The slowdown of economic growth in Russia during 2000—2020 has been accompanied by decelerating domestic market growth and decline of its competitiveness indicators compared to other foreign markets. To some extent this evidence is associated with limitations of such development factors as favorable external economic conditions for raw materials and inflow of foreign investments. The intention to solve this problem by increasing state participation in economic processes and aiming financial regulation primarily at reaching financial stability goals has not led to any positive results in financial market development yet. The authors emphasize several key problems in this development including obstacles for longterm domestic savings growth, the unattractiveness of Russian issuers’ securities in terms of risk—return trade-off, the scarcity of quality issuers in listing, and the lack of competition between financial organizations. In response to these problems the authors propose applied recommendations that may be demanded when forming a long-term strategy for the development of the stock market in Russia.

The paper analyzes the influence of the dynamics of retail financial markets on the development of financial sector on the annual data for 39 countries, including developed and developing economies, for the period 1990—2018. To assess the general dynamics of retail markets development, a composite indicator was built. This indicator is included in the models for corporate lending market, stock market and non-life insurance market. The results show that, on the one hand, the development of retail markets (households credit market, life insurance market and private pension funds) stimulates the development of non-retail financial markets (corporate lending market, stock market and non-life insurance market) due to the expansion of their resources. On the other hand, overheating of retail credit market has a negative impact on the stability of the banking sector and subsequently leads to a reduction in the size of the corporate credit market, and the excessively rapid growth of life insurance market may hinder the development of its other segments.

In 2022, Russian investors will get access to the wide possibilities of the global financial market. The Bank of Russia opens the market for foreign exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — one of the main savings instruments for households. The economy of ETFs differs from other investment funds, whose shares do not have secondary market. The opening of the ETFs market is intended to solve a number of issues for retail investors: moving away from the preference to individual foreign shares towards portfolio diversification, cost reduction, ensuring sustainable profitability, abandoning the aggressive securities trading, and supporting market competition. Soon, ETFs will be one of the driving forces in financial markets. However, their rapid growth is fraught with little-studied effects.

The global economic challenges of our time are reflected in the concept of environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Traditionally, these issues were developed at the corporate level for enterprises and banks, while the state level was little touched upon. About half of the world’s national income is redistributed through the system of state budgets of all countries. In this regard, the formation of green budgets becomes inevitable. Rationale for the creation of a green budget and elements of its development have become the subject of analysis in this article. OECD recommendations, best practices of green budgeting, primarily in France, as well as green prerequisites for creating a domestic federal budget prove the possibility of solving the problem of sustainable economic growth and implementing the Paris Climate Agreements.

The paper identifies the state of federal and local fiscal decentralization in Russia and its effects. Original classification of decentralization indicators by a consolidated parameter indicator and a single-level parameter indicator (fiscal autonomy) is proposed. The indicator of vertical imbalance is allocated to a separate group. Despite the upward trend of fiscal decentralization in the world, Russian federal fiscal decentralization (the size of fiscal powers of regional authorities) has not increased and lags most other federations. However, the state of local decentralization (the size of fiscal powers of local authorities) is much worse, since for 2008-2018 there was a significant reduction and local revenue decentralization is minimal compared to other federations. The results obtained may indicate that fiscal decentralization could not contribute to the efficiency of the Russian budgetary system. The decrease in local decentralization may have been caused by the growth of the regional debt, but the question of why there was a decrease remains open. Favorable role of significant local fiscal powers on business and alleged existence of a threshold in decentralization-macroindicators relationship are also confirmed.

The article is devoted to the study of the theory, methodology and practice of providing the regions with resources from the federal budget on a gratuitous basis from the point of view of the development of their budgetary potential. The article identifies four methodological approaches (delegation, smoothing, point management and incentives) to the goal of providing interbudgetary transfers, their features, practical implementation, problems and effects from their use in Russia. The key indicators of the dynamics of the provision of interbudgetary transfers to Russian regions are investigated, the results of interregional budgetary equalization are shown. A matrix has been developed for the typology of interbudgetary transfers according to the key criteria for their provision and scenarios for the development of budgetary potential. It is concluded that in terms of economic development of territories, stimulation of the growth of budgetary potential is considered as a priority approach. A number of measures are proposed to improve the efficiency of the provision of budgetary resources on a gratuitous basis.

The review examines the model of democratic socialism proposed by Thomas Piketty, which is based on the concept of domination of public and temporary property and is designed to ensure a fair redistribution of world wealth, reduce inequality and ensure broad participation of the middle and lower classes in the management of private firms and political processes. As the main instrument of redistribution, a progressive tax on wealth is proposed, which should be levied on the basis of data from the world register of assets and binding international agreements on a single tax and social policy. The funds received will be used to finance basic income, personal educational and capital funds, a system of electoral and charitable vouchers. Piketty claims that the main opponent of the idea of a progressive tax on wealth is the new proprietary ideology of modern hypercapitalism, which is based on the sacralization of private property, the opacity of international financial flows, and on the principle of meritocracy, which praises billionaires and justifies the trend of increasing inequality. Piketty’s controversial interpretation of inequality factors in modern Russia is also analyzed.

The authors of the book published in Germany in 2020, unlike most researchers who adhere to the established traditional views, do not consider capitalism as a kind or form of manifestation of the market economy, which, in their opinion, as an authentic form of social order, opposes capitalism. The position of the authors also differs from other reformist doctrines by the emphasis on the mental, or rather, moral requirements that must be imposed on the actors of the market economy. Environmental and ethical issues largely determine their specific proposals for the transformation of the modern Western economic system. One of the core elements of the authors’ position is the requirement of full legal responsibility in relation to all economic agents. The authors rely on almost all known developments on the topic that they propose in the 30 theses of the reform, including the latest articles and monographs. The book can definitely be recommended to Russian researchers of macroeconomics and economic policy.

János Kornai was the most outstanding economist of socialist and postsocialist countries in the last fifty years. He was a world-renowned scholar who left behind an immense legacy of works published in over twenty languages. His theory of systemic disequilibrium in a centrally planned economy, concept of hard and soft budget constraints and the economics of shortage were of revolutionary importance to the scientific interpretation of the processes of production, distribution and capital accumulation in state socialist economies. Also of note is the author’s work on political economy of socialism, which he taught at the Harvard University. When analysing the socialist system Kornai essentially contented himself with a descriptive approach, whereas in works published post-1989 he focused his attention on normative economics suggesting directions of structural reform, institution-building and economic policy in post-socialist transition. Of great importance is also Kornai’s last book comparing the disequilibrium characterised by shortage in socialism with the disequilibrium typical of the surplus in capitalism. The article analyses the evolution of this outstanding economist’s theoretical thought and its impact on real economic processes. Polemic comments are also made on the interpretation of economic and social processes taking place in China.