia and Third World countries.

It is argued that the course of Economics for high school students can be not only informative and useful, but also involving. The Soviet and Russian economies are full of mysteries, which can make use of the enthusiasm school students have for solving mysteries and puzzles.

The author suggests a program for a course in Economics for school students, comprising 10 new chapters, as well as a summary of the new chapters.

The author also presents economic entities interested in high-quality school textbooks.

The textbook recommended by the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation is compared to the previously published more informative and involving textbooks for high school students.

Machine building is a leading industry in advanced countries. It provides many industries with machines and equipment as it is the main link in the system of intersectoral linkages. Innovations in engineering create the basis for increasing production and qualitative changes in the structure of industry, that creates a synergistic effect for the economy as a whole. Thus, it secures full employment for highly skilled employees, promotes the growth of the level of educational background of the population and contributes to the development of the scientific and technological potential of the country. However, underinvestment in innovation technologies and processes, a limited character of the import substitution model and an insufficient support of the export model greatly hinder rapid and effective development of the machine-building industry. Specific peculiarities of the machine building development such as R&D intensity, labor intensity, and the intensity of metal use, the need in cooperation and consumer orientation influence their geographic location. Despite the decline in the number of enterprises and employment in the machine-building industry, the industry’s contribution to the GVA is stable. At the same time, the state’s interest in the development of all sectors with high added value will influence the future of engineering. In statistics innovative activity in mechanical engineering began to be considered relatively recently. The highest rates of innovation are high-tech engineering. The state’s share in supporting innovation in both manufacturing and engineering is increasing. The coefficients of specialization are calculated for all Federal districts and each of the 85 subjects of the Federation for the period from 2007 to 2017. Calculations were carried out for all types of economic activity, according to the classifier of OKVED. The specialization industries for each of the regions are identified. The group of regions where engineering is concentrated is defined. These 19 regions did not change their industry of specialization during the analyzed period from 2008 to 2017.

The subject of this work is the uneven development of infrastructure in municipal districts of the Russian Federation. The article presents the author’s method of typology of municipalities by the level of infrastructure development, which allows overcoming the shortcomings of the information base of municipal statistics using the data imputation algorithm. The proposed approach solves the problem of weak population structure using a combination of four methods of multidimensional statistics (cluster analysis, factor analysis, metric multidimensional scaling and discriminant analysis) in the framework of a combination of variational and aggregate concepts of data typology. The idea of the considered method is that if an object falls into the same type as a result of applying different typology methods, then it is a stable representative (“core”) of this type. A set of such objects for each type is used as training samples for discriminant analysis, which allows you to typologize the remaining transition objects using mathematical tools. The methodology was tested on a set of municipal districts of the Russian Federation (in 2018). There are 4 types of municipal districts with high, satisfactory, insufficient and low level of infrastructure development. As of 2018, 89 (5.1%) municipal districts of the Russian Federation have a high level of infrastructure development, 308 (17.6%) – satisfactory, 570 (32.6%) – insufficient, 783 (44.7%) – low. The inverse relationship between the level of infrastructure development of municipal districts and the degree of urbanisation of the territory is shown: the largest number of districts with highly developed infrastructure is located in territories with a significant share of the rural population.

A significant part of the definitions of the subject matter of economics goes back to the already classical definition of L. Robbins. According to the authors, the definition of the subject matter of economics according to Robbins is not entirely satisfactory. The norm is the allocation of the subject of science in the subject area. The selection of a subject of science by modus operandi violates the logic of constructing a disciplinary matrix of scientific knowledge.

We agree that the definition of economic science in terms of material goods is narrow and not entirely satisfactory. However, replacing it with a definition through modus operandi is not an extension of the ‘material’ approach to understanding values, but a transition to a completely different logical level.

We propose the following definitions: value –a rare utility (absolutely not necessarily material). An economic system is a system that can create and distribute values. Economics is a science that studies economic systems.

The choice of an individual between different types of activities, and / or the use of alternative types of resources, although it is an economic choice, but the study of such an ‘atomic’ system is not enough to understand the properties of economic systems. The subject of economics appears with the advent of society. The social structure that ensures this coordination of production and exchange is the structure of the economic system. At the same time, it is the subject of economic science.

The question of which aspect in the economic system is the main one — exchange or production — is the form of the question of what is the ontology of the economic universe: is it linear or non-linear? A complex non-linear system of the economy is made by two aspects: the use of durable assets in the production, as a result of which economic activity is ‘stretched' in time, and the great depth of the division of labor. Thus, the question of understanding the subject of economics is associated with a number of aspects that are significant for theory (and practice), ultimately –with the perception of the world –and the economic world as part of it.

The development and widespread adoption of digital economy in the last two decades inevitably had strong impact on the theory and practice of marketing. Under the influence of e-Commerce the form and content of marketing has changed. Today we can talk about the formation of a new field of study – Internet marketing. However, even in the European literature, the description of Internet marketing is fragmentary, Russian authors often do not consider Internet marketing as an independent direction in marketing. This article describes the role of e-Commerce in the economy. The author considers the role of e-Commerce in the world economy and in the economy of individual countries. About 10% of world trade is already carried out via the Internet, in some countries (China, Japan, the UK) the share of e-Commerce in GDP is more than 20%. The growth rate of e-Commerce is also impressive – 30% per year. The Russian e-Commerce market and the Chinese e-Commerce market are analyzed separately. The author highlights the fact that e-Commerce has made a great contribution to the development of China’s economy. Internet marketing in the article is considered as an integral part of e-Commerce, fully responsible for all the interaction of the company and the external environment through the Internet. Basing on the research of some writers, the author concludes that Internet marketing is advisable to study as an independent scientific discipline. The article identifies and investigates the main changes that have occurred in marketing under the influence of e-Commerce: 1) change of marketing orientation from goods to customers; 2) multi-channel approach to promotion; 3) mobility; 4) adaptability and interactivity of marketing; 5) significant increase in audience coverage.

The article analyses the book written by the English economist Thane Gustafson “Wheel of Fortune: The Battle for Oil and Power in Russia”. The author of the book is known for his deep works on the oil industry of the USSR and the state of economy of post-Soviet Russia. In a peer-reviewed book, Gustafson analyzes Soviet and post-Soviet Russian society through the prism of the Russian oil industry. The author of the article supplements Gustafson’s analysis with his own assessments of the state of the oil industry of the USSR and the Russian Federation, taking into account the replacement cost of fixed assets. Gustafson, paying tribute to the achievements of the Soviet oil industry, shows the inevitability of its crisis in the 80s due to defects in the command economy. Thane Gustafson analyzes the crisis of the oil industry of the late 80s and early 90s as a consequence of the weakness of state power, the capacity of which in Russia he assesses as the most important factor in its economic development. He considers the privatization of the oil industry, with all its shortcomings, as a condition for the beginning of the revival of the oil industry. Another factor, he believes, is the attraction of foreign capital, technology and Western management practices. The strengthening of state power with the advent of Putin and the successful operation of private oil companies, along with rising world oil prices, ensured a rapid increase in oil production in the Russian Federation, which allowed Gustafson to assess the period 2001-2004 as an oil miracle. He associates the subsequent slowdown in oil production with the depletion of old oil fields with poor development of new ones. At the same time, Gustafson attaches considerable importance to this slowdown in the nationalization of the oil industry and the growing hostility in Russia towards foreign capital in general and the West in particular. The author supplements this analysis with calculations showing the limited financial resources of oil companies and their poor use. Gustafson predicts a crisis in the Russian oil industry and recommends liberalization of the industry and increased integration of the Russian oil industry into the global economy.

The paper is devoted to the peculiarities of the venture capital industry in the Russian Federation. The authors analyze statistical indicators of Russian private equity and venture capital market and reveal its key features. Statistical data provided by the Russian Venture Capital Association (RVCA) was used. The analysis demonstrates that in the private equity and venture capital market in Russia, investments in companies at the late stages (expansion, restructuring) predominate, and innovative companies at the earlier, so-called “venture stages” (sowing, start-ups, initial stage), remain underfunded. Among the funds involved in investing in companies at the venture stages (sowing, initial stage, and, in some cases, expansion), i.e. VC funds, the largest share is accounted for private funds.

The largest volume of venture capital investments in Russia is made in the sector of information and communication technologies. Venture investments in the so-called “real sectors of economy” (in the terminology of the RVCA), which produce tangible and intangible products, occupy the smallest share in the industry preferences of venture capital funds. In other words, innovative projects in these sectors of the national economy remain underfunded. It is concluded that VC funds with the participation of state capital are the dominant source of venture capital investments for non-IT companies: the largest share of these funds is focused on venture capital investments in real sectors or have mixed industry preferences. The analysis of the venture capital market in the Russian regions shows that most venture capital investments are directed to the Central Federal District. The remaining regions do not take an active part in the formation of the national venture environment.

The authors make recommendations for improving the infrastructure of venture financing of innovative projects at the regional level. It is concluded that at present the activities of various structures that provide assistance to the innovation process at the level of the regions of the Russian Federation are not coordinated. It is necessary to create a single center coordinating innovation in a specific region, including activities related to attracting venture capital funds and investing their resources in the projects of this region.