Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast @volnc-esc-en
Статьи журнала - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
Все статьи: 1763
Organizational-economic maintenance of innovation activity in the region: comparative assessment
Статья научная
The article proposes the approach to evaluate the organizational-economic maintenance of innovation activity in the regions in quantitative and qualitative indicators, as well as the method to calculate the assessment of regulatory support of this activity. It justifies the author’s approach of comparative efficiency evaluation of innovation legislation and regions’ innovation development level. The article gives the qualitative estimation of regulatory support of innovation development in the regions that are innovation leaders. It singles out key directions to develop regulatory support of innovation activity, which encourage RF subjects’ innovation activity.
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Статья научная
Effective functioning of economy is possible only if all economic sectors function successfully. However, only the regions with a developed industrial complex can provide a decent quality of life and promote economic growth. At the same time, certain systemic problems have emerged in the industrial complex during the years of market reforms; these problems can be solved only with the help of profound and comprehensive transformations, such as an extensive use of advanced scientific and technological achievements and the formation of a fundamentally new approach to the development of the industrial complex. Under current economic conditions the functioning and development of the industrial complex depends to a great extent on the efficiency of their management mechanism. Therefore, it is expedient to begin modernization of the industrial complex and enhance its competitiveness with the changes in the existing management system. The paper outlines main problems in the development of the industrial complex, presents the typology of regions according to the level of development of the industrial complex...
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Outsourcing as a specific form of inter-firm cooperation
Статья научная
The present paper contains an analysis of organizational and economical nature of outsourcing. A classification of outsourcing types based on economic criteria is proposed. It is demonstrated that financial leasing may be considered as a particular case of outsourcing operation. An analysis of terminology used for description of outsourcing is made and amendments to this terminology are proposed. A list of criteria of differentiation between outsourcing and other forms of cooperation is described.
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Overcoming social disintegration as a factor in promoting social health
Статья научная
The article dwells on the key indicators, reflecting the state of social health. The data is presented geographically among different demographic groups. The results of the public opinion monitoring, held by ISEDT RAS, with regard to public mental health in the Vologda Oblast are revealed. The article considers the process of social disintegration as a factor, negatively affecting the state of social health. The effect of a victim behaviour on the prevalence rate of social pathologies is analysed.
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Overcoming social inequality as an impetus to socio-cultural modernization
Статья научная
The article shows that the main factors constraining socio-cultural modernization are social inequality and low standard of living. A swift modernization development requires the presence of a favorable environment that gives an impetus to the society for modernization, as well as certain (modern) level of innovation, technological and socio-cultural development. In addition, the advantages and problems related to the assessment of modernization in the regions of the Federal District, based on the methodology developed at China Center for Modernization Research, the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Modernization is considered as a process that leads not only to technological and innovation progress, but mainly to favorable changes in society and to the improvement of human potential with the preservation of traditions and cultural heritage. The study has found out that the hampering of modernization in the Northwestern Federal District includes two aspects: economic and cognitive...
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Статья научная
As the spatial structure of the economy is undergoing transformation, we observe the aggravation of a number of problems that hinder sustainable development of constituent entities of the Russian Federation; and a special place among them belongs to significant intraregional differences in socio-economic parameters. Overcoming spatial disparities should become an imperative for the development of the country and its regions in the long term. This confirms the need for further scientific understanding of the complex of issues related to the improvement of regulation of spatial development of regions; this determines the goal of our paper. In the course of the study conducted on the materials of the Vologda Oblast, we have found out that the majority of municipalities have an asymmetrical type of development with increasing differences between the areas of concentration of economic activity near major cities in the region and the rest of the territory; this indicates the process of compression of space. The paper proposes an approach to state regulation of spatial development of the region, based on its representation, on the one hand, as a complex system, and on the other hand, as a socio-economic area. Scientific novelty of the approach lies in the fact that it is based on principles and methods that help promote the development and self-development of municipalities, take into account their features and patterns of functioning, and orient municipalities toward solving strategic problems. The study is based on methods such as system analysis and system synthesis, generalization, comparison, and comparative analysis. The results of the study can be used in the activities of regional authorities and local government. Theoretical generalizations contained in the article can be used as materials for scientific discussion.
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Статья научная
The paper presents an overview of the agent-based models of complex socio-economic systems of the meso-level developed by Russian and foreign scientists. It considers agent-based models of municipalities: cities, urban agglomerations, suburban areas, etc. When choosing models for the review, preference was given to municipal level models that have a detailed description of agents, their behavior and rules of interaction accompanied by a visual diagram of the conceptual model. However, the important criterion was the availability of information about the testing of the constructed model on the actual data for a specific municipality. Foreign experience of application of the agent-based approach to the study of socio-economic systems of the meso-level is disclosed on the example of the models of municipalities that are the most interesting and promising from our point of view: these models are models of the virtual economy of the city, the model of interrelated markets for housing and land, the models of expansion of the city area, the models of reducing the city, the model of intra-city migration, the models of interconnected development of creative industries and spatial structure of the city...
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Статья научная
The economic significance of the problem of preserving and strengthening the health of shrinking child population as an important component of reproductive, labor and human potential requires the search for and development of mechanisms to manage risk factors. We present sample results of a multi-year monitoring study of child health in the Vologda Oblast for 25 years of research (1998- 2022). The purpose of our research is to evaluate the degree of risk to the health of preschool children caused by certain factors on the part of parents. The research methodology is the intracohort method of data analysis on 1,454 children from five cohorts (1998, 2001, 2004, 2014 and 2020 years of birth) by calculating the relative risk index. The scientific novelty is a comparative analysis of the influence of age, health and hazardous working conditions of future parents on the child health in the pre- and postnatal period. We have found that young maternal age is often a risk factor for child health, while mature maternal age increases the risk of cesarean section and delayed neuropsychological development in children by the age of 7. In contrast, father’s young age acts as a protective factor during intrauterine child development, but increases the risk of disease development in the future. Mature father’s age creates risks of congenital abnormalities of the cardiovascular system, but its negative effect is mitigated later on. We assume that the reason for this lies in the higher level of material wealth, medical literacy, and responsibility of aging parents. Parents’ hazardous working conditions have a deleterious effect on the child health after birth, and on the maternal health in the prenatal period as well. A complicated obstetric history of previous and current pregnancies is the most significant risk factor on the maternal part. Her chronic diseases showed no association with abnormalities in the child health, the exceptions are obesity and thyroid dysfunction. In contrast, father’s complicated obstetric history demonstrates a strong association with intrauterine fetal development disorders, the use of surgical childbirth, congenital abnormalities, the low Apgar score for the newborn, and child’s disease in the future. Practical significance of the work lies in emphasizing father’s role in the formation of child health and preparing recommendations for the prevention of child health disorders taking into account the data on the risk factors of both parents.
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Статья научная
The article presents the results of the study on the performance of the region’s schoolchildren of the final stage of the All-Russian Olympiad over the past 10 years, based on the open data of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the Vologda Oblast Department of Education. The article reveals the Oblast to be the country’s leader in the Olympiads training efficiency. The groups of disciplines are distinguished by the results achieved (high, average, low). The article provides information on educational institutions that trained the largest number of winners. The article outlines key problems on the Olympiads training and proposals for improving the region’s performance results in the All-Russian Olympiad.
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Статья научная
The article considers the processes and results of privatization of enterprises taking place in the Arctic regions of the Russian Federation in the period of 1991-2010. The authors study the aspect concerning the redistribution of influence (financial, political, etc.) between companies and the state, and between different levels of power. A conclusion has been made that the 2000-2010 period faced the intensification of transition from the direct intervention model, when the government acts as a regulator and entrepreneur, to the principles of indirect management.
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Passive behavior of the government. Budget problems are aggravating in the regions
Статья научная
Despite a number of reforms, the current multi-level budgetary system does not fully correspond to the development strategy of the country and its regions. Still the Russian Government has not taken effective measures to address the main structural contradiction of the budgetary system, based on the non-adequate distribution of revenue and expenditure responsibilities, manifested in the sharp decline in the revenue base of territorial budgets during the 2009 global financial crisis. However, the crisis effects have not been analyzed and the conclusions have not been made. The Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation tried to solve the problem of territorial budgets imbalance not by enhancing existing mechanisms of revenue distribution at the regional level, but by granting large-scale loans to be repaid after 2012. Despite it, due to the sharp rise in the social burden1, the deficit and the debt load enlarged and resulted in the budget crisis in the regions. The experts of the Higher School of Economics state that 20 RF subjects, having the level of public debt above 80%, had been actually in default2 by the end of 2014...
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Patterns of birth rate and reproductive behavior of Russian female population: current trends
Статья научная
The article analyzes changes in the patterns of birth rate and female reproductive behavior in the period from 2000 to 2018. The object of the research is reproductive behavior, which is a system of actions and relationships aimed at giving birth to a certain number of children or refusing to give birth. The subject of the research is demographic and socio-economic aspects of the relationship between the need for children and the conditions of realization. The purpose of this paper is to consider current trends of birth rate and reproductive behavior, taking into account demographic, economic, and social factors that affect birth rate. The novelty of the study is the usage of an interdisciplinary approach based on the synthesis of demographic and economic theories that explain changes in reproductive behavior. The article analyzes the dynamics of demographic and socio-economic indicators, highlights the characteristic features inherent in certain patterns of Russian female population reproductive behavior for the period from 2000 to 2018. The results obtained in the course of the study demonstrate fundamental restructuring of the system of values associated with the birth and upbringing of a child. The decline of crude and total birth rates, shifts in the age structure of birth rate, the focus on one- or two-child family pattern, the increase of an average maternal age at birth indicate a prevalence of economic and social benefits over the birth of more children. In practical terms, the results presented in the article can serve as a basis for future interdisciplinary research in birth rate area and be used as a methodological and informational base for developing demographic policy measures aimed at stimulating birth rate.
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Patterns of population's self-preservation behavior: research approaches and building experience
Статья научная
As countries make their epidemiological transition, the contribution of behavioral risk factors to population’s health is increased; they include challenges of low physical and medical activity, diet and sleep violations, imbalance of work and rest, tobacco and alcohol consumption, and high stress loads. In Russia, the situation is complicated by incomplete epidemiological transition, as well as increased morbidity and mortality from endogenous and quasi-endogenous causes. The purpose for the article is to analyze methodological approaches to studying the self-preservation behavior and build models describing it for the population of the Vologda Oblast. Russian scholars A.I. Antonov, V.A. Borisov, I.V. Zhuravleva, L.S. Shilova, G.I., Ivakhnenko, T.V. Shushunova, and A.E. Lugovoy attempt to highlight the patterns of self-preservation behavior taking into account all or some of its elements (needs, attitudes, motives and actions), but not considering them in a single system...
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Pension reform and exacerbating issues of the legitimacy of the government
Статья научная
In the first months of the new political season, which began after the March 2018 Presidential Election, the Government adopted and is currently discussing measures that received a very negative response from Russian society and many experts, especially against the background of election campaign promises and long-term goals of internal development that Vladimir Putin set out in his Address to the Federal Assembly on March 1, 2018. The greatest public response was caused by a draft law on raising the retirement age, although it should be noted that it is not the only one in the list of controversial administration decisions that bring to the fore the issue of compliance of state policy with the national interests or, in other words, the legitimacy of the government. The paper discusses scientific, theoretical and historical foundations of the legitimacy of the government. We present data on Russian national and regional studies of public opinion, indicating Russians’ growing discontent with the first steps of the Government in the new political season coinciding with Putin’s last (according to the Constitution of the Russian Federation) presidential term...
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Статья научная
The article presents an experience of a structured study of a special socio-economic phenomenon-corruption - in the aspect of its perception by different groups of population of a region. The study was conducted by Kostroma regional branch of the Russian Society of Sociologists in several stages: civil servants of the Kostroma Oblast Administration were interviewed in 2015, an online survey of university graduates of the city of Kostroma was conducted in November 2016, and finally, surveys of representatives of the business community1 of the Kostroma Oblast were conducted in 2017. The goal of the survey was to assess the perception of corruption as a socio-economic phenomenon; the assessment was carried out through analyzing and interpreting the data obtained in the course of the surveys on the following topics: assessment of the level of corruption in general, perception of the level and dynamics of corruption, and possible ways to overcome corruption, according to respondents. Having interpreted the results of the survey we reveal the attitude of different target audiences toward the understanding of the phenomenon of corruption, its causes, and ways to combat it. In the context of the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin “On the national anti-corruption plan for 2018-2020” signed June 29, 2018, the data we have obtained become particularly relevant for the development of sociological research techniques to assess the level of corruption in constituent entities of the Russian Federation (Section I, Paragraph 1, Letter “a”) and to conduct scientific interdisciplinary studies, the results of which can be used to prepare proposals aimed to enhance anti-corruption measures and increase the efficiency of such measures in the business sector (Section V, Paragraph 21, Letter “b”).
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Perception of higher education: a public or private good?
Статья научная
The social benefit of higher education is one of the most important reasons for its being funded by the state. However, within the context of liberal economic policies, the perception of education as a private good and, therefore, the necessity of supplying it by the market has brought about a decrease in the state participation in higher education in many countries. Therefore, this study aims to determine whether students studying at public and foundation universities, differentiated according to financing, perceive their university education as a public or private good. In a sense, this study aims to examine whether different financing methods in higher education affect students’ perception of higher education as a public good. In this study, the data collected from the students were tested within the scope of structural equation modelling, and the hypotheses put forward were confirmed. This study demonstrated that higher education is perceived as a public good by all university students whose financing method differs. According to the results obtained, students who are direct buyers of higher education services in universities that differ according to the financing method do not differentiate in terms of perceiving higher education as a public good.
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Статья научная
In recent years, the ecological capital becomes the factor that has important influence on the economic development. To establish the ecological capital operation performance evaluation model and to make comprehensive measurement of regional ecological capital operation, we can effectively measure the regional ecological and economic coordination degree and provide relevant basis for formulating the regional economic development and environmental protection policy. In general, there are few scholars making research on ecological capital operation; and also there are some disputes on the connotation and mode of ecological capital operation. Therefore, on the basis of domestic and foreign scholars’ research, and taking Poyang Lake Eco-economic Zone in China as an example, the regional ecological capital operation performance evaluation index system was established from three dimensions including economic value, ecological value and social value in this paper. The paper combines the expert evaluation with objective weighting method and entropy evaluation method to jointly confirm the index weighting, then to construct the regional comprehensive capital operation index, therefore to perform empirical analysis of regional ecological capital operation...
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Performance-based pay - a new (mixed) payment scheme for Russian civil servants
Статья научная
We have developed a fundamentally new approach to the provision of financial incentives (bonuses) to civil servants, which does not contradict the concept of new public management (NPM) and has a certain similarity with the corporate (Asian) performance-based type of remuneration system. In the context of our study, “performance” means socio-economic development of Russian regions. We develop and test our methodology in two successive stages: first, we carry out a retrospective assessment of the level of development of Russia's constituent entities (according to regional statistics), and then we calculate the amount of bonuses paid to civil servants according to their performance. Based on the level of socio-economic development, we solve the problem of clustering of Russian regions with the use of neuromodeling. The prognostic function is implemented on the basis of neural network technologies (through the development of appropriate Bayesian ensemble of dynamic neuromodules)...
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Platform employment specifics in Russia: what the data of workers’ online profiles indicate
Статья научная
The article discusses platform employment issues and aims to systematize and provide an overview of current knowledge about the state and structure of platform employment in Russia. It also aims to assess the position and status of platform workers based on previously published research, new official statistical data, and the results of our own empirical research using data from the digital platform Profi.ru for Moscow and the Moscow region as of 2023. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were addressed: systematizing available estimates of the platform labor market in Russia, analyzing the primary statistical data from Rosstat on platform employment, and creating a profile of a typical Russian employed person in this segment. Approaches to studying employment on digital platforms were also tested by downloading open data on platform workers directly from the platforms' websites in order to enrich statistical data and gain a better understanding of platform employment specifics. We conclude that the platform employment structure is institutionalized within social practices and is gradually approaching the general employment structure in terms of basic socio-demographic characteristics. However, it still has its own unique features. For example, the average age of platform workers is lower than that of the overall employed population. Platform workers are predominantly male and urban residents. At the same time, platforms, particularly those providing physical services on a local level, are characterized by a predominance of traditionally vulnerable groups in the labor market, such as women aged 20-29 and 3039 with young children, students, and young people without work experience. Migrants and individuals without professional qualifications are also overrepresented among platform workers. Data from the Profi. ru website indicates that these workers are mainly employed in the informal economy. More than 10% of the profiles on the platform in question are "false", that is, they belong to organizations, teams, or groups of performers (formal or informal) rather than individuals.
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