• R. Kapeliushnikov — Russia’s Human Capital: What Is It Worth? Part II

• E. Vinokurov, A. Libman — Two Integration Processes in Eurasia
• F. Campante, D. Chor — Why Was the Arab World Poised for Revolution? Schooling, Opportunities, and the Arab Spring

• G. Popov — On the Civilization of the XXI Century
• L. Grebnev — Marshallian Cross: An Alternative Justification and Related Issues

• O. Kuznetsova — Pyramid of Factors of Regional Socio-Economic Development
• E. Kolomak — Uneven Spatial Development in Russia: Explanations of New Economic Geography

• A. Mishura — Economic Dominance of the Russian Capital: Causes and Consequences

Abstracts

The paper deals with the trends in the world and Russian economies towards development of a new post-crisis system, including technological and structural transformation. Three main scenarios of Russian economic development (conservative, innovation and acceleration) are discussed basing on historical analysis of Russian economic performance since 1970-s when oil boom started. On this basis key challenges of economic policy in 2013 are discussed.

JEL classification: O52, P27.
Keywords: economic growth, global crisis, modernization, structuгal adaptation, regulation, welfare state.

After discussing in the first part of the paper alternative approaches to measuring the value of the stocks of human capital its second part provides empirical estimates of Russia’s human capital based on the lifetime income approach. The results show that using an annual discount rate of 4 per cent and assuming annual growth in real earnings of 5.2 per cent, the market value of Russia’s human capital stock in 2010 was more than 600 trillion rubles, or nearly 40 trillion US$ by PPP. In 2002—2010 its stock doubled in real terms. Ratio of human capital to GDP was around 13 and its ratio to physical capital was more than five. In 2010, the average human capital stock per head of working age population amounted to 6 million rubles, or about 380,000 US$ by PPP.

JEL classification: J17, J24, O15, O53.
Keywords: Russia, human capital, monetary value, lifetime earnings. JEL: J17, J24, O15, O53.

The paper considers the evolution of the processes of the regional integration in the post-Soviet space and in the broader space of the Eurasian continent. It points out the main directions of the formation of the Eurasian continental integration from the point of view of the intergovernmental interaction, spontaneous economic ties and common infrastructure, as well as discusses the optimal framework of adjustment of regional groupings in the post-Soviet space to the process of Eurasian continental integration, taking into account the specifics of this process among the Western and the Eastern wings of the CIS.

JEL classification: F13, F15.
Keywords: international trade, post-Soviet integration, Eurasian integration, open regionalism.

What underlying long-term conditions set the stage for the Arab Spring? In recent decades, the Arab region has been characterized by an expansion in schooling coupled with weak labor market conditions. This pattern is especially pronounced in those countries that saw significant upheaval during the first year of the Arab Spring uprisings. We argue that the lack of adequate economic opportunities for an increasingly educated populace can help us understand episodes of regime instability such as the Arab Spring.

JEL classification: D74, D72, O17
Keywords: education, unemployment, political change, elites, revolution.

The article analyzes the nature of the crises during the present stage of civilization development. According to the author, the three basic approaches of reacting to them — inertia, modernzation and anti-globalization — should be substituted with the one that could be called "a new civilization". The article considers key elements of this new approach and opportunities for the development of Russia in the XXI century stemming from it.

JEL classification: B52, F60, O10.
Keywords: crisis, civilization, Russia.

The paper provides a justification of the laws of supply and demand using the concept of a marginal firm (technology) for the case of perfect competition.­ The ideological factor of excessive attention to the analysis of marginal parameters at the firm level in the introductory economics courses is discussed. The author connects these issues to the ideas of J. B. Clark and gives an alternative treatment of exploitation.

JEL classification: A11, A22.
Keywords: teaching economics, technology, J. B. Clark, exploitation.

Basing on synthesis of earlier conducted research of regional development trends and factors the author offers a model of hierarchy of factors, similar to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The proposed pyramid shows that federal regional policy is needed when there is a significant difference in basic factors (e.g. underdeveloped infrastructure). The regional grass-roots policy becomes essential when the regional development starts to depend more on such factors as creativity of the population. The author concludes that in today’s Russia the regional policy from the top is of high priority.

JEL classification: R11, R58.
Keywords: socio-economic development of regions, pyramid of regional development factors, federal regional policy.

We study the dynamics of inter-regional disparities for a number of characte­ristics of development, test the hypothesis of the new economic geography. The empirical analysis shows the spatial concentration of economic activity is continuing in Russia and the rate of inter-regional divergence, is rather high. The factors of the spatial concentration and regional disparities in Russia are population density, size and accessibility of markets, as well as the level of diversification and industry structure of the economy.

JEL classification: R12, O18.
Keywords: interregional disparities, economic geography, empirical analysis, Russian economy.

Economic primacy of the capital is a prominent feature of the spatial structure of the Russian economy. The main ideas on urban primacy presented in the literature are considered and applied to the case of Moscow. It can be concluded that the probable causes of primacy of the capital in Russia are political ones. Russia has features that make political favoritism towards the capital city very likely. They include poor development of democratic institutions, a significant role of personal relationships, especially with the authorities, in all kinds of economic activity and dependence on natural resources exports. There are two basic active mechanisms of income concentration in the capital — concentration of business and the fiscal one. The consequences of such dominance of the capital can be negative for the country’s economic development.

JEL classification: R1, R5, H0.
Keywords: urban primacy, resource rent, democratic institutions, fiscal decentralization, Moscow.