The article focuses on a simple model of economic growth: a modification of the fixed capital accumulation equation. Besides, we introduce the traditional assumption that labor productivity is a power-based production function of capital strength. The model has shown that the growth of capital intensity, which identifies technological progress, does not automatically lead to the stimulation of economic growth. For such incentives, a rather strict condition must be met, which is that the power parameter θ in the production function must be greater than one; otherwise, technological progress, paradoxically, constrains economic growth. The presence of the condition θ > 1 is called the technological effect of scale since in this case, and there is a wide replication of new technologies, which leads to an accelerated increase in labor productivity. An econometric check of the presence of this condition for several countries showed that it was not obvious. As it turned out, only Russia, Canada, the United States, and France had a technological scale effect; the other sample countries – Japan, Italy, Australia, and the United Kingdom – had the opposite condition: θ < 1. To explain the scale effect, the authors put forward the hypothesis that there are two drivers of development – industrial and territorial. An industry driver is a cluster of high-tech industries (such as aircraft manufacturing and nuclear power) that are generated by enterprises with high productivity. The territorial driver assumes a vast territory of the country, which allows replicating the products of the industry driver widely. The idea is put forward that Russia has a significant economic advantage due to its technological economies of scale, which creates objective conditions for the effective implementation of high technologies.

The crisis in the Russian economy has, as the author puts it, in-country origin, and therefore it can be overcome in a short time. However, breakthrough is needed to place Russia in the technological, economic and social coordinates which are relevant for the XXI century. Russian economists suggest various models of domestic economy which differ in their conceptual and instrumental orientations. Among these models, strong public support is given to those ones which are oriented toward conservation of historical and economic features of the "Russian path". Nevertheless, each of these models is of unpredictably experimental character, while Russia, as the author argues, has exhausted its right for experimental trials in the previous century.

This paper deals with the problem of the influence of grain export from the Russian Empire on the domestic price on bread. The counterfactual model of Russian grain market development is proposed, in case if grain export is ceased. The authors refer to a wider range of issues, including not only grain export of Russia in the beginning of the last century, but also to the neo-classical theories of foreign trade. The authors provide analyzes of export's effects on the balance of payments of the Russian Empire and investments structure and level. In this regard, it is proved that the growth of bread exports negatively affected investments in the manufacturing sector, and in another way in case of falling export of grain. The authors conclude that the export of labour-intensive goods from the country can provoke the outflow of capital in the country specializing in the production of capital-intensive goods, since the export of labour-intensive products reduces the demand for capital. The export of capital from the Russian Empire before the First World War was so significant that the government was forced to turn to foreign loans. In this regard, the authors have questioned that the positive balance of payments has always positive effect on the national economy. In Russia, grain export had negative consequences in the long term, slowing modernization, however making a positive trend for the country's agriculture, especially its Southwestern regions. However, the authors believe that increase in grain export had been predetermined by the nature of food consumption in the Russian Empire. In this context, the authors try to draw parallels with the modern situation in the Russian economy in the context of «resource curse».

China's budgetary system, including intergovernmental fiscal relations, has been actively evolving for several decades in the context of the nation's socio-economic reforms. The country has been steadily moving from a rigid centralized system to a system with elements of fiscal federalism. This paper describesthe movementofChina from the highly centralized budget system, in which it was impossible to speak about any significant fiscal autonomy of sub-national governments,to experimentswithfiscal autonomy of the regions and with the organization of intergovernmental fiscal relations, and finally to the adoption of the foundations of the current tax and budget legislation. Turning to the present situation, the paper documents main characteristics of the system of intergovernmental fiscal relations during the last two decades, its problems and development trends, and possible lessons for Russia. When analyzing the relations between the center and the provinces it is possible to observe a differentiated approach to the three groups of regions (cities under the central government, national autonomies and other regions), which is of interest from the point of view of improvement of the Russian system of intergovernmental budgetary relations. Current situation with subnational finances in China is the result of a series of experiments and for all its ambiguity is indicative of certain achievements in terms of providing incentives for subnational governments to expand the revenue base and in terms of the efficiency of the policy of budget transfers.

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The article investigates the development of informal employment in the Russian economy in the beginning of the XXI century. An attempt was made to identify the factors that influence on extension of informal employment, not only in the regions but also in the whole country. For this purpose of the subjects of the Russian Federation were grouped in terms of the size of informal employment. The correlations between the indicators of the level of development of the regions and the size of informal employment in each subject of the federation, as well as at the state in general were determined. These correlations are studied both in the short and in the long run. Analysis of factors influencing on the extension of informal employment in different regions of the Russian Federation and in the country as a whole in the short term, carried out on the material of 2012 year, confirmed de Soto's idea of a compelled nature of informal employment. The further analysis showed that the relations between the studied parameters obtained in the short term, often not confirmed in the long term, and sometimes are opposite in nature. This fact became the subject of study in this article. It turned out that in conditions of the economic growth informal employment is a complementary benefit to employment in the formal (legal) economy; that informal employment is to some extent a consequence of the increase in economic well-being of the population, a consequence of the growth of the formal sector. The authors tried to find out in this article why it happens in modern Russia.

Журнал зарегистрирован Федеральной службой по надзору в сфере связи и массовых коммуникаций 16 января 2009 г.Свидетельство о регистрации средств массовой информации ПИ

Журнал зарегистрирован Федеральной службой по надзору в сфере связи и массовых коммуникаций 16 января 2009 г.Свидетельство о регистрации средств массовой информации ПИ