• S. Naryshkin — Investment Security as a Factor of Steady Economic Development
• A. Vedev, Yu. Danilov, N. Maslennikov, S. Moiseev — Structural Modernization of Russian Financial System

• V. Shironin — Institutions and Innovations: A Cognitive Science View
• A. Oleinik — On the Origins of Administrative Rent: Doing Business in a Russian Region N
• D. Raskov — Rhetoric of the New Institutional Economics

• A. Shastitko — «Comparable Markets» as an Instrument of Antimonopoly Policy
• S. Avdasheva, N. Dzagurova — Vertical Restrictions: Development of Theory, Antitrust Legislation and Enforcement

• Ya. Volkov — Estimation of Implicit Pension Debt in Russia
• A. Tabakh — Introducing Funded Pension Systems: International and Russian Experience

• Congratulations of Academician L. I. Abalkin with the 80^th Anniversary
  
  

Abstracts

On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Institute of Economics, RAS its director R. Grinberg reflects on the difficult history of the Institute, its present and prospects of development. Among the key priorities of its scientific program the following ones can be named: fundamental research, social studies in broad sense, elaboration of long-term concepts of the country’s social and economic development accounting for its positioning in the global economy.

The article argues for the growing role of economic security factors in the situation of post-crisis development. The paper is focused on the problem of investment security of the national economy. The article contains the definition of investment security and its basic criteria. The author designates major directions and tools of the state policy directed at maintenance of investment security requirements as a condition of stable development and modernization of the Russian economy.

The article is based on the report prepared for the president of the Russian Federation. The authors assess the conditions and consequences of different scenarios of financial policy in the medium-term perspective and outline the targeted criteria for development of national financial system. Among the main findings is the thesis that expeditious development of the economy in 2006—2008 is not efficient and in the medium-term the stable development with the balanced economy and financial system would be optimal. To overcome the financial resources deficiency in Russia it is essential to attract long-term foreign investments, primarily direct ones. The article contains the proposals aimed at the increase of financial sector’s efficiency in order to transform it into the international financial centre.

In the article social and economic institutions are considered from the point of view of the cognitive science as systems which produce, process and store information. Economic activities can thus be viewed upon as progress of ideas which have been turned into a "reality" of some kind. Such an approach leads to some conclusions about the fundamentals of "the Western" and present Russian social orders. The article also discusses further development of a toolkit for cognitive analysis of institutions.

In the article two types of rent are differentiated: resource rent and administrative rent. The latter is linked to restrictions on the access to the field of interactions. The contribution of the theory of public choice and the theory of rent-seeking and directly-unproductive activities is further developed by shifting the emphasis from individual decision-making to interactions between three actors: C, who controls access to the field, A, who gets a competitive edge as a result, and B, who assumes a subjacent position with regard to both A and C, yet still receives a positive gain from transacting. Domination by virtue of a constellation of A’s, B’s, and C’s interests is illustrated with the help of an in-depth case study of a Russian region. This study combines quantitative and qualitative methods, as well as their triangulation.

The article provides a rhetorical analysis of the New Institutional Economics based on the works of its main representatives — R. Coase, O. Williamson and D. North. The author exposes the specific features of scientific rhetoric characteristic for each of these scientists, reconstructs their biographies and shows, how and why their theories came to be integrated into mainstream economics.

The article presents economic foundations of markets comparability within the context of competition evaluation on particular commodities markets. It contains approaches to interpretation and evaluation of norms on markets comparability in the Russian law "On competition protection", ways and scenarios of the "comparable markets" concept implementation for antimonopoly regulation purposes. The issues of distributing the burden of proving between antimonopoly agencies and economic entities within the context of presumptions implemented are considered as well.

The article examines the interpretation of vertical restraints in Chicago, post-Chicago and New Institutional Economics approaches, as well as the reflection of these approaches in the application of antitrust laws. The main difference between neoclassical and new institutional analysis of vertical restraints is that the former compares the results of their use with market organization outcomes, and assesses mainly horizontal effects, while the latter focuses on the analysis of vertical effects, comparing the results of vertical restraints application with hierarchical organization. Accordingly, the evaluation of vertical restraints impact on competition differs radically. The approach of the New Institutional Theory of the firm seems fruitful for Russian markets.

In the article the results of modeling the dynamics of insurance component of retirement pension in Russia are considered. The author outlines the current pension scheme and stresses the significance of implicit pension debt as an important tool for pension liabilities evaluation. Estimation results include computing the current value of pension liabilities in Russia, costs of pension reforms and dynamics of pension deficit for the future.

The article reviews international experience of the pension reform switching from PAYG pension system toward funded or mixed ones. Issues related to reception of new institutions and changes in institutional environment are considered, recommendations on correction of the Russian pension system are formulated. Global experience shows that funded pension systems were successfully introduced either by democratic political regimes based on consensus or by dictatorships using authoritarian methods. In the latter case, reform plans were corrected as implementation proceeded. Stability of the reformed pension system strongly depends on its transparency and protection mechanisms for employees and employers built within the system. Funded pension system brings higher formal employment but creates new administrative barriers and transaction costs, increasing stability but reducing flexibility of the social insurance system.