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2017, Issue 2 (34). Abstracts
Political Economy of Institutions and Development: The Importance of Being Inclusive Reflection on "Why Nations Fail" by D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson. Part I. Institutions and Economic Development. Institutional Choice We discuss the evolving views on institutions and development in modern political economy, and in particular the contribution to the field by D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson, explaining root causes of successes and failures in economic development. The focus of discussion is on inclusive and extractive institutional regimes — the former sustain economic growth, whereas the latter enable elites to expropriate the rest of society. Although extractive institutions are inefficient and obstruct development, they are preferred by elites and hence can be reproduced over long periods of time in vicious circles of economic and political inequality. In Part II of the paper (to be published in the next issue of the Journal) we apply the above concepts and views to the post-Soviet period of the Russian history, where the market reforms of the early 1990s became a “critical juncture” which has shaped Russia’s institutional regime for decades to come. Key words: inclusive and extractive institutions, critical junctures, political economy of institutions and development
Bargaining Power and Market Power: Comparison and Policy Implications Modern economic literature fails to provide a clear demarcation line between the concepts of market power, bargaining power and countervailing buyer power. Partly this can be explained by methodological limitations of the existing approaches to analyzing these categories. But the issue cannot be limited to merely a theoretical debate, as the choice of interpretation influences the ways in which antitrust policy is implemented. The issue in question is of special importance in cases of bilateral monopoly. The article aims at providing an approach to differentiate between market power and bargaining power based on results of theoretical differentiating and experimental empirical studies. Such an approach allows us to define bargaining power in a wide and narrow sense, revealing the role of institutional factors and chosen strategies. Bargaining power in its narrow sense excludes the aspects related to market power and represents the institutional characteristics of exchange as well as firms individual strategies of dealing with counterparts on the market. To analyze the different ways in which market power and bargaining power can correspond we study cases of symmetrical and asymmetrical bargaining power without market power, as well as with market power on both sides. We demonstrate that the effects of market power – in terms of both coordination and distribution – can be similar to the effects of asymmetrical bargaining power, which serves as one of the reasons for confusing between the two. The existing trends in Russian antitrust policy demonstrate the need for a balanced approach to assessing actions that disrupt competition and actions explained by asymmetrical bargaining power in the narrow sense. Key words: market power, bargaining power, antitrust policy, competition, bilateral monopoly, experimental economic
The Impact of Public Funding and Tax Incentives on Russian Firms: Additionality Effects Evaluation In the following study a microeconomic assessment of the implementation results of tax and financial policies aimed at stimulating firms’ innovation activity is carried out. The approach used is based on the provisions of the additionality concept. The authors systematized and summarized the results of more than thirty empirical studies examining the additionality effects of tax and financial incentives for innovation. Obtained results suggest that financial support more often leads to significant positive results, mainly to the growth of company’s investment in new equipment, the increase in the production volume of innovative products and the acceleration of projects implementation. However, the use of tax instruments is much less likely to crowd out private investment. Generally, public support rather poorly stimulates the development of the science-business cooperation. Key words: promotion of innovation activities, public policy evaluation, additionality concept, firms’ innovation behavior, financial support, tax incentives I.L. Lyubimov, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow, Russia Economic Complexity of Russian Regions and their Potential to Diversify The author estimates the level of economic complexity for Russian regions, as well as their potential to diversify exports. We construct an export database that provides export data for 80 Russian regions to use along with a larger dataset of 148 countries. This database gives a comprehensive view of Russian regions export products. We also account for the regional origin of products exported, which allows us to estimate the level of complexity of Russian regional economies more accurately. We provide taxonomy of the regions by a level of complexity of export industries and then for the policy purposes we evaluate opportunities for further export development by region. We pick up two Russian regions’ to illustrate our main findings. Our results fall in line with works by (Hausmann et al., 2007; Hidalgo et al., 2007), which show a positive relationship between economic complexity and potential for the development of regional export industries. Key words: economic growth, diversification of economy, comparative advantages, economic complexity of Russian regions, product space
The Budgetary Financing of Socio-Cultural Sphere The article presents the study results of data on budgetary financing of socio-cultural sphere, including its individual sectors, for the period from 2000 to 2015, from the funds of the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation and the Federal budget. In order to test the hypothesis that Russian Governments priority is the development of the socio-cultural sphere in the dynamics the article analyzes the indicators of public funding volumes, as well as the shares allocated to this sector from the budget funds in the total budget expenditures. Indicators of the socio-cultural sphere budgetary financing during indicated period are compared with similar indicators of the countries belonging to the Organization for economic cooperation and development. The article examines indicators of budgetary funds allocated for functioning and development of the sphere. Conclusions are made about a partial confirmation of the mentioned hypothesis. Under the conditions of hard budget restrictions the urgency of the task to increase an efficiency of budgetary expenses is being emphasized. The article analyzes the implementation of reforms that play a key role in completing this task. Key words: budget funds, budgetary financing, socio-cultural sphere, the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation, Federal budget, municipal services
The Determinants Influencing Trade Outcomes of WTO Disputes This author empirically considers how disputes in the WTO affect trade flows of disputed goods from complainant countries to the defendant ones. The empirical analysis based on the 141 trade disputes in the WTO over the 1995—2010 period, shows that complainant’s power with respect to its possibility to adopt retaliatory measures is the important determinant of trade flows changings. A complaining country, which is an important market for the defending export, achieves ceteris paribus a better result in terms of import trade flows of disputed goods, if a complaining country wins a dispute. Key words: trade disputes, WTO, international trade, trade liberalization
Face to Face to Human Being: Achievements and Challenges of Behavioral Economics In the paper we survey the recent developments in a quickly growing area of behavioral economics, which combines methodological principles of economics with insights from cognitive and social psychology to offer new perspective and shed new light into the patterns and origins of human decisions, many of which appear puzzling from traditional economics viewpoints. We survey theories of individual decision, behavioral game-theories and their applications to economic problems. Separate attention is drawn to experimetrics – a new instrumental discipline which combines behavioural economic theories and econometric estimations of structural utility functions of individual participants of experimental studies. We conclude by indicating several directions for future research, as well as some insights from interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies. Key words: behavioral economics, bounded rationality, experiments
Theory of Economic Growth: New Methods and Opportunities The author studies the reasons and consequences of major changes in methods and subjects of economic growth theory. The transformation of growth theory is going on in three main directions. Firstly, the focus of research shifts to the studies of fundamental reasons of differences in incomes per capita among countries and this shift is related with the exploration of a new class of models. Secondly, the advancement in data analysis and access to new historical data helps to test new theories and create new growth empirics. Finally, growth theory changes its focus from the analysis of balanced growth path properties to the reasons of major qualitative changes in economic dynamics. The paper shows new perspectives for the growth theory and gives forecasts of its future development. Key words: endogenous growth theory, unified growth theory, endogeneity problem, stages of growth, comparative economic development, critical junctions
In Search of a Generalized Concept of Rationality The paper recapitulates basic problems that arise in the game-theoretic models, when traditional assumptions about the rationality of players are violated. Some examples of bounded rationality models describing the strategic interdependence of players are provided. In particular we consider the theories of oligopolistic behavior, the models of bounded strategic thinking, equilibrium in secure strategies and equilibria contained by counter-threats. We discuss the ways to reconcile the traditional and boundedly rational approaches. We briefly review the main strands of modern game theory aimed at developing a generalized concept of rationality, which would incorporate strategic interaction and farsighted strategic thinking of players. Promising directions include interactive epistemology, learning theory and evolutionary models. Key words: rationality, bounded rationality, strategic interdependence, farsightedness, strategic thinking, interactive epistemology, learning theory, evolutionary models
About Some Directions of Economic Theory Development The paper discusses some promising directions of theoretical economics related to analyzing problems with many interacting agents, i.e. at graphs with fixed or emergent topologies. A necessity of developing a statistical game theory is discussed; in which, similarly to statistical physics, one constructs an approximate aggregated description of a system in terms of a small number of representative collective variables. Development of aggregated description of systems with nontrivial local topology of economic interactions is of particular interest. A modern status of multi sector macroeconomic models is described portraying economic interaction through considering a weighted oriented graph corresponding to the input-output matrix as well as multiagent approach to optimization problems in which an optimal state is reached by agents exchanging services at the virtual market. Key words: multiagent systems, dynamics on graphs, macroeconomic dynamics
The Theory of Endogenous Economic Growth and Equations of Mathematical Physics The paper contains an overview of recent studies that use equations of mathematical physics, their analogs and modifications for describing endogenous evolution of firms’ distribution by efficiency levels. The master equation is proposed that includes, as special cases, differential-difference analogues of the Burgers, Boltzmann, and Kolmogorov—Petrovsky—Piskunov equations. The analogues were applied by a number of authors in the study of Schumpeterian dynamics. The connections between the models of Schumpeterian dynamics and stochastic differential equations are demonstrated. A scheme for constructing multifactorial models of endogenous growth is also proposed, based on a combination of different imitation rules for different performance indicators. Directions for further research are outlined. Key words: Schumpeterian dynamics, imitation, innovation, Burgers equation, Boltzmann equation, Kolmogorov—Petrovsky—Piskunov equation
Statistical Results of the Third Russian Economic Congress (Moscow, MV Lomonosov MSU Economics Faculty, December 19-23, 2016) Third Russian Economic Congress was held in Moscow at December, 19th – 23rd. It consisted of 19 thematic conferences with 642 reports and 9 round tables with 34 speakers. On this Congress as on previous ones representatives from Moscow and Moscow region prevailed. Other core cities include Saint-Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, Ufa and Khabarovsk. This Congress was characterized by the rising share of representatives from academic institutions comparing with high school and universities. The leading institution in terms of representatives was MV Lomonosov Moscow state University, which replaced Higher School of Economics that had taken first place during first two congresses. Participants noted the increase in the quality of reports, which was caused, among other things, by a more stringent selection of papers. Key words: Third Russian Economic Congress, regional participation, institutions, high school Back | ||
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