Content №1 от 2006
The formation of the technological basis of region’s economy
The formation of the technological basis of a region is treated in macro and micro terms. The authors give the definition to the technological basis of the economy and present its epistemological model in the form of a matrix of the existing technological basis and a matrix of preconditions for transition to a new technological basis. This matrix ties up the research technical results with areas of their possible application. The cells will contain information on the innovation projects and particular developments, their readiness to application, patent security, relations between partners and investors, etc., i.e. all that may affect the course of the commercialization of the developments. With this matrix it is possible to adopt a technology that is the best one according to the set criteria and work out what of the required technologies are missing.
Untura G. A. untura@ieie.nsc.ru
Spatial transformations of Russia’s economy in extreme scenarios of its development: the problem and empirical estimations
The paper analyzes factors, conditions and methods for revealing steady spatial changes in the social-economic development of Russia’s economy. It considers possible impacts on the spatial structure of the economy of parameters and perspectives of different scenarios of the country’s development and suggests a general scheme for the evaluation of scale and directions of its transformations. The structural spatial shifts for the 2000-2004 period are estimated.
Regional policy under unitary federalism
The recent measures taken by the state to deal with imbalances between political rights, functional duties and means to exercise them available to the regional authorities of the Russian Federation have conveyed to the model of the nation-state the features of “unitary federalism”. The subjects of the Russian Federation are endowed with less power and opportunities in regulating the economy than are sub-federal authorities of “competitive federalism” (USA) or of “cooperative federalism” (FRG). In this context it is proposed to establish in the territory of the federal districts the divisions of the RF MinEcon, RF MinRegion and RF MinFin that would be responsible for administering the economic policy of the federal government. The aim is to put together the principles of the efficiency of richer regions, “locomotives of growth”, with help to lagging regions, and on the basis of equitable development to pursue the integration of regional economic policies.
Institutional framework in the use of mineral resources in Russia: results and consequences
The paper examines the dynamics of the institutional arrangement in the use of mineral resources in Russia. While in transition to the market economy the specificity of the assets of the resource sector is of a critical importance, changes in this field since the late 1980s have been largely politically motivated, in the result of which this institutional system is currently incomplete, temporally discordant and soft, so the resource users can be said to operate under soft budgetary constraints. The situation where priorities for most of the private oil and gas firms are short-time is to a high extent the result of the structure of ownership. It can be improved only by hardening the institutional conditions, in particular by providing more comprehensible and transparent terms in the use of companies’ fixed assets presented by hydrocarbon stocks in bowels.
Siberia in geopolitical theories: blessing, burden, evil for Russia
The three words of the title of this article represent the authors’ understanding of the fundamental bond tying up Russia and Siberia that is the country’s strategic macro district in Euro Asia. In this way the authors want to attract attention to Russia’s temporal and value normative orientations which are very rarely touched on in the analysis of our historical past. The paper examines Russia’s spatial geopolitical blessing, that is its Euro Asian scale of the huge territory, and shows the transformation of this blessing into its burden and evil. It is shown that the pragmatic economizing in the recent strategies, programs, conventional and innovation projects of the development of Siberia is endowed with a tunnel view of the future. The world systemic analyses make it possible other than stalemate vision of the constructive and destructive trajectories in the development of Siberia, Russia and the world.
Strategic projects of the development of the key economic complexes of Siberia
The paper considers the “project” components in the strategy of the social-economic development of Siberia. Basic projects are evaluated in terms of systemic efficiency. It is stated that in the period of observation the key components of economic growth will be the development of new fields of mineral resources and creation on their basis of extraction and export centers of domestic and international significance; realization of the planned innovation projects, including stepwise creation in the territory of the Siberian Federal District of technical-application and industrial special economic zones as well as several national parks of information technologies. Real implementation of the whole totality of large scale projects is possible only through private-government partnership with creation of incentives and instruments for working out necessary organizational, financial and legal preconditions.
Forms of the foreign trade activity used by enterprises of the Siberian Federal District
The paper examines the organizational forms of foreign economic activity of the enterprises of the Siberian Federal District. A hypothesis is proposed to the effect that under new political and economic situation the Siberian enterprises have had to vary the organizational forms of their foreign trade activity from those at the beginning of the transition. The cited examples confirm that the gamut of FTA used by Siberian enterprises is presented by many forms, including special enterprises, holdings, etc. Despite the variation in the forms of FDA, the dominant role is still played by exports of the generated products.
The youth behavioral patterns in the sphere of education and in the labor market: mechanisms and factors of formation
The paper examines the mechanism of the youth behavioral patterns in the sphere of education and labor market and suggests a methodological scheme for this examination. The basic hypothesis of the dominant role the labor market plays in their formation is validated. The behavioral patterns are defined and underlying factors investigated. The typology of the youth behavioral patterns in the labor market is based on the level of their regularity. The theoretical framework of the paper is exposed to empirical testing by use of data from sociological surveys conducted at the IEIE SB RAS by the authors in 2001-2004.
The formation of regions’ competitive advantages
The essence of competition as an opportunity for the government, region or economic agent to possess a certain combination of resources, organization-management, industrial and social-economic privileges making it possible for them to occupy a leading position in the market are examined. An extremely important role in the formation and maintenance of the competitive benefits is played by science and the intensive application of its developments in production and practice of economic activity and management. Using generalization and analysis of a large array of statistics and data from sociological studies it is recommended to intensify the integration of the authorities, research and business in the effort to raise the innovation level of production at all of its stages.
The measurement of the efficiency of cluster’s information technologies
The issues of measurement of the efficiency of cluster’s activity as a regional form of industrial organization are discussed; external and internal factors are examined, indicators of efficiency are introduced, linkages both between particular factors and the direction and size of links of the resultant indicators with the determining factors are studied. The found relationships allow the conclusion to be made about segmentation of the resource and product markets, balanced quality of particular characteristics of industrial resources, interrelationships of different types of cooperation of cluster’s firms, etc.
The main stages in the development of a regional advertisement market
Currently, in the Siberian advertising market the proportion of the outdoor advertisements is increasing (66%) slightly ousting the mass-media ones. The leaders among the agencies are those who provide and release the ads. However, only 48% of the companies are exclusively engaged in the advertising activity. The paper shows the existing reserves of this market. It is not accidental that its capacity consistently goes up at a high rate and that in 2004 it made about 2 billion rubles, but the average contract spending, in spite of some increase, is still not high (slightly over 15 thousand rubles). The paper shows the drawbacks in the establishment of the regional advertisement market and analyses its main stages.
Oil and gas complex of Kazakhstan: Status quo and prospects of development
The paper considers the current state of the oil and gas complex of Kazakhstan taking into account the forecast estimates of oil and gas content of the Kazakhstan shelf of the Caspian Sea. The interdependence of the increased oil extraction and the changed condition of the social sphere both in the country and across oil producing regions is analyzed. Possible ways to improve the efficiency in the functioning of the oil and gas complex and, accordingly, of macro economic indicators of the economy of Kazakhstan achieved through rational and comprehensive use of oil and gas resources are substantiated.
Issues in the development of Tofalaria – an area of the traditional management of nature
The main causes for deterioration of the social-economic situation in the areas of aborigine people of the Irkutsk oblast are exposed. One of the possible ways to improve the governance of the area with the traditional use of nature is the creation of a national park, which will help substantially improve the quality of life for the native people.
The economics of crime: the new perspectives
It is shown that a crime is a result of a rational decision made by an individual on the basis of costs-benefits analysis. The economic approach predicts that the rational agent gets involved in some criminal activity when the marginal return from this activity exceeds the marginal return associated with any legal occupation and the probability to be detected and punished. This economic model builds on the assumption that offenders respond to incentives. The paper surveys social-economic and demographic factors explaining not only the individual propensity to crime but also differences in crime rates across places and gives a brief overview of new models by which the empirical evidence on the efficacy of punishment to prevent crime is obtained.
