In unequal societies, the rich may benefit from shaping economic institutions in their favor. This paper analyzes the dynamics of institutional subversion by focusing on public protection of property rights. If this institution functions imperfectly, agents have incentives to invest in private protection of property rights. The ability to maintain private protection systems makes the rich natural opponents of public protection of property rights and precludes grass-roots demand to drive the development of the market-friendly institution. The economy becomes stuck in a bad equilibrium with low growth rates, high inequality of income, and wide-spread rent-seeking. The Russian oligarchs of the 1990s, who controlled large stakes of newly privatized property, provide motivation for this paper.

     The paper estimates the impact of import tariffs on Russia's trade balance. Empirical model analyzes Russian trade by industries and partner countries, taking into account import tariffs on both industrial output and intermediate goods. It is shown that the aggregate impact of import duties on trade balance is negative in all industries outside the fuel and energy sector. Decrease in import tariffs is likely to improve market positions of Russian non-fuel exports, especially in such industries as machine building and metal works, agriculture and forestry, chemistry and light industry.

     The article examines tendencies and directions of internal migration in Russia under present conditions. It gives detailed review of features of the interregional migratory exchange between federal districts and subjects of Federation. Also the reasons of reduction of migration inside Russia in the 1990s are discovered. Calculations of the coefficients of the intensity of migratory ties between subjects of Federation are presented and the basic directions of migration at the regional level are defined. Besides the key problems of the internal Russian population migration are distinguished, among them - migratory outflow and losses of the population in the regions of Siberia and the Far East. Strategic directions of the migration policy of Russia in the middle term are presented.

     The article is devoted to studying innovative mechanisms in the financial sphere, promoting attraction of migrants' remittances to the official financial sector. It is shown that structural transformations of the banking system, perfection of remittance technologies, development of microfinancial organizations and their cooperation with banks and payment systems, improvement of migrants' access to official financial channels, realization of special government programs are capable to change significantly the existing situation in the sphere of migrants' remittances.

     The article is devoted to the problems of modern intellectual migration. It deals with main factors of intensification of international movements of science and technology specialists and students, connected with globalization and informatization of the society. The scope, geographic, socio-professional and disciplinary structures of these flows are also considered. Contradictory sequences of movements of professionals and students for countries both their donors and recipients are revealed. Main directions of migration policies as well as government measures in the sphere of education, science and technology, aimed at maximizing the dividends and minimizing the losses from participation in international intellectual migration, are determined.

     The analysis of migration processes in China is offered in the article. The author points out that the system of passport registration is now liquidated so unemployed peasants are allowed to search for work in "small towns" and cities. According to some estimates the quantity of such unemployed is more than 150 mln. China's authorities are of the opinion that migration will help fight with poverty, solve the so called problem of "warm and satiety" since 70% of Chinese peasants live below poverty level (1 doll. per day income).

     The paper discusses one of the most peculiar forms of non-standard employment in the Russian labor market - engagement in personal subsidiary agriculture. Using microdata from the Russian labor force surveys the author provides quantitative estimates of employment and hours worked in this sector. According to his findings accounting for subsistence farmers raises employment-population ratio in Russia by 10 percentage points and it turns out one of the highest in the world. Special attention is paid to description of social and demographic characteristics of persons involved in domestic agriculture. The dynamics of agricultural household production over the post-reform period is analyzed and its contribution to household consumption is estimated. The main conclusion is that for such highly industrialized and urbanized country as Russia the situation when at the peak of the agricultural season about half of its adult population works on personal subsidiary plots of lands is fairly surprising and serves as the evidence of huge waste of available labor resources.

     Problems of verification of Coase theorem in general and in connection with post-socialist privatization and corporate governance in particular are considered in this article. The author discusses the position of W. Andreff presented in his paper (VE, 2001, No 12). The appeal to this theorem is actual because it has been used as the justification of post-socialist economies' privatization methods. Orthodox and heterodox views on privatization and corporate governance are explored. The author analyzes the reasons of reform failures in transitional economies and the ways of emerging markets development basing on two different models - oriented on stock market or banking activity.

     The author criticizes the position of A. Ausan and V. Tambovtsev presented in their recent paper (VE, 2005, No 5). He argues that the idea of construction of civil society by governmental structures is not the right one because that position presumes the rationality of civil society. He offers more fruitful approaches to analyzing civil society based on socioeconomics and "old" institutionalism. The author concludes that civil society will be vital only if it provides the alternative to "power vertical" and market ethics expansion.