Book
The Eurasian Wheat Belt and Food Security. Global and Regional Aspects

EBES Anthology is an international scientific book that is published once a year and includes selected papers from the EBES Conferences. The book accepts any theoretical or empirical papers in business or economics fields such as (but not limited to) management, ethics, marketing, finance, investment, organizational behavior, macroeconomics, microeconomics, econometrics and etc. The aim of EBES Anthology is to increase and enrich academic research on these fields. All papers from related fields on any region or country are highly encouraged. The book invites all papers that are presented in one of the EBES Conferences and are not published or not being considered for publication elsewhere. The publication of submitted manuscripts is subject to a standard refereeing process before publication.
Using network approach, we propose a new method of identifying key food exporters based on the long-range (LRIC) and short-range interaction indices (SRIC). These indices allow to detect several groups of economies with direct as well as indirect influence on the routes of different levels in the food network.
On May 18-19, 2012, at the presidential retreat in Camp David in Maryland, U.S. president Barack Obama hosted the 38th annual G8 summit. The leaders discussed global economic growth, development, and peace and security. After less than 24 hours of face-to-face time among the leaders, they issued communiqué of only five pages. However, Camp David was a significant success. The leaders came together to effectively address the most pressing issues of the day while setting the direction for the summits that were to follow, including the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Chicago, the G20 in Los Cabos, Mexico, and the Rio+20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That success was propelled by several causes. The first is the set of strong global shocks were particularly relevant to a number of items on the agenda. This included the newest installment of the euro-crisis, spikes in oil and food prices, and the escalating violence in Syria. The second is the failure of the other major international institutions to address these challenges. The third is the club’s dedication to the promotion of democracy and its significance on issues such as the democratic transition in the Middle East and North Africa. The fourth is the high relative capabilities of G8 members, fuelled by the strength of the U.S. dollar, the Japanese yen and the British pound. The fifth is the domestic political control, capital, continuity, competence and commitment of the leaders in attendance. Camp David saw several G8 leaders returning for their sixth or seventh summit and leaders with a secure majority mandate and control of their legislative houses at home. Finally, the constricted participation at the remote and secluded Camp David Summit, a unique and original advantage of the G8 summit style, allowed for more spontaneous conversation and interpersonal bonds. Together, these interconnected causes brought the G8 back, as a broader, bigger, bolder centre of effective global governance.
Article considers theoretical prerequisites of creation of optimum hierarchical structure of system of monitoring of crucial parameters of food safety of Russia on the basis of application of the theory of indistinct sets.
The article reviews the progress of G20-B20 engagement since Toronto to St. Petersburg with the objective to identify which mechanisms and areas of cooperation are most effective to ensure continuity of the B20 efforts on the key priorities, the B20 influence on the G20 decision-making and the G20 compliance with commitments related to the B20 priorities. With this objective in mind the study is focused on two dimensions. The first dimension is B20 recommendations influence on G20 deliberation, direction setting and decision making on the basis of analysis of how the B20 specific recommendations are reflected in the G20 documents. The second dimension is B20 influence on G20 delivery on the pledges made, which is assessed by monitoring the G20 compliance with the B20 related commitments.
The authors assess the average level of the B20 recommendations reflection in the G20 documents as considerable, however its dynamics across presidencies is mixed. The average level of G20 members’ compliance on the B20 related commitments is lower than the G20 average score for compliance with general non B20 focused commitments. It can be explained by a shorter monitoring period and by the fact that the B20 related commitments are more specific. Key areas where cooperation can be most effective (financial regulation, employment, investments, trade) have been identified. Key factors of success have been revealed. The analysis shows that a high level of B20 recommendations’ inclusion into the G20 documents and actions does not guarantee subsequent implementation of the commitments made. The B20 should ensure continuity on their priority recommendations in the dialogue with the G20 and engage in the follow up process by more actively participating in the G20 agreed initiatives and projects at the national and global levels.
Progress on the B20 related commitment should be reviewed and made public for each summit. It can help to increase the level of effectiveness of B20 and G20 engagement.
Full report "From Toronto to Saint Petersburg: Assessing G20-B20 Engagement Effectiveness" is available at http://www.hse.ru/en/org/hse/iori/news/86843927.html
Author analyzes the advantages and shortages of Eurasian integration project with a view of Russia's perspective. For Russia it's a strong strategic and geopolitical choice that is necessare for future development.
We address the external effects on public sector efficiency measures acquired using Data Envelopment Analysis. We use the health care system in Russian regions in 2011 to evaluate modern approaches to accounting for external effects. We propose a promising method of correcting DEA efficiency measures. Despite the multiple advantages DEA offers, the usage of this approach carries with it a number of methodological difficulties. Accounting for multiple factors of efficiency calls for more complex methods, among which the most promising are DMU clustering and calculating local production possibility frontiers. Using regression models for estimate correction requires further study due to possible systematic errors during estimation. A mixture of data correction and DMU clustering together with multi-stage DEA seems most promising at the moment. Analyzing several stages of transforming society’s resources into social welfare will allow for picking out the weak points in a state agency’s work.