During the 20th century the cyclic transition in forming of the key categories of normative economics is observed: from objective to subjective explanation of personal utility, and again – toward more general objective criteria (capabilities). The article is devoted to socio-philisophical background of these processes. In our opinion, behind this conversion was hidden the dominance of ethical subjectivism or objectivism, respectively, the values of individual freedom or the values of well-being, that can be estimated externally (by an “impartial spectator”, legislation or public discussion).  During the 20th century the cyclic transition in forming of the key categories of normative economics is observed: from objective to subjective explanation of personal utility, and again – toward more general objective criteria (capabilities). The article is devoted to socio-philisophical background of these processes. In our opinion, behind this conversion was hidden the dominance of ethical subjectivism or objectivism, respectively, the values of individual freedom or the values of well-being, that can be estimated externally (by an “impartial spectator”, legislation or public discussion). 

The article presents the results of the first representative study of ethical consumption in Russia. The level and profiles of ethical consumption, as well as the main types of ethical consumers have been identified. Factors affecting the partition of individuals into the different types of consumers have been defined using the multinomial logit regression. On this basis, the paper draws implications on the potential and the conditions of expansion of ethical consumption in Russia.

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.