The impact of real exchange rate on the Russian economy in internal and external markets is studied. The analysis takes into account that imported goods are only partial substitutes for those produced domestically, as the former is comprised mainly by manufactures with diverse properties. Positive or negligible effect of real appreciation of the ruble on the share of Russian goods in internal markets is found for major industries. This means that real appreciation of the ruble shifts domestic demand from imported to domestically produced goods, i.e. increases their competitiveness. Higher share of imports in constant prices is combined then with positive effect of the ruble appreciation on the volume of domestic supplies. No evidence of adverse effect of real appreciation on export supplies has been found, supposedly due to high profitability of most exports. Additional channel of negative influence of higher real exchange rate on inflation is revealed: through adjustment of producer prices to cheaper imported analogues.

     The problems of when and how the ruble will become a fully convertible currency are analyzed in the article. Some requirements for achievement of its full convertibility must be fulfilled. Firstly, the ruble should become a currency of payments for Russian exports of oil and natural gas. Secondly, all restrictions on currency operations have to be abolished.

     The article examines the welfare implications of the USA and the Euro area joining a currency union as opposed to operating in a flexible exchange rate regime. The condition for the USA and Euro area to create a monetary union is derived from the Barro–Gorden model and the theoretical model of currency union proposed by A. Dixit that is a direct generalization of Barro–Gordon model. This condition is estimated on the USA and Euro area macroeconomic data from 1980 to 2004.

     The author analyzes disagreements between J. M. Keynes and F. von Hayek on political and economic matters. Using wide range of sources the author shows that Keynes and Hayek stood very close to each other as thinkers, whereas their disputes played an important role in the history of economic thought. The contribution of both theorists to the ideological justification of liberalism is considered.

     The paper investigates the evolution of the problem of competition in the money market in economic thought. The author shows that multicurrency systems can be highly concentrated due to network effect. These conclusions are backed up with the survey of functioning of earlier and modern non-public monetary systems.

     The paper starts with discussing institutional framework for public sector wage setting in Russia. Given that individual choice of the sector is endogenous to wages, the authors propose alternative econometric techniques for the public-private wage gap estimation. Applying switching regression and propensity score matching techniques that allow correcting for non-random sector selection, the paper provides wage gap estimates for various demographic, occupational, and territorial population subgroups. As is shown, there is significant cross-group variation in the wage gap. The paper concludes that to eliminate the negative gap wages in the public sector should be linked to the private sector wages at the regional level.

     The paper studies the interdependence between unified social tax decrease and the evolution of shadow output and shadow prices in healthcare and education. The shadow economy is regarded as the combination of purely shadow activity as well as informal labor within official economy. The analysis shows that although in healthcare lowering of the unified social tax rate causes the decrease of shadow output, in education, on the contrary, the growth of shadow production is registered. If the decrease of unified social tax is accompanied by the rise in personal income tax rate, the economy faces considerable growth of shadow and market prices for educational and healthcare services.

     Mandatory Pension Insurance: Theory and Practice of Russian Pension Reform Actual questions of creating a new pension system in Russia are considered in the article. Basing on international experience the authors analyze the Russian pension model, forecast probable problems, offer some mechanisms of their solving. The first results of nongovernmental pension funds activity in the market of mandatory pension insurance are presented.

     The article analyses the development of Russian retail networks. Special attention is paid to key issues to win position on the local commercial market, where sales entities set up networks of various complexity. Generalizing the experience of performance of main sales networks on the Russian market, the article points out strengthening of the competitive activity and sets up key trends to improve their functioning. There is It gives trend forecast for expansion of sales networks in Russian regions.