Vitaliy L. TAMBOVTSEV
Doctor of Economics, Senior Staff Scientist, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 6-29
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-6-29

The public service reforms implemented over the past decades in many countries have a common feature – these reforms, known under the umbrella term of New Public Management (NPM), adopted practices of the business management. NPM principles imply setting quantifiable targets in public organizations. A number of recent empirical studies have shown negative impact of these reforms on service quality and motivation in the public sector. Nevertheless, the situation does not change because the superior authorities argue that it is impossible to manage the sector development without quantified targets. The paper analyses this argumentation. The paper deals with the critical points of contemporary (representative) measurement theory. As the author suggests, subjective judgment is not only a kind of measurement but is an indispensable part of any decision making. Differences between the targets in commercial organizations (firms) and those in public service sector are clarified. The former have a “natural” metric, that is, money, and its values depend on the firms’ profit maximization. The latter do not have “natural” metrics and specific criteria for measuring, so are merely the results of subjective judgments of the agencies’ heads, presented numerically. Virtually, those kinds of targets are not more than illusion of quantities. Striving to achieve those targets, the public servants actually engage in gaming, and this drives down the quality of the public services.

Citation: Tambovtsev, V. L. (2019). Management without measurement. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 6–29. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-6-29

Vyacheslav N. OVCHINNIKOV
Laboratory Assistant-Researcher, Assistant, Laboratory Assistant-Researcher, Center for Macroeconomic Research, Financial Research Institute of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Moscow, Russia; Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod – National Research University, Nizhni Novgorod, Russia

Marina Yu. MALKINA
Doct. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod – National Research University, Nizhni Novgorod, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 30-47
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-30-47

The purpose of this study is to assess the contribution of various factors to the differentiation of the wage level of Russian citizens belonging to different income groups over time. The study is based on the data provided by two RLMS surveys by the Higher School of Economics for 2004 and 2017. To assess the contribution of factors to the wage level of the various quintile income groups of population in different periods, we used the construction of OLS and conditional and unconditional quantile regressions. Further, on the basis of the developed regressions using the methods of decomposition by R. Oaxaka and A. Blinder and unconditional quantile by S. Firpo, we evaluated the contribution of various factors to the wage differentiation of quantile groups of the Russian population for the two years under study. The study revealed that wage differentiation was primarily determined by the effect of market valuation, while the effect of the composition of the characteristics of the labor force had a much smaller impact on it. Salaries of urban and rural residents leveled off. The remuneration of representatives of the budget and agrarian sectors of the economy gradually approached the average level. Higher education added a lower wage premium. However, high-paid workers did not face this kind of devaluation of a higher education diploma. Finally, we found a tendency to increase the fine for belonging to the informal sector of the economy, although the number of such workers has hardly changed in recent years. The results can be useful when conducting a social policy aimed at reducing the income inequality of Russian citizens.

Citation: Ovchinnikov, V. N., and Malkina, M. Yu. (2019). Determinants of wage inequality in modern Russia. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 30–47. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606- 2019-17-3-30-47

Evgeny V. POPOV,
Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Doct. Sci. (Econ.), Head,, Economic Theory Center, Institute of economics, the Ural branch of Russian Academy of Sciences; Head, Digital Economics Laboratory, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin,

Anna Y. VERETENNIKOVA
Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Senior Researcher, Institute of economics, the Ural branch of Russian Academy of Sciences; Associate Professor, Institute of Public Administration and Entrepreneurship, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin,

Alisa A. SAFRONOVA
2nd-year Master’s Student, Ural Federal University named after the First President of Russia B.N. Yeltsin, Ekaterinburg, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 49-50
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-48-63

The purpose of this study is to develop the technique to assess the institutional support for social innovation activity. The concept of the institutional environment of the social innovation activity is introduced, with the focus on fundamental regulations, rules and customs creating the institutional structures which interact during the social innovation process. The authors show that despite the variety of studies on the institutional environment of social innovation activity, there is a lack of tools to effectively assess this environment so that it may more adequately reflect contemporary realities of management. The paper presents the authors’ technique for assessing the institutional support for the social innovation activity. Relevant tools include the systems of assessing the indicators of hybridity, flexibility, inclusiveness through institutions. To demonstrate the applicability of the technique, the empirical assessment is given to the institutional support in the public sector of Ekaterinburg (including housing and communal services, social security, sport, culture, education, road and transport). The data obtained enabled the authors to analyze the institutional support for social innovation activity in various spheres of the public sector of Ekaterinburg (Ural Federal District, Russia). Theoretical implications of the research are that it provides a framework for assessing the institutional environment for social innovations. Practical implications are that the research findings verify a comprehensive authors’ approach to assess the institutional support for social innovation activities in the research site (a city or a region).

Citation: Popov, E. V., Veretennikova, A. Y., and Safronova, A. A. (2019). Institutional support for social and innovation activity in the large city. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 48– 63. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-48-63

Igor L. KIRILYUK
Junior Researcher, Institute of Economics of RAS, Moscow, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 64-77
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-64-77

Institutional design is a targeted change to the system of socio-economic institutions. This concept is widely used in English-language literature, also sometimes in Russian-language publications. In economics, institutional design processes include the establishment of rules for the use of public resources, the implementation of economic reforms, the creation and reform of economic organizations that significantly affect relations between groups of economic agents, etc. From the many publications in which the processes of institutional design are discussed, the author, using databases such as google scholar, elibrary.ru and search sites, selected for analysis those where the application of mathematical models and calculations takes place. Some of them do not contain the term “institutional design”, but contain its synonyms or describe particular cases of its application. This article suggests the classification of mathematical models used in these publications. Among them are econometric models, models of general economic equilibrium, econophysical models involving the application in economics of the methods of the theory of nonlinear dynamic systems, models of game theory (in particular, evolutionary game theory and game theory related to the collective use of resources), and imitation models. Examples of publications about specific types of models are given. The strengths and weaknesses of the use of various types of models and mathematical methods are indicated and the prospects for their use are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the use of information technology in institutional design, which is actively developing due to the presence of the Internet and large computing power, as well as the development and adoption of blockchain technology by society

Citation: Kirilyuk, I. L. (2019). Mathematical modelling for institutional design. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 64–77. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-64-77

John A. TAYLOR
PhD, Docent, Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 78-88
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-78-88

Joseph Schumpeter said that Adam Smith was sincere and very influential, but Schumpeter also said that Smith’s “Wealth of Nations” nevertheless was neither original nor brilliant. As for moral philosophy, Schumpeter hardly read “The Theory of Moral Sentiments”. Smith was an Aristotelian and a scholastic, Schumpeter said. These interpretations of Smith became standard, but were they correct? This paper argues instead that Smith was brilliant and original because his moral philosophy provided a capstone or crowning argument for seventeenth-century political economy. This connection of Smith to seventeenth-century sources is not entirely new of course. Karl Marx already said that “Wealth of Nations” depended largely on seventeenth-century writers such as Sir William Petty. Yet Marx saw only part of the picture because he, like Schumpeter later, undervalued Smith’s moral philosophy. Predecessors in seventeenth-century political economy deeply influenced Smith, true, but he was not a passive recipient of this seventeenth-century influence. Instead, this paper argues, Smith labored to free political economy from its seventeenth-century reputation for atheism and immorality. Petty and his friend Thomas Hobbes and many other seventeenth-century practitioners of political economy had an infamous reputation as being empiricists who were hostile to moral philosophy in general and to Christian theories of right action in particular. Smith freed empirical political economy from its reputation for atheism.

Citation: Taylor, J. A. (2019). Adam Smith’s seventeenth-century sources. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 78–88. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-78-88

Margarita V. KURBATOVA
Doct. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, Director, Institute of Economics, Management and Public Administration, Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia

Sergey N. LEVIN
Doct. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia

MElena S. KAGAN
Cand. Sci. (Techn.), Associate Professor, Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia

Dmitry V. KISLITSYN
Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Associate Professor, Kemerovo State University, Kemerovo, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 89-106
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-89-106

This paper addresses the problem of identifying typological features of resourcetype regions and their classification. The proposed approach is based on the separation of the characteristics of resource abundance and resource dependence, which is explained by the institutional organization of the regional economy. A comparative analysis of the concepts of «resource regime» and «discrete structural alternatives» revealed the features of the institutional organization of resource-type economies. Present classifications of resource-type regions are outlined. The authors develop and test a two-factor model of regions classification using the criteria of the share of the extractive sector in the GRP and the ratio extractive sector/manufacturing sector. The analysis demonstrated comparative advantages of the proposed classification compared to existing approaches. Using the method of fuzzy classification, an integral evaluation of resource dependence is calculated, a classification of regions is given on a continuous scale. An integral evaluation of Russian regions resource dependence level is executed, and their grouping is accomplished. This allows not only to characterize the resource-type regions from an institutionalist perspective, but also to rank them, as well as to identify the associations between various variables (level of employment and unemployment; wages and incomes, etc.) and resource dependence.

Citation: Kurbatova, M. V., Levin, S. N., Kagan, E. S., and Kislitsyn, D. V. (2019). Resource-type regions in Russia: definition and classification. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 89–106. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-89-106

Galina P. LITVINTSEVA
Doct. Sci. (Econ.), Professor, Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia

Aleksandr V. SHMAKOV
Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Associate Professor, Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia

Elena A. STUKALENKO
Cand. Sci. (Econ.), Associate Professor, Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia

Sergey P. PETROV
Cand. Sci. (Econ.), , Novosibirsk State Technical University, Novosibirsk, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 107-127
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-107-127

The term «people’s quality of life» has no universally accepted interpretation and it could be precised in light of ongoing digital transformation of society. To characterize digital component of people’s quality of life six attributes were specified: availability of digital goods for people, digital skills, quality of social sphere and services in conditions of digitalization, state electronic services for people and people informational activities safety. A mixed method to estimate the digital component of people’s quality of life was used, the use of this method is stipulated by the character of utilized information, namely statistical information and results of people’s and households opinion polls. The Russian regional index of digital component of people’s quality of life (RRIDPQL) was defined for the whole country as well for its federal districts and regions. The results of computations allowed to characterize the changes in subindices and in the integral index covering 85 regions of Russia, eight federal districts and the whole country for the period of 2015–2017. Positive dynamics of the Russian index of digital component of people’s quality of life was revealed along with its very high variations for the Russian regions. The ongoing programs of information society development as well as newly elaborated programs in the Russian regions are analyzed. Not all of them pay enough attention to the six attributes of people’s life digitalization. The results of this research could be used for scientific substantiation of digital economy development programs elaborated on the regional level.

Citation: Litvintseva, G. P., Shmakov, A. V., Stukalenko, E. A., and Petrov, S. P. (2019). Digital component of people’s quality of life assessment in the regions of the Russian Federation. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 107–127. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-107-127

Anastasia V. KARAVAY
Cand. Sci. (Sociology), Senior Research Associate, Institute of the Social Analysis and Forecasting, RANEPA; Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 128-145
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-128-145

The main issue of the article is an analysis of the adaptive behavior of the modern Russian population. The author deals with the data of the eighth wave of the allRussian monitoring study by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2018. As the author states, eleven adaptation strategies can be distinguished. Their specificities depend on the degree of people’s activities, their material and nonmaterial resources capacity, place of residence, age and professional characteristics. The paper argues that, when choosing adaptation strategies, Russian people act rationally and try to maximize the utility of available resources. If a lack of resources occurs, people increase the work- or debt load. At the same time, their adaptation activity is restrained by the specifics of the local and global socio-economic institutions. The place in the stratification hierarchy influences the choice of adaptation strategy and its effectiveness in two aspects – the ability to accumulate assets necessary for adaptation, and the sufficiency of these assets to reduce the risks inherent in the life of a particular individual. Representatives of the upper strata can choose the most comfortable strategy for themselves, and the Russians from the middle, and especially the lower strata almost do not have any choice of such strategies. As a result, the uneven distribution of life chances and risks in modern Russian societyleads to unequal opportunities in the selection of successful strategies affording to maintain and increase material wellbeing, which leads to further growth of social inequalities. At the same time, the nonconsistency of the status position (relatively high rates of life chances and risks at the same time) leads to a desire to change the institutional environment, what in Russian conditions means the appearance of an idea of internal migration or emigration. This idea is the most common for the most prosperous part of society.

Citation: Karavay, A. V. (2019). Basic models of socio-economic adaptation in different strata of russian society. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 128–145. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606- 2019-17-3-128-145

Ruslan А. GRIGORYEV
PhD Economics (UK), Deputy Director, Scientific and Research Institute of Social and Economic Development, Kazan Innovative University named after V. G. Timiryasov (IEML), Kazan, Russia

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 146-168
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-146-168

Detection of causality among indicators of various stock markets located in different time zones is a rather typical task in financial econometrics. However, the variety of lag variable modifications shows that the classical models cannot comprehensively and correctly consider the causal effects that take into account the distribution of the moments of financial institutions indicators’ value recording time within each observation. In this regard, the article, first, presents a summary of lag variable modifications in models with correction of non-synchronism problem; second, shows that the virtual time shift method induces one of the time series to shift one observation and restructures the equations specification, similar to the non-synchronism corrected models; third, theoretically summarizes the existence of multiple solutions of the classical models by proposing two alternative solutions of Granger’s equations under the shift of one of the time series in data set and it’s empirical testing; fourth, summarizes the mechanism of occurrence of alternative scenarios of multivariate autoregression model solutions under non-synchronous data formed exclusively by the Greenwich time line. In general, the work consistently reveals the problems of applicability of the classical models theoretically substantiating the existence of the specter of alternative solutions and the existence of the specter of econometric hypotheses proving other regularities, different from those revealed exclusively on the basis of non-synchronous data under the Greenwich time line condition.

Citation: Grigoryev, R. А. (2019). Granger causality among world stock markets: multiple solutions. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 146–168. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019- 17-3-146-168

Jianfei YANG
PhD, Senior Researcher, Cultural Development Institute, Communication University of China, Beijing, China

Jūratė ČERNEVIČIŪTĖ
PhD, Professor, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Rolandas STRAZDAS
PhD, Professor, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

Manuela TVARONAVIČIENĖ
PhD, Professor, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Vilnius, Lithuania

TERRA ECONOMICUS, 2019, Vol. 17 (no. 3),

p. 169-184
DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3-169-184

Cultural and creative industries cluster is currently playing an increasingly important and decisive role in the development of cultural and creative industries. This is especially relevant for China where cultural system reform promotes the clusters development from 2003. Bearing this in mind, the authors focus on the cultural system reform in China and attempts to find new ways and novel solutions for the promotion of the development of cultural industries clusters. The case of the first national level cluster of cultural and creative industries has been selected and elaborated upon as an example and a comprehensive yet inspirational case study with a purpose to demonstrate the experience with the CCI clusters development to the potential followers. Furthermore, the problems and functions of CCI clusters management are discussed from many angles and points of view and in greater detail. In addition, neo–endogenous model for CCI clusters development is also presented and explained in greater detail. Overall, our results demonstrate that fast growth of the CCI enterprises in the zone might be achieved using the neo-exogenous model for CCI clusters development based on the neo-endogenous facilitators. Moreover, it appears that additional research might be required in order to grasp the mechanisms that would allow to understand how the increase in the efficiency of neo–endogenous model for CCI clusters development can be effectively achieved.

Citation: Yang, J., Černevičiūtė, J., Strazdas, R., and Tvaronavičienė, M. (2019). Stimulation of cultural and creative industries clusters development: А case study from China. Terra Economicus, 17(3), 169–184. DOI: 10.23683/2073-6606-2019-17-3- 169-184