• C. Wennerlind — Money Talks, but What Is It Saying? Semiotics of Money and Social Control
• M. Sasaki, Yu. Latov, G. Romashkina, V. Davidenko — Trust in Modern Russia (Comparative Approach to «Social Virtues»)

• E. Popov, A. Sergeev — The Modern Russian Institutionalism: Further Discussion

• V. Gimpelson, G. Monusova — Fear of Unemployment: Cross-Country Comparisons

• V. Sokolov, A. Sarygulov — Modern Kyrgyzstan: One or Multiple Lines of Development?

• M. Korobeinikov — Peasantry and Power: Responsibility and Interests

Abstracts

The paper discusses Russian economic policy under the 2009 global crisis and traces lessons to be learned by Russian policy makers. Special attention is paid to the priorities of economic policy through 2010 as well as to important risks for sustainable development in the foreseeable future. The world has entered the "turbulent decade" when deep structural reforms are to be implemented.

The article assesses the basic proportions of budgetary incomes and expenditures for 2010—2012. It demonstrates indifference of budgetary policy in respect to economic growth. It also argues the possibility of increasing budgetary expenditures for modernization and diversification of economy.

The paper examines effects of financial liberalization, observed over the last decades. Contrary to the widespread view, it results in capital flows from developing economies and emerging markets to advanced countries. Positive effects of liberalization are related primarily to the improvement of institutional environment. They are revealed rather in higher total factor productivity than in increased investment. The important conclusion is that financial liberalization should be implemented when the country is prepared for it, as positive consequences overweigh risks only if institutional quality exceeds a certain threshold.

The article is devoted to the analysis of different approaches to estimating trading gains (or losses) from changes in the terms of trade for the Russian economy. It presents the calculation of trading gains (or losses) received by the Russian economy in 1999—2009.

The article with the help of semiotic methodology considers social functions of money. The author provides a brief overview of semiotics, and shows how to establish links between inquiry into meanings and contexts and study of money, putting accent on the analogy between money and language and discussing contributions from Austrian and institutionalist traditions. Marxist approach to the analysis of money’s symbolic meanings is used to show how money becomes discourse of power.

This article offers economic and sociological theory of trust, embodying the idea of "social capital" by James Coleman. It also analyzes empirical data on personal and institutional trust obtained on the basis of nationwide opinion poll in the project «Comparative studies of trust in different countries during the period of globalization». The problem of trust is considered in the context of the international projects «World Values Survey» and «Trust Barometer» which made it possible to construct a mental world map of personal and institutional trust for various countries. It is shown that Russia has not a low, but a medium level of trust. In the mental world map some patterns were presented that reflect the basic trust as a form of social capital.

In the article the positive estimation of the paper on institutional methodology which was published in the 3rd issue of the journal in 2009 is given. In the discussion with A. Moskovsky the authors show that the term "institution" may have various definitions and argue in favour of the one proposed by D. North («institutions as rules of the game»). The new institutional economic theory has a bigger potential for economic modeling than traditional institutionalism. The usefulness of "mathematical" institutionalism has been determined by the Russian researchers’ elaborations of the institutional traps theory, institutional systems creation theory, knowledge economy theory and system-integrated theory of the firm.

The paper is based on representative population surveys conducted in various countries of Europe, Asia and North America and discusses cross-country variation in population’s subjective perceptions of risk of unemployment. This risk is measured by directly asking respondents whether they fear losing their job and to what degree. The paper shows that the strength of the fear varies significantly across countries in the sample as well as across various subgroups of population within the countries. Higher unemployment strengthens the fear but country-specific behavioral reactions induced by the fear may differ. Population in the "old" capitalist countries seems to react differently than in the transition countries while in the former case the Anglo-Saxon and the Scandinavian countries also demonstrate different patterns.

The article represents the main stages and ongoing results of economic reforms in the Republic of Kyrgyzstan in 1990—2008. Basic directions of reforms in agriculture, industry and financial sector, establishment of market-oriented democratic institutions are analyzed. Issues of sustainability of reforms, transformation of social structure and possible trajectory of future development of the country are discussed.