• S. Andryushin, V. Kuznetsova — Monetary Policy’s Priorities of Central Banks in New Conditions
• A. Rakviashvili — Modern Banking System as a Source of Cyclic Development of Market Economy

• S. DellaVigna — Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field. Part III. Nonstandard Decision Making and Market Response
• A. Nesvetailova — Beyond the Minskyan Political Economy: Liquidity and Financial Innovation in the Global Credit Crunch

• Ya. Pappe, N. Antonenko — On New Configurations of Owners of Russian Big Business
• I. Gurkov, E. Avraamova — Russian Companies in Search of Sustainable Development
• A. Vilensky — The Paradox of Small Business Support: Preliminary Outcomes of the Crisis

Abstracts

The article analyzes the investment—saving balance in developed and developing countries and groups of countries. Main determinants of investment and saving decisions of different economic agents are derived from well-known theoretic papers. The analysis of pre-crisis investment—saving balance is performed with a focus on specific role of USA and China in the global financial intermediation system. A crisis shift in US households’ saving behavior is revealed, and it is treated as an additional source of financing American deficits. Maintenance of high personal saving rate of US households is considered to be the key factor to support post-crisis growth.

The article considers peculiarities of development of the Russian economy in 2008—2010. The influence of the global financial and economic crisis on economic dynamics and inflation, parameters and tools of financing the national economy is appreciated. Features of slow and long restoration of the business activity which has followed after the deepest economic recession are analyzed.

The paper approaches the problem of private fixed capital underinvestment in Russia. The author uses empirical studies of the Russian economy and cases of successful technological modernization to outline several groups of disincentives for private companies to perform fixed capital investment in Russia. To counter these constraints, a certain incentive-based economic policy framework is developed.

The paper is devoted to the issues of central banks targets transformation in a situation of financial globalization and growing national financial markets integration. These processes greatly modify the traditional channels and instruments of monetary policy transmission mechanism.

The article conducts theoretical analysis of the monetary policy costs. On the basis of the author’s interpretation of the Austrian theory of business cycle the article shows the destructive influence of the central bank’s intervention in the financial system on the economy. It also analyzes market agents’ response to the monetary policy.

This third, and the last, part of a larger work devoted to the modern behavioral economics considers nonstandard decision making that is influenced by inattention of economic agents, their preference toward familiar schemes of action, biases and confusion in the choice situations, outside (in particular, social) pressure. Besides, market response to nonstandard behavior in various economic contexts (industrial organization, labor market, financial market, voting) is analyzed. The author also speculates on the future of behavioral economics as a separate discipline.

The credit crunch of 2007—2009 has been widely described as a ‘Minsky moment’ in the world finance, and references to ‘Ponzi schemes’ recur in the emergent theorizations of this crisis. However, the notion of Ponzi finance captures only one of the many disturbing elements in the complex set of causes of the crisis. Engaging with the emergent theories of the credit crunch, this paper argues that the main controversy of the global credit crunch centers on the role of financial innovation in the economic system. More specifically, it concerns the problem of liquidity and its metamorphoses in the modern financial system. Drawing on the scholarship of Hyman Minsky and heterodox political economy, this paper addresses the conceptual dilemma of the relationship between financial innovation and liquidity, in the light of the lessons of the global credit crunch.

This article formulates and empirically proves the hypothesis of emerging a new model of interaction among natural persons — key owners of big Russian companies. It establishes the fact of transition from the model of individual ownership to the model of co-owners alliance that took place in the late 2000s. The article zeros in on configurations of partners among the Russian business super elite.

Using the results of a survey of Russian corporate executives in the late 2010 we reveal the relationship between the actions undertaken in 2009—2010 and performance measures. Only sustainable cost leadership strategic position, partially based on intensive use of subcontractors and consultants, secures somehow the immediate future of Russian industrial companies, as such a position results in a positive dynamics of orders backlog. Suggestions for the government economic policies are made.

In Russian regions with the greatest support for small and medium-sized businesses, especially in Moscow, small businesses declined much stronger in the basic economic parameters during the crisis than in other regions. The reasons for this lie in unfavorable business climate and corruption. Therefore, the most important area to facilitate development is transformation of the environment of small and medium enterprises, rather than increasing the volumes of budget funds for their support.