Modern evolutionary economics consists of several areas of research that differ significantly both in objects and research methods. One of these areas includes in its tasks the search for evidence that changes occurring in the economy are similar to those that were studied in Darwin’s theory of the living nature’s evolution. The article poses and solves two main tasks: firstly, to demonstrate the incorrectness of the interpretation of “Generalized Darwinism” as a model of evolution, the features of which coincide with the original Darwinian understanding, and, secondly, to show that in economics it is really possible to identify objects in which changes occur in a way close to what was discovered by Charles Darwin. It is shown that “Generalized Darwinism” is in fact a model of those types of evolution that are not Darwinian. At the same time, it has been demonstrated that in economics it is indeed possible to distinguish subsystems called “systems for creating product families,” whose properties are similar to fruit plants, and changes are carried out through natural Darwinian selection. The final part presents directions in which the use of the proposed approach can make a certain contribution to further development of evolutionary economics.

The paper presents a dynamical extension of the well­known Bernheim— Cartwright—Patel model of conformism. In this model the signaling equilibrium is a result of the optimal choice of an individual when he/she maximizes his/ her utility by choosing a donation in the amount x. In doing this the individual takes into account the intrinsic utility based on the generosity type t, and social attitude expressed by two types of observers: rational and naïve. Such an attitude significantly depends on social norms in this society and affects the esteem of the individual. Social attitude toward generosity varies within the broad range and at its endpoints leads to either neglect of the society (I do not care what people think of me) or an ideal conformism when a person chooses the same x as the rest of the public. Cartwright and Patel have shown that the presence of the inexperienced observers greatly affects equilibrium. This paper explores the dynamics of the naïve observers when they are informed by the rational ones. The dynamic law in the form of the differential equation was set and the stable steady­state solutions were found. Besides, while working on the dynamic law some clarifications of the preceding results of the original model were done.

The article considers digitalization as a new general purpose technology and its impact on economic growth and economic policy in the world and Russia against the background of the so-called “productivity paradoxes” and economic shocks of 2020—2023. The importance of accelerating the growth of total factor productivity  in Russia through the introduction of advanced digital technologies is shown. The world experience in assessing the impact of digital information and communication technologies on economic growth is briefly described, and an adapted methodology for assessing macroeconomic effects of economic policy, previously used by experts from the OECD and the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia at the level of country groups, is proposed and tested on a panel of Russian regions. The authors calculated the original series of contributions of labor, capital and total factor productivity to the GRP growth of Russian regions for the period 2011—2020. This makes possible to compare the benefits of digitalization and the rate of accumulation of digital capital in Russia and in other countries . The article discusses the desirable parameters of short-term macroeconomic stabilization tools and some aspects of developing the national innovation system.

The communication policy of central banks plays a significant role in setting the expectations of economic agents. If key rate decisions are inconsistent with market expectations, managing expectations and anchoring inflation expectations may be difficult. We assess the predictability of the Bank of Russia’s key rate decisions over the 2021—2023 period in two ways: using media surveys of analysts and shifts in the Russian government bond index and the daily volatility of its yield. The results show a significant impact of unexpected key rate decisions on Russian government bond prices and daily volatility. Then, using statistical metrics computed from macroeconomic survey data and another linear and piecewise linear model, we find the informational advantage of the Bank of Russia in predicting the key rate. The decisions unexpected for the market are explained by the information advantage of the Bank of Russia, as well as the realization of geopolitical and inflation risks in the period under study. Thus, we conclude that there is a need to improve the quality of communication regarding future decisions. As the communication policy develops, the predictability of the Bank of Russia’s decisions on the key rate will increase. In turn, economic agents and market participants will adapt to the expected decisions in advance, which will accelerate the achievement of the inflation target and the adjustment of inflation expectations.

The article discusses the issues of measuring the effectiveness of budget expenditures on the basis of international comparisons using the DEA method . Macroeconomic (Musgrevian) indicators as well as sectoral performance indicators in relation to administrative expenditures, education and healthcare were used. Expenditure indicators were the share of budget expenditures in GDP and indicators of expenditure on education and health care per capita. We assess the integral efficiency of budget expenditures, based simultaneously on macro economic and sectoral indicators, as well as separately the effectiveness of expenditures on health care and education. In the DEA efficiency calculations, models with one performance indicator and one type of input and models with several types of costs and benefits were used. It is noted that when calculating integral efficiency, the highest results were achieved during the two periods under consideration by countries both with high results and with a low level of costs, the same applies to calculations of sectoral efficiency. When calculating comparative efficiency, the most favorable results for Russia are related to the calculations of the effectiveness of budget expenditures for education (secondary one). According to the first model of calculations based on DEA, Russia and three other countries are at the efficiency frontier in a sample of 41 countries. It is also noted that Russia’s results in education are higher than in the countries with a similar level of spending.

This study assesses the impact of fiscal multipliers on the level of socioeconomic inequality in 38 countries based on data from the period 2007—2022 with the aim to explore causal relationships between the potential methods of public financial regulation and income indicators in the context of achieving sustainable economic growth. First the fiscal multipliers are estimated relative to GDP, then the obtained data is used to explain the level of income inequality across a broad range of countries. It is shown that the average level of wealth inequality directly influences the level of post-tax income inequality, therefore, addressing income inequality should not neglect other forms of inequality, parti cularly wealth distribution inequality; the effectiveness of fiscal policy has a reverse impact on the level of post-tax income inequality, indicating that a high share of the shadow economy, inefficient tax administration, and redistributive function of public finances contribute to high levels of income inequality . Budgetary instruments for poverty control, targeting, and the efficiency of budgetary expenditures can alter the level of income inequality.

The aim of the paper is to predict demographic changes at the regional level, based on the variation of the parameters of the healthcare system presumed to be a significant factor in both the number of population and its qualitative characteristics. It is assumed that a reform of the healthcare system reflects the institutional nature of state regulation and serves functionally as an exogenous shock in the model. Based on the agent-based modeling a model consisting of two regions has been developed. It takes into account the migration of agents making decisions based on the level of private income. Various scenarios for modeling demographic indicators are presented, depending on the selected quality regime of the healthcare system that reflects the institutional features of the region. The model is calculated based on the statistics for the Perm Region and the Sverdlovsk Region for the period 2012—2019. The approbation of the model on actual regional data confirmed its operability and adequacy. Shocks in the healthcare system are associated with the corresponding budget expenditures under budget constraints of the regional government sector and have an impact on the dynamics of migration at regional labor markets, as well as on the simulated health indicators. The simulation results confirm the effectiveness of the presented methodological approach, which can be used in the development of regional strategies, as well as planning and assessing the consequences of state reforms in social policy.

Russia, which is actively piloting the Digital Ruble project, has become the first country to legislate the turnover of the central bank’s digital currency. At the same time, the embodiment of the competitive balance between “electronic private and digital honest” for the interaction of the information society in a virtual environment, which makes it possible to turn the lack of understanding (indirect participation) into a trust relationship (direct participation) with full optional financial support in the contour of the national metaverse, has not yet been implemented in practice. The relevance and desirability of the study is due to insufficient research on the integration of high-tech financial products into the monetary system in the focus of a full-scale digital transformation of the entire financial system, as well as the lack of a carefully developed legal framework for the implementation of central banks digital currencies on a global scale. The need to achieve this goal determined a phased study of regulatory, statistical and periodic literature using general scientific and special research methods: systemic and interdisciplinary approaches, formal logic, comparative analysis, classification, etc. The authors have found that the digital ruble does not correspond to the category of ideal digital currency in the context of digital (crypto) units and identified the discussion provisions for regulating the transformation processes of the digital ruble implementation into monetary turnover. As a result, we have specified the nature of monetary innovation at the stage of economic bifurcation metamorphoses.