The article recalls how R. Solow wanted to see the relationship between economic theory and economic history. The uniqueness of the historical experience of catching up and leading development suggests the limitations of universal models of economic growth. In terms of adapting the financial system to the technological situation, there are noticeable differences among countries with inclusive institutions. For the scientific status of a theory, it is of great importance to fix the boundaries of its applicability. The observed cyclicity in the change of leading theoretical concepts has its own technological background. The non-monotonicity and non-linearity of long-term technological development is an important lesson of economic history. The experience of analyzing the causes of the Great Recession confirms the need to take into account technological factors of many significant economic phenomena. Although the new neoclassical synthesis is successfully evolving, its possibilities of reproducing the historical experience of endogenous technological development are still small. Taking into account in economic theory the range of possibilities of human society, as evidenced by economic history, remains on the agenda.

An information system designed to detect collusion, primarily at auctions, using algorithmic methods called artificial intelligence (AI) is currently being created in Russia. The article is devoted to the possibilities and limitations of using AI to identify public procurement where participants engage in illegal agreements. It describes the evidence used in cases of bid rigging cartels in the court decisions regarding claims to annul decisions of the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation during 2015—2018. The article summarizes the results of the development of algorithms predicting collusion, depending on a certain set of parameters based on ex-post data on detected cartels both in Russia and abroad. Three conclusions are justified. First, no algorithm or system of algorithms currently provides a sufficient level of reliability. Second, the hypothetical AI training sample for identifying collusion in Russian public procurement is biased towards a specific procurement method (electronic auction) and therefore does not help predicting collusion in purchases conducted in another way. Third, the signs of cartels in Russian public procurement are largely the result of flaws in the procedures used.

The variety of hybrid governance structures has attracted the attention of researchers for many years. “Creative destruction” of markets under the influence of digital platforms increases the relevance of analyzing the process of transformation. Based on the results of the empirical study in 2022—2024, the transformation of the value creation organization in the market of taxi services in Russia has been described. The article also analyzes changes in the structure of the main participants in this industry and their functions. It is shown that the most important factor in the transformation of the Russian taxi services market was the change of governance structures based on the modularization of value chain components, which excludes their functioning outside the control of the digital platform. The importance of digital technologies in the process of creative destruction should not be overestimated: new platform models of governance and control are the main tool of market transformation.

The development and spread of digital investment technologies contributes to the growing popularity of the stock market among the general population. As more ordinary people begin investing, their influence on the stock market can be expected to increase. This research tests the relationship between the number of retail investors and the performance of the stock market. Theoretical framework of the study is built upon the network approach and social studies of finance. The analysis is conducted on the Moscow Exchange data for the period from January 2012 to December 2023 via Granger causality tests and ARDL modelling. The findings of the analysis suggest the number of investors exert no significant influence on the performance of the MOEX Russia and the RTS stock market indices. Rather, the market’s performance appears to have a positive impact on the number of retail investors, albeit only during the period from 2018 to 2023. This relationship is explained via (1) the herd behavior of investors, (2) the influence of digital technologies as market devices, and (3) the background of respective time period.

The article focuses on studying the specifics of the influence of the age structure of the population on regional inflation in the territory of the Russian Federation. The main research issue is to identify the nature of the influence (proinflationary or disinflationary) of all population groups (younger than working age, working age, older than working age). A distinctive feature of the work is the simultaneous use of a dynamic and spatial econometric approaches to modeling inflation in the context of demographic processes. The study is conducted for 79 regions of Russia in two subsamples (2003—2014 and 2015—2021). This allows us to take into account the effect of the implementation of the inflation targeting regime, which has been implemented as part of the Bank of Russia’s monetary policy since 2015. As a result of the analysis, it has been found that the population younger than the working age has a disinflationary character, and older than the working age has an inflationary character. No statistically significant results are found for the working age group.

The article is devoted to the activities of A. N. Kosygin as a Minister of Finance of the USSR during the period of 10 months in 1948. The study analyzes the tasks in the field of post-war finance restructuring faced by the Ministry of Finance in the fourth five-year plan period, the main areas of criticism of this ministry, which led to the dismissal of the previous Finance Minister A. G. Zverev, Kosygin’s activities to correct deficiencies in the work of the Ministry of Finance: improving the working conditions of financiers and their level of training, preparing wholesale price reform and the abolition of subsidies to industry, strengthening control over targeted spending, tax mobilization. The article focuses on the reasons for the increase in agricultural tax rates, as well as organizational measures within the central office of the Ministry of Finance aimed at eliminating deficiencies as soon as possible. Measures on activating the control, auditing and tax functions of the Ministry of Finance are seen as tightening budget constraints to overcome dependency attitudes among the leadership of economic ministries and departments. The “shake-up” of the USSR Ministry of Finance, in which Kosygin served as a kind of external manager, shows that in a Soviet-type economy budget constraints can be made quite tight, but this requires the same harsh pressure on the financiers themselves.