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The necessity of economic choice. Why is the information about the salary concealed? Why are people ready to work for free? Why don’t worms like strawberries?

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 195-203

J. Meynstring began one of his speeches (Oklahoma, 1929) with the outstanding words: “Do you think that economics is a dismal science? You just haven’t learnt the chemistry!” To continue the great Californian economist’s traditions, I introduce you a course of popular science lectures of economics, which I have given in Novosibirsk in last ten years. The second lecture is about the fundamental principle of limited resources in economics. This basic principle explains the necessity of economic choice. The lecture considers the connections between the basic economic categories: needs, motives, purposes, resources, goods, economic choice. You’ll know how to define the right purpose that will bring you success. Understanding of the motives will help you to be successful in management. If you’ll read carefully, you’ll find the secrets of selling «unrealizable» goods. You’ll know why you should conceal the salary of employees from their colleagues. You’ll understand psychophysiological reasons of emergence of «insatiable consumers».

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Project financing as an integration structure of the economy

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 190-194

The paper shows that the last decade was characterized by increasing interest of professional banking community to the form of innovative investment known as «project financing» – a new tool for effective investment development in the era of globalization of national economies. The author examines why project finance has currently grown into an operational form of the target concentration of powerful investment flows.

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Institutional dynamics of the Russian models of bankruptcy

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 184-189

The article examines the institutional dynamics of the Russian bankruptcy system, defines the features of each stage of the formation of the institution of bankruptcy, determines the specificity of the macroeconomic dynamics of relations between the number of bankruptcies in the Russian Federation and the rate of change in country’s gross domestic product. This allowed the authors to justify the conclusion that intrasystem factors of the bankruptcy institute affecting the change in the dynamics of insolvent businesses and sustainable development of the Russian bankruptcy institute dysfunctionality.

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Industrial design as a factor of high-tech product competitiveness under contemporary market conditions

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 162-183

Is industrial design an effective instrument in competition under fast growing high-tech markets? What strategies are used by such companies in this sphere? What is their efficiency? Why is industrial design becoming a key factor of strategic activity of high-tech firms and one of the important determinants of high-tech market structure? How should economists treat this new phenomenon of industrial organization? How does it change our perspectives over markets and high-tech markets in particular? These are the questions that are under consideration in the article.

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Political participation of small business as the strategy of protecting property in Russian regions

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 152-161

The article is about the ways entrepreneurs with deputy status use in order to minimize market and nonmarket risks. The research was based on property rights theory and focus on small and middle business in the case of two Russian regions. Author views political participation as the strategy of property rights protection. Other strategies were critically analyzed. High rate of entrepreneurs in regional and municipal parliament is explained by unstable institutional environment and weak state protection of property rights. The main conclusion is that resources and opportunities, connected with deputy status, let entrepreneurs to reduce their vulnerability.

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Structural and professional disproportions in modern Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 131-151

Institutionally caused structural and professional disproportions (dissonances) between the professional structures of labor demand, education services demand and education services supply, are emphasized by the authors. In this regard, problems of Post-Soviet Russia are similar to those occuring in other catching-up countries ((India, for example), including: the oversupply of specialists in humanities, the undersupply of specialists in technical and natural sciences. To prove the existence and to measure the structural and professional disproportions statistics is analyzed, including structures of labor demand, the demand for postschool education and the supply of educational services in different specialties, areas and professions in Russia in 2000-2010s. The conclusion is made that there are not severe disproportions between the professional structure of youth demand for education services and that of postschool educational services supply. Instead, they do exist between the two above-mentioned structures, on the one hand, and the professional structure of demand for labor in the economy, on the other hand. The classification of the major institutional factors affecting the behavior of young people in the choice of profession, causing structural and professional disproportions is proposed.

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Sociocultural capital in the strategies of managed modernization: Comparative analysis of the Iranian and Turkish models

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 118-130

Some results of a comparative study of modernization in two Islamic countries, Iran and Turkey, are presented in the article. A number of controversial issues are addressed. Firstly, among the factors impeding modernization the relationship between the role of culture and that of management is considered. In other words, was this the specificity of the Islamic civilization, or rather the quality of the reforms themselves that hindered modernization in a number of Islamic countries largely? Secondly, what was the role that sociocultural and political competencies of society played for successful modernization through radical economic reforms, the author questions. Positive assessment of Ataturk’s reforms in Turkey, on the one hand, and the failure of Iran's White Revolution, on the other hand, are discussed helping the reader answer the questions raised.

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Evolution of Leontievs’ family business in XIX and early XX centuries

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 102-117

Family businesses represent a major economic factor in the Russian Empire. The article illustrates the importance and problems associated with the efficiency of the family firm on the basis of empirical data of Leontievs’ industrial business (XIX and early XX centuries). Our objective is to examine individual and group interests and their effect on family business succession. Several implications are drawn. One of these is that Old Believers values place family business in a sociocultural context in which the interpersonal relationships inside and outside the business family are subject to a variety of ethnic and religious environment influences. Examining family firms in their organizational context provides more complete understanding of the dynamics underlying choices and activities in family business.

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Insurance in Russia in 1998–2012: A statistical and politeconomical overlook

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 87-101

The article deals with the evolution of insurance in the Russian Federation in 1998–2012 through the prisms of statistical and political economy approach. Insurance is viewed as the vital indicator of the level of capitalism. The latter is justified both by theoretical insights and short historical analysis of insurance. The quantitative and qualitative success of insurance in the Russian Federation compared to 1990-s are demonstrated. However, comparison with other countries, particularly with the USA, reveals its extremely low level of development. The author also considers insurance in prerevolutionary Russia and USSR. Insufficiently successful efforts of several successful (in other areas) entrepreneurs to modernize the Russian insurance are analyzed. The low level of the Russian insurance explains the extremely low level of capitalism in Russia, the author concludes.

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Writing a Literature Review

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 12 (no. 3),
p. 65-86

The reviewing of existing literature relating to a topic is an essential first step and foundation when undertaking a research project. In this paper we examine the purposes and scope of a literature review; the selection of sources; citation and referencing; taking notes, organizing material and writing up.

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