Theoretical and methodological issues. Рубрика в журнале - Economic and Social Changes: Facts, Trends, Forecast
The impact of formal and informal institutions on innovative economic development
Статья научная
Formal institutions are important elements of the institutional structure of the national innovation system. The development of legislative regulation of the Russian innovation system fits within the framework of the administrative state evolution: the growth of the scope of regulation is accompanied by an increase in the number of laws and by-laws. Although the dynamism of formal institutions is an essential condition for adapting to changing environment, it also increases uncertainty and therefore has a negative impact on actors. The analysis of the functioning of formal institutions can be conducted from two perspectives: deductive and inductive. The deductive approach is based on the analysis of the legislative regulation-associated costs and is close to the new institutional economics tradition. The inductive approach, which is used in this paper, follows original institutionalism and narrative economics scholarly tradition. The following problems associated with the functioning of formal institutions have been highlighted in the analysis of narratives about the Russian innovation system: the lack of the necessary legislation, non-complementarity and inconsistency of laws and by-laws, the imperfection of existing legislation, lack of real support for innovations in the formal creation of relevant legal acts, funds and organizations, etc. An econometric modeling of formal and informal institutions influence on the innovative development of the economy has been carried out. Significant variables have been identified including the general indicators of formal institutions and social capital. It leads to the conclusion that the improvement of formal institutions is necessary for the innovative activity development, and high social capital contributes to building trust and, therefore, promotes knowledge sharing and cooperation, which are crucial for innovation initiation.
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The “avoidant individual” as a social personality type in the Russian Trauma Society
Статья научная
In the context of socio-cultural traumatization of Russian society, specific social personality types are formed, which require the attention of researchers. The aim of the work is to analyze the “avoidant individual” as a social personality type. The methodological basis of the work includes the theories of trauma society (J. Alexander, P. Sztompka, Zh.T. Toshchenko) and the anthroposociocultural approach (anthroposociocultural evolutionism; N.I. Lapin). We used general scientific methods: analysis, synthesis, generalization, induction, formalization, idealization, typologization, generalization, analysis of scientific literature, secondary data analysis. The results obtained and the novelty of the study are as follows: we were the first to demonstrate the heuristic potential of using Zh.T. Toshchenko's theory of trauma society and N.I. Lapin's anthroposociocultural approach to develop a concept of the “avoiding individual” as a social personality type in a trauma society; we showed the possibility of using a crucial protective mechanism - avoidance of traumatic situations experienced by an individual - as a basis for identifying a specific social personality type “avoidant individual”; we defined its features that are formed under the influence of trauma society: high anxiety, lack of a clear image of the desired future, value orientations on material well-being, career, family, health, hedonism, a tendency toward antisocial behavior. It is the presence of post-traumatic motivation, which underlies the value orientations manifested by the respondent, that acts as a criterion for classifying a person as belonging to this social type. The findings of the research can be used for the development of sociological theories of personality, sociology of culture, sociology of management, sociology of social change. It is of practical importance to study the distribution of this type of personality in various social groups, strata and regions of the country. One of the important areas of future research is to analyze the influence of representatives of this type of personality on the social processes taking place in Russian society.
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Статья научная
Recently, attention to assessing the effectiveness of measures aimed at promoting birth rate has been increasing. Among these measures, federal maternal (family) capital is, doubtless, the most significant one; thus, it is necessary to develop methodological approaches so as to assess the impact of specific demographic policy measures, in particular maternity capital, on birth rate dynamics. The aim of the study is to design a methodology for evaluating and measuring the effectiveness of federal maternity capital based on official statistics. The article presents two approaches to the methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of federal maternal (family) capital: the first is based on current accounting data, the second is based on census and micro-census data. Within the framework of the first approach, we consider it necessary to apply age-related birth rates for second births in real generations of women, that is, attributed to generations rather than calendar years. The second approach is based on the information about reproductive intentions. In accordance with this information, data on the average expected number of children, according to the 2015 micro-census, and the average number of children born according to the results of the 2020 census are compared. The proposed methodology helps to obtain estimates of the effectiveness of demographic policy measures, taking into account their target orientation (for example, an increase in the birth rate of a certain order or in women of certain age groups). The approbation of the proposed approaches on the example of assessing the effectiveness of maternity capital indicates the expediency of their application. Scientific novelty of our research consists in the convergence of the two approaches in order to measure the effectiveness of federal maternity capital, and in the methodology for using more detailed birth rate indicators in assessing demographic policy measures. The approbation of the approaches has not only analytical capabilities, allowing us to study birth rate in real generations of women according to the order of births and characterize reproductive attitudes; it also substantiates the conclusions about the effectiveness of federal maternity capital.
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“Black swans” and social institutions
Статья научная
The paper considers the COVID-19 pandemic as a manifestation of an upward trend in various kinds of risks on the path of social development. Promoting the adaptive abilities of socio-economic systems becomes an urgent task. We propose to use the experience of various countries in combating the pandemic to analyze the conditions that help to respond effectively to various unforeseen challenges, which are often referred to as “black swans” in modern literature. We present a brief review of the literature that analyzes the differences between countries, which affect their economic development amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We prove that, contrary to popular belief, the continued growth of GDP can be combined with relatively low COVID-19 mortality rates. This conclusion is based on data from 30 countries for the year 2020. We note that the share of the service sector in the economy has a significant impact on the dynamics of GDP in the context of the pandemic. We focus on the relationship between changes in GDP in 2020 and institutional circumstances. We find that it is possible to curb the decline in GDP growth rates primarily in those countries where the population trusts the government. The decline in GDP in some countries under consideration occurs against the background of relatively high information and personal freedom that contributes to a decline in the level of trust in the government in the context of the pandemic. The regression analysis confirms that almost half of the differences between countries in GDP dynamics in 2020 are negatively related to two factors: COVID-19 mortality and information freedom. If the people have no trust in the government, then the efforts it undertakes to adapt to an emergency situation may prove ineffective, and social activity can become destructive. In the future, it would be useful to compare the adaptive capacity of countries in terms of the rate of recovery of their economies after the pandemic.
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