The article examines various effects of sanction restrictions on target countries. To achieve this, the results of over 50 academic studies from the past decade regarding the impact of sanctions on different countries are analyzed and structured. This analysis is based on the study of sanction episodes predominantly from the 1980s to 2015. It is noted that sanctions have been extensively employed in the past decade, attributed to the intensification of international competition and increased conflict in global development. It is shown that the effects of sanctions exhibit strong ambiguity, temporal variability, and multidirectionality. Both negative and certain stimulating changes in sanction effects are identified and systematized in the contexts of international trade and foreign direct investment. It is demonstrated that sanctions sometimes act as triggers for structural changes in sub-sanctioned economies, altering their integration into global production. The increasing involvement of various countries in sanction confrontations significantly alters the conditions for national economic policies, oriented towards structural changes and long-term perspectives, primarily for industrial policies. For many countries, the task of formulating industrial policy in line with the logic of restructuring global value chains and their participation becomes relevant. This task is characteristic not only for countries targeted by sanctions but also for sanction-sending countries, for which the reverse sanction effects are even less predictable.

Paper discusses the “Minsky’s paradox”, which states that the effect of anticyclical policy should weaken from one cycle to another, meaning that, to soften or postpone a crisis, a government will have to use stronger tools. To illustrate this regularity, we analyze the American data on interest rate and stock index over 59 years. The main result of the analysis is that over the recent decades the causal relationship between the interest rate and the stock index has changed, which is explained by the efforts of the monetary authorities to cope with the crises.

The article is devoted to a multilateral analysis of the VAT in Russia in the context of the problem of inequality based on RLMS and Rosstat data. The obtained estimates of elasticities of the VAT burden on the income, as well as the Kakwani and Musgrave indexes, show that the nature of VAT in Russia is generally more favorable than in OECD countries. In relation to income VAT is slightly regressive, but in relation to expenditures VAT cannot be recognized as regressive. The counterfactual analysis has shown that the lower 10% rate is a socially important element of the VAT and plays a noticeable leveling role. For the first time, microdata for Russia are used to assess the consequences of replacing the lower VAT rate with a direct targeted subsidy in the form of an additional child allowance. The results show that such a reform doesn’t solve the problem of inequality, since the poorest households get their little benefit not from the wealthiest, but rather from poor households of the 2^nd—4^th deciles.

The article analyzes the influence of bank lending on the dynamics of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the regions of Russia in 2012—2023. Was the dynamics of bank loans to SMEs an essential factor of development and employment of the sector? This is an important issue, since expanding the availability of lending is often considered as a key method for supporting SMEs and diversification of the economy. We use data of the Federal State Statistics Service on the turnover and the number of employees in small, medium and micro enterprises in Russian regions, on the one hand, and the data of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation on the bank lending to SMEs, on the other. We estimate how changes in SMEs lending amounts affect SMEs turnover and employment using the Alellano—Bond dynamic panel regression approach. It has been found that lending dynamics was a significant factor in changes of the turnover in the SMEs sector, and, to a lesser extent, employment in small enterprises. However, a significant increase in lending is required to significantly increase the size of the sector and its share in the country’s economy and employment.

In 2023, one of the main standards for regulating Islamic banks in the world celebrated its 10th anniversary. It is difficult to find works in the academic literature discussing the reaction from the said regulation. We fill this gap and answer the research question of how the market responded to the introduction of the standard in the world. Having essentially the data of a quasi-experiment, we divide the sample into conventional (control group) and Islamic (pilot group) banks and estimate the effect of the intervention using the difference-in-differences method. Islamic banks have been known in the world practice as banks with a larger capital reserve than conventional ones. Interestingly, despite this fact, according to the results of the study, investors reacted positively to the additional capital correction.

The discussion of the problems of economic education in Voprosy Ekonomiki is encompassing a large variety of problems. The world economy goes through dramatic changes that implies the necessity for checking up stylized facts and the capacity of existing theorems. Unresolved national problems give a stimulus for returning to industrial policy methods. Global problems require the concentration of resources and better coordination of their utilization. The participants of the discussion on the issues of economic education give us the deep insight into the current state of affairs in this field. They suggest competing programs of its improvement, which would need substantial efforts. The distinct difference between researchers and administrators will be important for determining the direction of spending and criteria of success in research and teaching activities.

Attention is drawn to the lack of counsel in the discussion of such a phenomenon as the possible presence among students of beliefs consistent with folk economics, which may hinder the acceptance of the provisions and principles of economic science. It is shown that when discussing the possibilities of wider inclusion in teaching of the provisions of heterodox economic theories, it makes sense to take into account the peculiarities of the definition of their subject matters. These peculiarities lead to the inclusion in the search for scientific solutions of “wicked problems”, which by definition do not have a scientific solution. The structure of the introductory course is proposed, that makes it possible to characterize the features of the real economy, the absence of which in standard introductory courses is pointed out by many researchers both in the domestic and world economic literature.

The article continues the discussion of the topic of improving higher education, which started on the pages of the journal „Voprosy Ekonomiki“ at the end of 2023. Special attention is paid to the content of the introductory course, which should comprehensively present basic concepts reflecting the realities of business: decision-making in conditions of scarce resources and uncertainty; opportunity costs; input and output/outcomes in real time; interests; the world economy. The importance of understanding the differences between „island“ and „continental“ thinking techniques, which are used by representatives of different scientific schools, as well as in business practice, is noted. According to the author, the developers of introductory textbooks on economics should also take into account the ideological aspect of the material proposed for study, and thereby contribute to eliminating the criticism that existing textbooks are subject to from a number of reputable orthodox scientists. It is also proposed to pay much more attention to the concept of „uncertainty“ at the introductory level.