The article analyzes reforms of organizational structure of Russian science in the post-Soviet period. The authors suggest a new model of organizing research groups with the aim to increase international competitiveness of Russian science. The development of possible versions of organization of such groups was based on unfocused interviews with prominent Russian scholars and representatives of Russian-speaking research diaspora. Major principles of functioning of new laboratories are analyzed, including the linkages with host institutions, financial, human resources, and governance aspects, as well as procedures for monitoring and evaluation.

The article deals with the relation between assumptions of economic theories and their politicval implications. Two canons of economic science are analyzed according to the degree of abstraction. A hypothesis is that the more abstract formal canon is connected with a liberal kind of economic policy whereas the more concrete canon presupposes an active state involvement in economic affairs. Several attempts at integrating both canons are studied separately (Marshall, Schumpeter, Eucken). Historic evidence is more or less consistent with the hypothesis stated above, but there happens to be one important exclusion: the general equilibrium theory is so abstract that it can imply opposite policies.

Paper discusses a number of hypotheses as potential explanations of the spatial income distribution in Russia. The hypotheses include the increasing return hypothesis, the institutions hypothesis and the simple and sophisticated versions of the geography hypothesis. According to the existing evidence, the sophisticated geography hypothesis fits best Russian data. This suggests that the changes in spatial income distribution follow the changes in local geographical characteristics and in their economic value.

Academic mobility facilitates interactions of different scientific schools and collectives, influences formation of academic relations and indirectly affects positions of universities in academic rankings. Mobility helps establish networks of professional contacts, and that might have a positive impact on the level of research, allowing efficient academic collaboration, access to results of different studies and collected data. Mobility is an important issue not only for universities, but also for researchers because their collaboration with the colleagues and participation in joint projects characterize them for other members of the academic community, and that increases the value of academic networking. However, the way of evolution of the institution of networking raises various questions about the objectivity of the recruiting process and advantages that some candidates get over their rivals. The purpose of this article is identification and analysis of those factors that force the institution of mobility in the Russian academic reality to work against general social interests and the interests of universities.

We study the tax-spend nexus for Russian regional budgets. Causal relationship running from taxing to spending is found, thus supporting the concept “tax and spend” suggested by M. Friedman. Next, elasticity of expenditure by revenue is estimated for a panel of 80 regional budgets basing on data for 2000—2017. Estimates are in the range of 0.72 to 0.78 (depending on the econometric technique), which exceeds elasticity for the federal budget more than twice. This evidences that fiscal policy at the sub-federal (as distinct from the federal) level has clear pro-cyclical nature. Besides, the largest sensitivity of expenditure to revenue shocks is found for the item “national economy”, implying marked adverse implications for economic growth. We suggest to mitigate this effect by modifying fiscal rules for sub-federal budgets. They are currently aimed primarily at enhancing fiscal discipline, with less emphasis on countercyclical policy, insulating economy from fiscal shocks.

We study TFP growth in Russia in 2009-2015 using firm-level data.  Our results reveal that the productivity gap between technology leaders and laggard firms accumulated over the observed period. Technology diffusion from leaders to less efficient firms in Russia stays rather limited resulting in relatively low average TFP growth. The market share of less efficient firms shrinks over time but they do not exit the market. As a result, the scarce recourses stay locked in inefficient production.

Revelation of the factors of corporate innovation activity and measurement of efficiency of innovations are vital topics in studies of modern economy. A character of innovative process has led to an increasing popularity of CDM approach. This allows to analyze the influence of innovative activity on firms economic performance. This paper is a review of the main empirical studies made within the CDM approach.