• Ph. O´Hara — Contemporary Principles of Heterodox Political Economy
• I. van Staveren — Ethics of Efficiency
• I. Frolov — Reflections on Applying Economic Theory in Social and Economic Research
• A. Libman — Borders, Conflicts and Bargaining in Federations and Communities of Governments

• A. Yakovlev — What Kind of Firms Has Investment Programs in the Crisis Times and What Kind of Barriers Do They Face?
• T. Dolgopyatova — Ownership Structure of Manufacturing Companies and Its Dynamics: Research Based on Monitoring Data
• K. Gonchar — Industry Innovations: Development versus Adaptation

• A. Suetin — The Faces of Innovation (On the Book by Kelly T. with Littman J. «The Ten Faces of Innovation»)

• Essential Megapolis Economics / P. I. Burak (head of the composite author)

Abstracts

The current crisis has shown a number of weak segments in the world and national economies. In response to large-scale challenges the regulators had to significantly revise their approaches (as is the case with the US Fed which authority has been questioned and its activity may be subject to possible reforming). Previous risks remain, however, and new risks appear. Will the present stabilization last long, how dangerous are new threats and what are the ways to reduce them — these questions remain very асute today.

The article studies the main problems of Russian oil and gas complex. The authors argue that global economic and financial crisis has already led not only to certain reduction in energy consumption, but to serious changes in the global energy sector. In the medium term we may expect globally more efforts in energy savings, climate change prevention, and deeper innovation impact. It may require a serious adaptation of Russian energy sector to new tendencies: some reconfiguration of demand for our export, certain limitation on financial resources and reconsidering its future role in the global balance. Long-term project approach should be applied to help Russian energy and manufacturing companies adjust to new economic environment. Institutional background in Russian energy sector should be adequate to address domestic problems and global competition.

In this analytical review the author describes the main trends in the modern heterodox political economy as an alternative to mainstream economics. Historical specificity as well as the contradictory and uneven character of economic development are examined in detail. The author also discusses problems of class, gender and ethnic discrimination and their influence on economic growth. It is shown that there are tendencies to convergence of different theoretical perspectives and schools, common themes, topics of research and conceptual apparatus are being formed. The forces of integration and differentiation help establish new ideas and receive interesting scientific results in such fields as development economics, macroeconomics and international economics.

The article considers problems and contradictions arising from applications of the concept of Pareto-efficiency as the most widely used criterion for evaluating efficiency of economic outcomes. The author shows that this criterion is inadequate when applied to ethical issues. An accent on utility and strict adherence to the principles of freedom of choice are impediments to the correct evaluation of perverse needs, waste of resources or preferences which are potentially harmful for others. The article proposes another efficiency criterion based on minimizing resource waste. This criterion is better suited for following the principles of equity and justice than the Pareto-efficiency concept.

The article considers some methodological aspects of interaction between economic theory and applied economic research. It is shown that to use theoretical conceptions and principles directly in applied studies does not make sense since one always needs specific forms of knowledge as an intermediate level. The reason for relative autonomy of theoretical and applied economic knowledge is that a theoretician and an applied researcher face different types of entities in cognition and entertain different types of practice.

Economic policy in the modern world can be treated as an outcome of interaction of multiple territorial centers of public authority: nation-states, subnational and supranational jurisdictions. In the last decades economics has increased its attention to the factors which influence the distribution of power among jurisdictions. The paper surveys two main research areas in this literature: economics of conflicts and theory of endogenous decentralization. It discusses the basic models of both approaches and their modifications applied in the literature as well as factors of conflict formation and bargaining over devolution.

The paper considers the behavior of Russian enterprises during the current crisis using the data of the latest survey of 1000 manufacturing firms. Special attention is paid to features of firms planning big investment for the next 12 months. The links between current investment plans, previous investment in 2005—2008 and other factors are shown. Finally we analyze the most important barriers for doing business from the point of view of investors.

The paper describes dynamics of ownership structure in Russian manufacturing industry with particular attention to its concentration and the stock of main groups of shareholders including foreign investors and Russian authorities. Special attention is paid to empirical analysis of determinants which decrease the level of ownership concentration during 2005—2009. Significant positive factors of this decrease are companies’ entry to securities markets, their work in competitive environment, and larger size of foreign investors stock. Negative influence of propensity to future investments has also been found out. Besides, correlations among ownership features, on one hand, and enterprises’ behavior and top-managers’ estimates of the current economic crisis, on the other hand, have been revealed and discussed. The research is based on the data of two rounds of monitoring of industrial enterprises competitiveness conducted by the State University — Higher School of Economics in 2005 and 2009 in 48 regions of Russia.

The paper addresses the problem of the technological standard and innovations in Russian manufacturing companies. It is based on the most recent firm level data. The analysis shows that the industry is seriously segmented in this respect. Empirical analysis proves that the technological standard and innovations are closely linked to productivity growth and competitive stand of enterprises. In turn they depend on company size, quality of management, finances of the firm. The innovation activity is higher than expected, though only a minor portion of firms targets international market, few innovate nation-wide. We discuss that opposing technological upgrade to product innovation and adapted products to originally designed ones is misleading. In real business these processes are interrelated, happen consistently, almost always require in house development. In the end some policy advice based on the results of the study are provided.