• V. Gimpelson, R. Kapeliushnikov — Polarization or Upgrading? Evolution of Employment in Transitional Russia
• M. Ivanova — The Interaction between Public and Private Sector Wages

• A. Aganbegyan — How National Budget Can Provide Economic Growth

• Grounds of Public-private Partnership (Theory, Methodology, Practice). Ed. by V. G. Varnavsky, A. G. Zeldner, V. N. Mochalnikov, S. N. Silvestrov

• In Memory of Evgeny Primakov
• In Memory of Lyudmila Evstigneeva

• Presenting «Russian Journal of Economics»

Abstracts

Fiscal gap is an indicator of long run sustainability of government finance. It is derived from intertemporal budget constraint which connects flows of budget outlays and receipts aggregated along decades. In order to get an estimate of Russia’s general government fiscal gap we consider three scenarios which are based on different assumptions regarding demographic trends, productivity growth, extractable reserves of oil and natural gas, long-term price of oil and natural gas, etc. Estimated value of fiscal gap implies that current fiscal policy cannot provide budget sustainability in the long run. There are two major factors of the budget imbalances: rising health and pension expenditures due to demographic trends and shrinking role of tax revenues from the energy sector due to extraction growth rate projected to be lower than GDP growth. This study is an extension of (Goryunov et al., 2013).

JEL: E62, H51, H52, H55, H62, H63, H68, J11.
Keywords: fiscal policy, fiscal sustainability, demographic projections, oil & gas revenue, pension system.

The paper analyzes the impact of regulation and supervision on the effectiveness of investment of pension savings based on international practice. It examines the factors which can potentially affect the real return of pension portfolios in different countries. The authors study the impact of more liberal investment limits on the composition and structure of pension investment portfolio, as well as anti-inflationary policy, on raising the real return. They also examine the factors which predict the degree of severity of asset allocation requirements for pension portfolios in different countries, and estimate the likelihood of their relaxing for Russian pension funds and managing companies.

JEL: D14, G11, G15, G23, G28, H55, J32.
Keywords: pension savings, real return, private pension funds, intelligent investor, sovereign pension funds, asset allocation.

In this essay, we analyze the dominant position of economics within the network of the social sciences in the United States. We begin by documenting the relative insularity of economics, using bibliometric data. Next we analyze the tight management of the field from the top down, which gives economics its characteristic hierarchical structure. Economists also distinguish themselves from other social scientists through their much better material situation (many teach in business schools, have external consulting activities), their more individualist worldviews, and their confidence in their discipline’s ability to fix the world’s problems. Taken together, these traits constitute what we call the superiority of economists, where economists’ objective supremacy is intimately linked with their subjective sense of authority and entitlement. While this superiority has certainly fueled economists’ practical involvement and their considerable influence over the economy, it has also exposed them more to conflicts of interests, political critique, even derision.

JEL: A11, A22, I23, J44.
Keywords: role of economists, market for economists, higher education and research.

The article deals with the classification of institutions by the reporesentatives of modern Austrian economic school and its meaning for understanding the problems of development economics. The especially important role of institutional stickiness in the initially alien social environment is emphasized. Attention is drawn to the fact that the intention to impute progressive institutions in a backward country without adjustment to its endogenous institutions or changing the latter by formation of new beliefs may lead to their rejection. On this basis the modern Austrian school sees the economist not as an engineer, but as a researcher and beliefs affecting educator.

JEL: B52, B53, O17.
Keywords: institutional reforms, institutional stickiness, Austrian economics, economic development.

This paper discusses the structural change in the Russian employment and explores whether the evolution of employment in 2000—2012 followed the scenario of progressive upgrading in job quality or brought about the polarization of jobs in terms of their quality. Jobs are defined here as occupation-industry cells and their quality is measured through relative earnings and education levels. Using detailed micro-data from a few complementary large scale surveys, we rank all jobs according to the earnings and educational criteria and divide these distributions into 5 quintiles. At the next stage, we explore dynamic changes in job quality and socio-demographic characteristics of workers in different quintiles. The paper rejects the polarization scenario and confirms the upgrading hypothesis.

JEL: J20, J21, J62.
Keywords: labor market, structural change, job analysis, job polarization.

This paper studies the interactions between private and public sector wages. We raise questions about co-movement of these variables and leadership in wage setting in the short and long run. Using statistical and econometric tools we find (1) a strong and positive correlation of public and private sector wages; (2) evidence of private wage leadership in the long run. However, in the short run there are feedback effects from public wage setting (under specific political decisions) to private sector wages that affect the international competitiveness of the Russian economy.

JEL: С32, J30, E62, H50.
Keywords: private sector wages, public sector wages, causality, VECM, Russia.

The article considers the role of national budget in Russian socio-economic development. The author analyzes the Russian budget of the last decade and comes to the conclusion that it is not efficient because there is no long term planning, the allocation of responsibilities between the Ministry of Economic Development and the Ministry of Finance is not optimal, and because the government is trying to stimulate economic growth without resorting to deficit budget.

JEL: H4, H5, H6.
Keywords: state budget, Russian economy, crisis.