Using panel data from the Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey for 2006—2014, the paper investigates reservation wages setting in the Russian labor market. The sample includes non-employed individuals wishing to get a job (both searchers and non-searchers). The first part of the paper provides a survey of previous empirical studies, describes data and analyzes subjective estimates of reservation wages in comparison with various objective indicators of actual wages. The analysis shows that wage aspirations of the majority of Russian non-employed individuals are overstated. However their wage expectations are rather flexible and decrease rapidly as the search continues that prevents high long-term unemployment. The second part of the paper provides an econometric analysis of main determinants of reservation wage and its impact on probability of re-employment and wages on searchers’ new jobs.

JEL: J01, J30, J64.
Keywords: labor market, reservation wage, unemployment, Russia.

The paper contains analysis of Russian public employment and its segments: public administration, education and health care, in 2000—2014. The per capita number of public sector employees in Russia substantially exceeds that of count­ries with comparable GDP per capita. The results of the region-level analysis do not support the hypothesis that the public sector acts as an "employer of last resort", smoothing the effect of the labor market shocks. At the same time the region-level analysis reveals a positive relation of fiscal transfers from other budgets, which in case of public administration underpins the "ratchet effect" — an increase in case of additional revenues and no effect in case of the decrease of the inflow. In all segments there is evidence of the "economy of scale": the negative relation between the per capita employment and regional population numbers. There is also some support of the hypothesis that public employment depends on the demand for public goods: we have found positive relation of employment in public administration with urbanization and of employment in education with the share of young population.

JEL: H4, J45.
Keywords: public sector employment, labor market, education, health care, public administration, regional analysis.

The article is devoted to issues of reforming the system of national civil service. This problem is considered in conjunction with the budget process. A new methodology is presented, which allows determine the share of the costs for the maintenance of public service in terms of changes of budget classification. The connection between the costs of financing of public service and other groups of budgetary expenditures in 1991—2014 has been traced. The hypothesis of relationship between the course of the civil service reforming and the general direction of social and economic development of the country has been tested by comparing the dynamics of budget expenditures for the maintenance of the public service with the dynamics of a number of macroeconomic indicators. The ways to enhance the validity of planning budget expenditures have been offered.

JEL: H11, Н72, J38.
Keywords: budget expenditures, budget classification, civil service, reform, efficiency, social and economic development.

The article is devoted to the impact of university quality on graduates’ wages. It combines the information on university, graduates’ wages, socio-demographic characteristics with the data on Unified State Exam (USE) enrollment rates. It is shown that the graduates of high-quality universities have stable wage premium comparing with ordinary university graduates after controlling for academic, socio-demographic and labor market factors. One additional point at the university USE enrollment rate provides the graduates with 1,4—1,5% wage premium. Earnings obtained by the graduates of most selective universities are 23% higher compared with those of the low-quality universities. Impact of the university quality measured by its status is insignificant. Work experience is a more significant predictor of recent graduates’ wages while the significance of the quality of university for recent graduates is lower than for the whole sample.

JEL: I21, I23, I26, J31.
Keywords: higher education, university quality, returns to education, human capital, labor market, graduates’ wages.

The paper deals with the comparative analysis of discrete institutional alternatives operationalized by referring to institutional design on different levels of interaction between economic agents and their groups. Theoretical differences between an institutional set of economic exchanges and an institutional boundary­ of exchanges has been accounted for, as well as the differences between compensating and eliminating the failures of institutional arrangements used to organize economic exchange. Three examples illustrating the proposed research approach are analyzed: contracting on large diameter pipes for PJSC "Gazprom" infrastructure projects; contracting in the area of commercial real estate renting with "currency component"; the choice of mechanisms of governance for companies on highly concentrated markets with significant double-sided switching cost.

JEL: B41, D02, D23, P23, P28.
Keywords: discrete institutional alternatives, market failures, state failures, market failures compensation, market failures elimination, contracts with a currency price component, switching cost.

The article suggests the idea of parametric strategic management based on using institutions, or "rules of the game", as control parameters ensuring targeting of sustainable states, functioning modes and development trajectories (attractors) of the managed economic system, in particular, economic organization. The rules themselves do not contain directions of changes towards target attractors. The Coase theorem appears to be the economic foundation of the proposed approach.

JEL: B15, B52, D23, L10, M10.
Keywords: parametric strategic management, new institutional economics, Coase theorem.

The article analyzes the possibility to use foreign experience of import substitution in the current environment of the Russian economy. The paper addresses the theoretical foundation of the import substitution policy laid down by F. Liszt, as well as its development and practical implementation in the middle and second half of the twentieth century. It is shown that such a policy is not consistent with the trends and the current stage of the world economic development. The conclusion is made that Russian economic policy should be focused on creating conditions for effective integration of the national business into the net of transnational industry and global value added chains.

JEL: F5, F6.
Keyworlds: import substitution, globalization of economy, transnationalization of production, diversification of economy.

The paper overviews the basic ideas of the book and focuses on the author’s proposal to move towards a research university model and the implementation of constructivist economic analysis. Yefimov offers a radical rethinking of the history of economic science, negatively assesses the emergence of neoclassical mainstream, and rehabilitates the German historical school and the American (old) institutionalism. The book analyzes retrospectively within a wide political and economic context how theoretical beliefs of prominent economists came into being. It contains personal reflections and research experience, as well as relatively unfamiliar biographical data of different reputable scholars.

JEL: А11, В10, В20, В31, B41, Z13.
Keyworlds: constructivism, discourse analysis, neoclassics, institutionalism.