The paper analyzes the impact of fiscal rules on the cyclicality of non- interest public spending. It is concluded that for both developed and developing countries for 1995—2019 non-interest public spending is procyclical, and having at least one fiscal rule at the national level reduces the procyclicality of spending. The reaction to the introduction of a fiscal rule depends on the existence of institutional conditions for its successful application. The presence and rigidity of the rules are offset by the possible non-compliance with them. Fiscal rules are not a sufficient condition for a counter-cyclical fiscal policy and do not guarantee a solution to the problems of debt burden and stabilization of expenditures. Hardly 22 out of 49 countries that have applied at least one fiscal rule for 5 years and for which data for at least 10 years of non-interest spending are available show counter-cyclical non-interest spending behavior, and only 7 of them managed to reduce their debt burden after the introduction of a system of fiscal restrictions.

The research focuses on the impact of substituting own revenues in Russian regions by federal intergovernmental transfers on the amount of public debt using the concept of vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI). Vertical imbalance emerges as a result of spending assignment exceeding revenue streams at the lower levels of the budgetary system. It leads to a lack of own revenues and creates risks of accumulating deficits and debt buildup. Vertical imbalance is analyzed as a whole and by its components — the deficit of a subject of the Russian Federation and the types of intergovernmental transfers. Shared revenue sources with sharing rates differentiating among regions and allotted at the discretion of regional authorities to local administrations are considered to be regional intergovernmental transfers as well. Quantitative analysis was carried out by panel regression with fixed effects of regions and observation periods based on the data for 2011—2020. It is found that vertical imbalance does not have a significant impact on the amount of debt, as federal intergovernmental transfers do not restrain growth of tax base or efficiency of spending, as laid out by the theory. We refer the low risk of negative consequences to the low powers of regions in generating revenues and big primary spending obligations.

Imbalances in law enforcement require some alternatives for an institutional response to challenges. Telecommunications is an example industry where technological changes in the environment condition the need to adjust approaches for implementing antitrust tools for competition protection. The article deals with the discussion regarding the choice of structural alternatives for the framework of telecommunications (the institutional framework of this industry). The paper reveals the characteristics of competing alternatives: deregulation (regulation “pending”), economic regulation, reconfiguration of antitrust taking into account the limitations on the side of the regulator. It is shown that the solutions proposed on the basis of the Austrian school of economics and Pigouvian ideas are easily accessible in the framework of public discussions. This is why the economic regulation or deregulation are the most promising directions in the field of public policy. The Coasian approach requires better knowledge of the subject and allows to take into account the limitations on the side of the regulator, however, it is not likely to be accepted. At the same time, this approach provides a wider range of tools as a condition for the adaptive effectiveness of regulation.

There is no unanimous opinion on the benefits of antitrust actions. They can result in direct and indirect costs for companies. The article evaluates the effect of the enforcement activities of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia on the market value of companies in the oil industry (reputational costs). An empirical conclusion was obtained on the basis of a sample of events of Russian oil companies from 2012 to 2018 that the actions of the antimonopoly service significantly affect the company’s value not only when the fact of violation is established and decisions are made and orders are issued, but also when only its signs are established and warnings are issued and cases are initiated.

The article presents a method of quantitative measurement of food losses in agricultural production in Russia based on verifiable statistical data and the results of its application. The relevance of the study is related to the limited resources for agricultural production and the growing demand for food, considering climate change, leading to an increase in the risks of extreme weather events and epidemics. The estimates of losses presented in Russia are either based on the calculation of food resource balances and have limitations in terms of coverage of the types of losses considered, or are based on subjective assessments of respondents. The proposed method makes it possible to identify focal points of food losses in agricultural production. In addition, the results obtained can be used to assess the potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions because of limiting food losses in Russian agricultural production.

The study of barriers and drivers of Russian SMEs’ environmentally responsible behavior is essential, since this business cluster is characterized by low information openness and transparency. The goal of the study was to research attitudes of owners and managers of Russian SMEs of different sizes towards diverse factors of internal and external business environment acting as barriers and drivers of SMEs’ environmentally responsible behavior. In this context, the following research tasks were set: to identify the significance of factors in SMEs’ external and internal environment (drivers and barriers) shaping their commitment to environmentally responsible practices after analyzing a broad range of publications in the corresponding scientific domain; to compare analytical results from reviewing academic publications to findings from the empirical study of Russian SMEs’ views and opinions. The research methods were questionnaire and interviews among representatives of 151 and 20 Russian SMEs respectively. The study revealed that the majority of respondents marked factors of external business environment, first of all, actions of federal and local authorities, as most significant barriers and drivers of environmentally responsible behavior of Russian SMEs of all sizes. They also mentioned “the culture of responsible production and consumption” in this regard. Market conditions (competition, opportunities of concluding contracts within the network of responsible suppliers, etc.) can be ranked second by their significance according to respondents’ answers. Factors of internal business environment (financial, human resources, time resources, etc.) are significantly less often perceived by SMEs’ representatives as drivers and barriers for their organizations’ green business practices. In contrast to other developing market economies, where SMEs include large corporations, business associations and technological, demographic and religion factors, along with governmental activities, into the list of important drivers for environmentally responsible behavior, the priority of authorities’ actions is absolute in the ranks of Russian SMEs in this regard. Employees of micro businesses were different in their estimations of restraints to environmentally responsible behavior, as well as of benefits that their firms may get from environmentally responsible initiatives, than their colleagues from medium-sized companies. The latter group increasingly relies on international organizations’ and UN recommendations, as well as competitors’ adherence to green practices. Research outcomes allow to conclude that if large corporations within Russia consider expansion of cooperation opportunities for responsible suppliers from the SMEs segment, while professional associations and communities boost efforts for increasing their awareness and knowledge of environmentally responsible practices, the degree of Russian SMEs interest to green projects and practices may become considerably higher.

In recent decades there has been a growing interest worldwide in the study of the relationship between various manifestations of culture and economic processes. Contrary to the reckless judgments of some researchers, culture is not universal or neutral, but diverse and has a direct and significant influence on the nature of organization and implementation of economic activity. Nevertheless, in spite the accumulation of numerous and irrefutable evidence of this, the integration of the concept of culture in some or other categorical forms into economic theory for one reason or another has not yet occurred. In characterizing the interaction of cultural and economic processes the author suggests broader use of the concept of cultural capital, similar in many of its “technical” parameters to other intangible capitals. Intangible cultural capital, defined as “habitual perceptions and values”, is a multi-layered and multidimensional phenomenon that contains not only stable and “strong” elements but also those amenable to change, susceptible to degradation and destruction, and therefore exhibits features both as a public good and as a common good.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the practice of sanctions within the EU. Two groups of sanctions are identified — traditional ones, related to the country’s infringement of the main fiscal rules in the Economic and Monetary Union, and relatively new ones, related to non-compliance with the basic principles of the EU. This article’s attention is focused on the second group of measures, previously not studied in detail in the Russian scientific literature, which are aimed at resolving internal contradictions in the EU — between supranational structures and new Eastern European EU members. These are measures of financial nature in the form of freezing the EU funds payouts, although other measures are also envisaged. For these purposes, the conditionality mechanism has been fixed in 2020, providing for the dependence of payments from the EU funds on the respect of European norms and compliance with EU fundamental values. The ability to avoid blocking at the EU level decisions on sanctions against the violating country is also provided for. As a last resort, a sanction is fixed in the form of depriving the country of the voting rights in the EU Council. We conclude that it is possible to resolve problems without adoption of tough financial measures, by political will and by the institutional mechanisms for settling disagreements.