In this article the concept of system economics — a new direction in economic theory based on a view of economic processes as the creation, operation, interaction and transformation of economic systems — has been developed. The co-ordinated basic typology of economic systems, goods, processes, and management operations, which allows to represent economy functioning as a structural model of economic goods circulation, has been proposed. Potential directions of system economics application as a conceptual platform for progress in solving current tasks of modern economic theory have been defined.

Recent slowdown of economic growth forces Russian political authorities to seek for policy measures to support economic activity, and monetary expansion is considered as one of possible alternatives. During the post-crisis period monetary authorities of advanced economies have relied heavily on different sorts of monetary stimulus. Thus it is sometimes argued that Russia should better use such kind of experience and shift to aggressive monetary easing. This view is mostly wrong since it demonstrates misunderstanding of the goals of the monetary easing policy implemented in advanced economies and also ignores the differences between Russia and advanced countries with respect to macroeconomic conditions.

The paper examines the benefits and limitations of capital control and prudential regulation in order to maintain macroeconomic and financial stability. In practice regulators often use different combinations of capital control and prudential instruments, attempted to identify and correct financial market failures and externalities across financial institutions and between the financial sector and the real economy, which are originated from foreign capital inflows. The concrete option of political instruments depends on risks essence, institutional limitations, and the depth of internal financial market. The regulators need to use different tools in foreign capital inflows management, taking into account the variety of risks and the lack of universal instruments. Their sets can vary across countries.

The trajectory of the industrial output of the Russian empire/the USSR/ the Russian Federation for more than 150 years has been carefully investigated through official statistics as well as dozens of alternative estimates made by Russian and foreign experts. Alternative estimates are compared with official data and the usefulness and credibility of the latter are determined. Official figures for Russian industrial production for 1941—1945 as well as the time-series for1887—1926 as constructed by V. Varzar have been retrieved from the archives and are being introduced here for the first time.

Support of individual enterprises was an important part of anti-crisis policy of Russian government during 2008—2009. The officially declared goal of this support was maintaining sustainability of “systemically important”, or strategic enterprises. Using regression analysis, the author seeks to determine the extent to which inclusion in the The List of strategic organizations approved by the Government Commission on sustainable development of the Russian economy in December 2008 was defined by the social significance of the company or by its affiliation with one of the 16 largest Russian business groups.

Currently fares on public transport in Russia are calculated on the basis of carrier’s costs. The subsidies and tariffs are annually approved by the regulator on the basis of the costs’ structure. This paper presents another approach to the determination of tariffs, which is widespread in developed countries. It is based on modeling passengers’ reaction to fares and is able to create appropriate incentives for the carrier. We apply it to the case of commuter rail pricing in Moscow region. To do this, we model the revenue function and evaluate people’s reaction to fares to find an optimal tariff menu. These results can form the basis of a new methodology of tariff regulation of public transport in Russia.

The paper examines the influence of resource wealth on the nature of economic development of Kazakhstan. Despite active economic dynamics in the 2000s, the effect of resource abundance has a negative impact on the quality characteristics of modern economic growth in the country. Kazakhstan is characterized by significant structural, territorial, social disparities, low international competitiveness of many commercial goods (even some commodities).

Based on the trade statistics of Russia and Ukraine, the author shows the role of transnational corporations in the dynamics of economic relations of the two countries, including the cross-industry analysis.

Due to Russia’s exit from the global financial crisis, the fiscal policy of withdrawing windfall spending has exhausted its potential. It is important to refocus public finance to the real economy and the expansion of domestic demand. For this goal there is sufficient, but not realized financial potential. The increase in fiscal spending in these areas is unlikely to lead to higher inflation, given its actual trend in the past decade relative to M2 monetary aggregate, but will directly affect the investment component of many underdeveloped sectors, as well as the volume of domestic production and consumer demand.