• W. Hands — Normative Rational Choice Theory: Past, Present, and Future

• L. Eder, I. Filimonova — The Financial Significance of the Oil and Gas Sector for the Russian Economy
• A. Cherniavsky — The Analysis of the Impact of Changes in Tax Regimes on the Export Profitability of Oil and Main Petroleum Products
• V. Kryukov, E. Pavlov — An Approach to Social and Economic Assessment of Resource Regime in an Oil and Gas Sector (The Case of the USA)

• I. Bashmakov, A. Myshak — Factor Analysis of Evolution of Russian Energy Efficiency: Metodology and Outcomes
• V. Uzun — Russian Policy of Agriculture Support and the Necessity of Its Modification after WTO Accession

• I. Boldyrev — Understanding Economics as a (Social) Science? (On the Book by M. Boumans, J. Davis "Economic Methodology. Understanding Economics as a Science")

• F. Rybakov — St. Petesburg Industry: Evolution and Present Time

Abstracts

The paper analyses Russian corruption as a?specific "industry" of the Russian economy that is in many important respects influenced by the political system. The latter, in turn, is also being transformed due to corruption. The authors introduce and discuss the basic concepts used in the corruption analysis: everyday corruption, business corruption, corruption markets, strategies of bribetakers etc. The authors propose a?comprehensive cultural classification of the types of corruption taking into account its everyday and business aspects, property rights enforcement, vertical and horizontal relations within the power and between power, citizens, and businessmen. In view of the proposed typology corruption dynamics is analyzed, as well as the dynamics of its socio-economic and political conditions in Russia beginning from the pre-revolutionary times and up to the present day. Basing upon the data taken from the mass surveys characteristics of the markets for everyday and business corruption are estimated in dynamics and the causes for the changes in their structure are indicated.

JEL classification: D73, P26, P37.
Keywords: corruption, rent-seeking, corruption market.

Law and public administration schools in Russia vastly exceed in their popularity sciences and engineering. We relate such lopsided demand for higher education to the quality of institutions setting "rules of the game" in economy and society. Cross-country and Russian interregional data indicate the quality of institutions (rule of law, protection of property rights etc.) is negatively associated with the demand for education in law, and positively — in sciences and engineering. More gifted younger people are particularly sensitive to the quality of institutions in choosing their fields of study, and such selection is an important transmission channel between institutions and economic growth.

JEL classification: D02, I25, J24, O15.
Keywords: higher education, institutions, rent-seeking.

The paper shows that the theory of rational choice should be better understood as a?normative, prescriptive, and not as a?descriptive theory of human behavior. Such an interpretation amounts to claiming that there is a?«normative turn» in economics. This turn means that the majority of economists no longer regards rational choice theory as an adequate description of economic activity. The author also tries to free the normative issues from ethical meanings that are commonly attributed to it in economic theory. Perspectives of the normative turn in the context of a?recent development of behavioral and experimental economics are also discussed.

JEL classification: B41, D03, D60.
Keywords: rational choice theory, normative economics, behavioral anomalies, welfare economics.

The article describes the complex of economic and financial indicators reflecting the results of Russia’s oil and gas industry in 2011. Price environment of the major energy resources with regard to their realization at the domestic and international markets is analyzed. Main indicators of economic performance of the oil and gas industry (revenue, profit, profitability) are reviewed with differentiation by companies. The authors consider the tax burden for the oil and gas companies; show their role in forming federal budget revenues. The paper presents the analysis of specialized funds and reserves that are formed at the expense of oil and gas industry sources; examines Russia’s balance of payments as well as revenues generated by oil and gas exports. The stock market structure of Russia and the world is described with consideration of particular oil and gas companies.

JEL classification: G32, H71.
Keywords: oil and gas industry, revenue, net profit, international reserves, reserve fund, federal budget, oil and gas revenues, capitalization.

The paper analyzes the impact of changes in tax regimes on comparative export profitability of oil and main petroleum products. It considers the dynamics­ of export profitability of oil and petroleum products based on the annual data for 2001—2010, the quarterly data for 2011 and through the first quarter of 2012. The paper also examines how the forthcoming changes in tax legislation aimed at increasing the complexity of refining affect the profitability of oil sector­ exports. The analysis demonstrates that tax measures alone are not sufficient and might even be counterproductive.

JEL classification: G18, G38.
Keywords: oil, oil processing, profitability of export, export taxes, taxation­ of oil.

The paper presents an approach to quantitative estimation of socio-economic benefits from oil extraction (in the US). The approach explicitly distinguishes the contribution of non-institutional and institutional factors. Calculations show that in the United States the influence and dynamics of institutional factors are related to steady deterioration of natural conditions of oil extraction. In general, the US resource regime can be called stimulating, as is evidenced by a small proportion of adverse effects due to preservation of residual oil.

JEL classification: Q32.
Keywords: oil and gas sector, social and economic benefits, USA, resource regime, institutional environment.

Pilot application of the energy efficiency and energy savings accounting system in Russia and energy consumption growth decomposition analysis have shown that: 1) its creation is possible even based on non-comprehensive statistical base; 2) its application provides non-trivial results and shows that impressive GDP energy intensity decline in 2000—2010 was mostly (by 80%) driven by structural factors with limited contribution of technological ones. Russia has failed even bridging the technological gap with advanced economies. Facing slowing economic growth in years to come, the federal policy to improve energy efficiency is to be focused on providing incentives for more dynamic penetration of energy efficient technologies to strengthen Russian economy competitiveness and energy security.

JEL classification: B41, C43, C82, D24, O33, Q43, Q48.
Keywords: energy efficiency, energy efficiency indicators, energy intensity, energy productivity, decomposition analysis.

The article deals with the features of the Russian policy of agriculture support in comparison with the EU and the US policies. Comparative analysis is held considering the scales and levels of collective agriculture support, sources of supporting means, levels and mechanisms of support of agricultural production manufacturers, its consumers, agrarian infrastructure establishments, manufacturers and consumers of each of the principal types of agriculture production. The author makes an attempt to estimate the consequences of Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organization based on a hypothesis that this will result in unification of the manufacturers and consumers’ protection levels in Russia with the countries that have long been WTO members.

JEL classification: Q18, Q14, Q17.
Keywords: state support, agricultural production, WTO, budget, agrarian policy, transfers, protection levels.

This review discusses the latest textbook on economic methodology. It shows that its authors think of the philosophy of science as primarily the philosophy of "hard", natural sciences and have not tried to interpret economic theory as a?social science. At the same time the book is characterized by its attention towards more recent methodological approaches, in particular, to the rhetoric of economics, and this direction might be considered as promising.

JEL classification: B41.
Keywords: economic methodology, sociology of economic knowledge.

One can clearly see a few stages in St. Petersburg industrial evolution. Until the end of the 19th century the production was oriented on the needs of the army and the Navy and railroad construction. In the Soviet period Leningrad became the leader of domestic power machine building and radio electronics. The end of the 20th century was marked with a more serious degradation of machine building than in the country in general. In the present the city’s industry is specialized on car assembly and pharmaceutics.

JEL classification: L16, L52.
Keywords: industry, St. Petersburg, regional economics.