• Yu. Ivanov — On the Global International Comparison of GDP of 146 Countries of the World
• I. Rozinskiy — Foreign Branches vs. National Interests
• A. Apokin — Global Imbalances in the World Economy
• V. Klinov — World Economy: Forecast for the Year 2050

• N. Latova, Yu. Latov — Ethnometric Approaches to the Analysis of Economic and Cultural Values
• S. Surkov — Analysis of Economic Activity: The Approaches of Social Psychology
• N. Pliskevich — The Power–Property System in Contemporary Russia

• V. Polterovich — Interviewing Oneself (On the Book by Janos Kornai "By the Strength of Thought. Nonordinary Reсollections about One Intellectual Journey ")

• M. Abramov — On Taxes, Wages, and Economic Growth

• Kleiner G. B. Enterprise Strategy
• Wages in Russia: Evolution and Differentiation / Ed. by V. E. Gimpel’son, R. I. Kapelyushnikov
• Kogan A. M. Macroregulation of Highly Developed Market: "Invisible Hand ", Competition, System Requirements
• China and Russia: Socio-economic Transformation / Ed. by L. V. Nikiforov, T. E. Kuznetsova, M. B. Guseva

• Stock Markets and Monetary Mechanisms under Conditions of Globalization (Joint Meeting of Nikitsky Club and National Stock Association)

Abstracts

In the next 30–40 years Russia has a real chance to enter the club of the most developed countries in the world. But for this to happen Russia should implement a number of institutional reforms and make changes in its way of thinking and culture in order to move from catching up growth to growth on the technological frontier and to deal with challenges of globalization.

The article considers major results of the global international comparison of GDP of 146 countries which was carried out by the World Bank. The results of the comparison provide a unique information on the world and regional economy, on the comparative level of individual countries’ economy. Special attention is paid to the indicators characterizing Russia’s role in the world and regional economy. The article also discusses main principles of the methodology of the comparison.

Sizeable sector of foreign-owned entities has emerged in Russia, comprising branches, daughter companies and majority-owned companies of foreign investors. The focus of regulator’s and researcher’s attention should be moved from the extent to which FDI are to be admitted/attracted to Russia to the analysis of whether the format of the already existing foreign-owned entities is the desired one. Globalization leads to differentiation of branches and daughter companies of multinational corporations. People, plants, business lines and even corporate head offices have become transferable from one country to another. This process is greatly intensifying the international competition for the share in the value chain attributable to individual countries. Russia, being the huge market, is in a position to demand a substantial degree of localization from international companies seeking to enter the country. The regulator’s approach towards those potential entrants should be dependent upon their readiness to allocate to Russia a considerable part of the company’s value chain. It is proposed to use corporate governance mechanisms as an instrument to promote national economic interests.

The paper reviews an evolution of key political and economic hypotheses in the literature from 1993 to 2007 related to emergence, stability and correction mechanisms of the so-called "global imbalances" which are connected to the US trade deficit. The special "counterweighting" role of sovereign wealth funds in possible mechanisms of global imbalances’ correction in medium- and long-term perspective is considered.

Forecasting long-term trends in the world economy is a necessary element of elaborating a strategy of economic development. The forecast for 2025 and 2050 has been worked out using concepts of Kondratieff long waves, catching-up pathways of development as well as modern trends in demographic processes. The estimates of changes in the geographic structure of the world economy, so derived, are compared with forecasts based on extrapolation of trends in the last 30 years of the 20th century, made up by prominent think tanks. The formation of the multi-center structure of the world economy and probable emergence of Russia as one of the global powers may imply that worldwide cooperation in securing supply of natural resources and protecting the environment will become a crucial problem of international relations.

The success of the market modernization of Russia depends in many ways on similarity of the Russian economic mentality and the European one. To estimate a degree of similarity of the former with the mentality of citizens of Western and Eastern countries, it is suggested that the techniques of a quantitative estimation and the analysis of national economic mentality — ethnometric methods — should be used. The authors analyze four most popular ethnometric techniques — G. Hofstede’s, the project GLOBE, the project WVS and F. Trompenaars’. The most important parameters of national economic mentality are considered to be the indexes of individualism and hierarchy (power distance). According to the WVS results, Russia belongs to the East; according to G. Hofstede’s technique, Russia occupies an intermediate position between the East and the West; GLOBE and F. Trompenaars give inconsistent results.

The article is devoted to the description and analysis of the results of empirical research of economic activity, based upon methods of social psychology. The author introduces and employs such concepts as household efficiency, return on organization, etc., and considers the interconnections between the parameters of economic activity and social-psychological characteristics of individuals and households. Such a technique helps to take into account social-psychological factors of economic activity and forecast different economic phenomena.

The author considers the present situation in Russia as an intermediate period of the complicated and contradictory process of the power–property mutations. This process includes liberal modernization as well as path-dependent institutional and socio-cultural problems. The article presents a model embracing interactions of some balanced and diversed economic, social, legal, and cultural vectors of development.