A.V. KARAVAY
Researcher, Institute of Humanitarian Development of the Megalopolis, Moscow, Russia

A.A. Tikhonov
Advisor of the Department of Coordination of Programs and Projects in Science, The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 89-106

Features of the attitudes and behavior concerning the use of personal disposable funds of the working class are analyzed in the article on the basis of the materials of the all-Russian research of the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted in 2014. It is compared with the attitudes and behavior of the population of Russia in general, as well as of highly qualified persons engaged in intellectual labor. It is shown that the «margin of safety» of the working class is very small because of their low level of income and also because of their tendency to spend all disposable funds and not to save. Both this fact and the Russians’ low level of trust in any organized savings and investments reduce the internal investment potential of the country. It is stated that traditional concepts explaining financial behavior of people are hardly applicable today in Russia. It is shown that highly skilled workers, workers of low and middle qualification and ordinary workers of trade and service are very similar among themselves concerning the dominating attitudes and real financial behavior, and differ in this sense from the workers taking professional positions which are traditionally considered to belong to the middle class.

N.M. ROZANOVA
Doctor of Economics (DSc), Professor, Department of Theoretical Economics, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

A.V. YUSHIN
Deputy Chief of the Russian Public TV Broadcasting Complex, ZAO «Telerent», Moscow, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 73-88

The article aims to demonstrate that the traditional approach to a network market, that is, investigation of escalation effect, with technological or demand network effect leading to the situation when a company or a platform needs to create the critical mass of users in order to become a leader in the market, being natural monopoly or oligopoly, is not sufficient for analysis of such markets in the digital era. New phenomena have arisen in technological, social and institutional spheres that created conditions for market structure evolution from natural monopoly towards more competitive fragmentized network market, where small actors with weak product differentiation have gained certain influence. The mechanism of network market transformation under the influence of technological, economic, financial and institutional factors of digitalization is revealed on the example of TV industry. It is concluded that a new type of network market configuration is being under formation. A big variety of strictly defined network markets within natural monopoly framework is being eroded and driven into a unified although amorphous market structure, with a multiple of different participants and stiff price competition. Such intense interaction within ICT industry has put forward new tasks before consumers, firms, banks and governments, and demands new theoretical reflections, including elaboration of new economic concepts.

N.V. ARTEMYEV
Candidate of Economics (PhD), Associate Professor and Post-Doctoral Fellow of the Academy of Management of the Russian Interior Ministry, Moscow, Russia

Y.V. LATOV
Doctor of Sociology (DSc), Candidate of Economics (PhD), Associate Professor and Leading Researcher of the Research Center of the Academy of Management of the Russian-Interior-Ministry,

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 61-72

The authors use the theory of transaction costs and parts of the economic theory of crime and punishment to gain an insight into why small and medium-scale business in Russia tends to operate outside the formal sector of the country’s economy. A detailed classification of legitimate and illegitimate costs is given, assessing each legitimate cost as a cost to be shaken-off by going into the shadow economy. It is argued that each business possesses an innate ability to find its optimum degree of legitimacy, which depends on its institutional and economic circumstances. The authors treat the existence of this ability as an objective economic law. The empirical data support the view that Russia’s institutional and economic environment stays unchanged in that it pushes small business activity into the informal sector. The data presented also illustrate the vast scope of informal small and medium-scale business activity in Russia. The authors propose a set of priority measures to combat economic crime in the small business sector.

А.S. SKOROBOGATOV
Candidate of Economics (PhD), Professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 43-60

The paper examines the relationship between the force distribution and social system with the use of the economics of history and the historical sociology. A trade-off between the allocative and distributive effects of the social choice is discussed. In particular, the force distribution is discussed as a factor which determines whether an institution is acceptable by its distributive consequences. In the context of relations between the powerful and the weak, and with the use of historical precedents, interactions are examined between the urban and rural communities, unequal distribution of progress related benefits and crisis related risks, as well as the link between the up-to-date and archaic modes of organization and exchange.

I.V. ROZMAINSKY
Candidate of Economics (PhD), Associate Professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 30-42

The paper explores various issues of dechristianization as the factor which affects negatively on the institutions of capitalism. The point is that market capitalism cannot function effectively without adequate work of the forward contracts’ system. In turn, this system can normally function only under special informal institutions and features of human behavior. These ones are mainly low degree of opportunism, high propensity to undertake, high propensity to fulfill commitments, high degree of mutual trust, and absence of investor myopia. The most of these features had been shaped – in the Western countries – by the Christian ethics. The process of dechristianization in the Western countries (especially in the Western Europe) – which has been analyzed and showed in the paper – destroys both these norms and institutional foundations of capitalism. The consequence is both the fall of economic efficiency and rising susceptibility of contemporary capitalism to deep recessions.

R.M. NUREEV
Honored Worker of Higher School of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Economics (DSc), Head of the Economics Department, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Tenured Professor of the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia

D.R. AKHMADEEV
PhD student of the Economics Department, Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia,

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 14-29

The concept of informal activities is considered in the article, showing that the initially informal economic activity was investigated in relation to developing countries. However, with the gradual expansion of the study of this phenomenon, it became clear that informal employment relationships are present in varying degrees in all types of economy. The causes of popularization of the concept of «informal sector» and the differences between the main approaches to its analysis are determined. The evolution of the understanding of this phenomenon’s essence from impersonation of poverty and backwardness of the underdeveloped countries to alternative economic activities is demonstrated. A number of approaches to the classification of this institute is considered (on the basis of such criteria as: the type of production unit; employment status; the subject of the production of goods and services; the type of violating institutional rules; the degree of legality of business operations; relationship with the formal economy; stage of reproduction). The analysis of the presented approaches concludes that the informal economy covers in varying degrees all spheres of social reproduction. The attempt to determine the boundaries between different types of informal employment is made. A number of special methods exists to assess the scale of the phenomenon, which can be divided into direct (microeconomic) methods and indirect (macroeconomic) methods. The usage of direct methods is based on obtaining the necessary information by means of surveys, inspections, audits. The basis of indirect methods is the analysis of official statistical information concerning employment and financial activities indicators, relevant data of tax and financial authorities. The shadow economy is estimated in Russian Federation both at federal and regional levels. The main method used at the Federal level is balance method. The special sample surveys are used at the regional level, as well as indirect methods of calculating. It can be argued on the base of these estimates that the informal sector plays a significant role in providing employment and income, in the production of goods and services, creating jobs.

O.Yu. MAMEDOV
Doctor of Economics (DSc), Professor, Head of the Department of Political Economy and Economic Policy, Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don,Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2015, Vol. 13 (no. 1),

p. 6-13

The feature of «real socialism» – ideological tricks with Marxism, a great social doctrine that had not been understood in all its complexity by the preachers of communism – played a cruel joke on the Russians in the epoch of «verticalized society». The trouble crept up unexpectedly – having banished hateful «Marxism» (or rather the Soviet parody of the latter), Russian society appeared to have… no economic theory.
GREAT PLATITUDES have grown in popularity: the theory of supply and demand (shortage of goods results in rise in its price, excess of goods declines its price), monetary theory (excess of money leads to its price reduction, the lack of money increases its price), the theory of labor (more employees means their labour is cheaper, fewer employees – their labour is more expensive), and other «positive statements».
So, what of it, one would think. When the economy grows, there’s no place left for philosophizing – only – one should manage to «put in» and to «lay out», as the commercialized scientists clearly express.
However, if the economy goes into crisis, one cannot do without economic theory as the scientific basis of anti-crisis strategy. Disregard of economic theory can become disastrous, in the strict sense.
The present article illustrates this obvious for the professional economists thesis (however, non-obvious for non-professional ones).