Financial Journal

p. 20-35

Authors: Nikolay A. Avxentyev, Valery M. Baydin, Olga A. Zarubina, Natalia N. Sisigina

Private health expenditures in Russia (38–48 % of total health expenditures, depending on the source) significantly exceed OECD countries level (27 %). High private spending, in turn, affects healthcare system performance. The paper analyzes determinants and consequences of private health spending in Russian regions. The authors use data on 80 Russian regions during 2006–2014 and apply panel data models to analyze determinants and consequences of private health expenditures. The authors found that private and public health expenditure are complimentary in Russia: 1 % increase in public health spending results in 0,17 % increase in private health expenditures. The latter also increase with wealth, income inequality and prevalence of healthy and active population. The optimal level of private health expenditures is 34–40 %, but it might be overestimated because the authors did not consider public health expenditures at the federal level.

p. 46-61

Authors: Aleksandra L. Suslina, Roman S. Leukhin

The size of Russian shadow economy is difficult to measure. Some indirect estimates show that its size is rather big. The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes of informal economic activity in Russia and to define the main directions of struggle against shadow economy.

p. 71-80

Authors: Elena I. Andreeva, Dmitry G. Bychkov

The present paper discusses certain aspects of the proposed concept of introducing universal minimum income support. This paper also presents the estimated amount of funding which is required to close the income gap of all households whose incomes fall below the poverty line for a full transition to a Universal Minimum Income Support system. This amount is compared with the cost of the existing social benefits financed from the budget, including targeted ones.

p. 90-102

Authors: Inna N. Rykova, Makar I. Kudelich, Alexander M. Shaykin

The article formulates proposals on possible changes of the current legislation in connection with the forthcoming opening of foreign insurance companies’ direct branches in Russia in accordance with the obligations for World Trade Organization entry.

p. 110-120

Authors: Yuliya S. Evlakhova

The article is devoted to the research on financial institutions on the basis of institutional and network approaches complementarity. In the theoretical plan the author offers the concept of the research on financial institutions on the financial market including elements (financial institutions, financial institutions networks, financial market institutional and network structure), mechanisms (interaction, regulation, transformation), theoretical toolkit of the research (classification by groups of formal/informal and endogenous/exogenous financial institutions; theory of institutions survival; financial institutions network typology, financial networks metrics). In the implementation plan the author carries out the analysis of one of the offered concept mechanisms — interaction in the national network of financial institutions on the Russian financial market using the example of credit institutions, the insurance market and investment funds players. In the conclusion the author determines the need to form network restrictions of the financial institutions regulation on the Russian financial market.

p. 16-24

Authors: Yuri М. Gorlin, Elena E. Grishina, Victor Yu. Lyashok, Vladimir S. Nazarov

The article analyzes the possible socio-economic impact of the reform of the early retirement system for health and education workers. The effects of the gradual increase of the requirements for the insurance period for early retirement pension and the abolition of early retirement pension for entry-level workers are investigated on the basis of the sociological surveys results and focus groups of education and health workers. The actuarial valuation of the economic effects of the reform implementation is carried out in this article. The authors also give recommendations on reform of the early retirement system for health and education workers.

p. 37-51

Authors: Kirill M. Nikitin, Marina A. Avdienkova, Olga O. Zakharova, Eleonora A. Gilmanova

The article presents primary analytical findings and recommendations for improving tax legislation as regards the consolidated group of taxpayers (CGT) regime. It sets forth the main areas for improving the existing structure and proposes specific measures for modifying it with a particular focus on a revised approach to the forming of the list of CGT members. Specifically, the article proposes reducing input thresholds and mandating the inclusion in a CGT of all members that meet the established requirements. The authors also make recommendations for improving the apportionment formula.

p. 63-74

Authors: Olga V. Bogacheva, Oleg V. Smorodinov

Implementation of the ASEAN Economic Community Blueprint (2007–2015) has been taking place in the period when directions and scale of the financial integration effects on the key macroeconomic indicators and national budget systems stability were not completely clear neither in economic theory nor in practice. The article deals with the theoretical concept of financial integration “indirect effects” on macroeconomic and budgetary parameters in developing countries, which was put forward by a group of economists in the beginning of 2000s. The authors support the point of view according to which in order to gain positive effects of financial integration, developing countries should not only try to attract more foreign investments but also develop financial market infrastructure. Thus, the authors propose a set of criteria and indicators that are necessary to conduct complete evaluation of financial integration effects both on economic growth and national budget systems in developing countries, including ASEAN.

p. 82-93

Authors: Mikhail A. Smirnov

The article considers topical issues of the Polish special economic zone development in 1995–2015. The author observed the political and economical factors, which had defined this process, and the Polish researchers’ estimations of the zone influence on regional economic development. The positive result of Polish special economic zone is the foreign investment inflow, maintained and created jobs. Negative result is the rise of the external debt, the disadvantage of the local small business, poor influence on regional economic development. On the basis of the analysis the author formulated the main conclusions for optimization of the Russian policy in relation to the territories with a special economic regime.

p. 103-111

Authors: Mariya A. Mikhailova, Andrey V. Obynochny

The article contains proposals for the development of a system of indicators characterizing the state of the national payment system and the dynamics in change of its main directions, developed in the course of trade discussions with payment industry members. The authors analyze the examples of statistical data presentation by foreign national banks. And also the article shows the proposals for aggregation and presentation of statistics in the national payment system.

p. 120-126

Authors: Mikhail L. Kozlov

The article substantiates the approach of the consideration of insurance as a synergetic process, both at the at micro level of the insurance company and at the macro level of financial services institution, because by the building of an insurance portfolio the positive economic impact, which exceeds the economic effect of the individual risks adoption, is achieved. The article also discusses the role management decision carriers in the formation of an insurance portfolio. Depending on the quality of insurance management both synergetic and entropic effects are possible in the insurance.

p. 18-29

Authors: Inna N. Rykova, Makar I. Kudelich, Alexander M. Shaykin

The article is focused on the analysis and systematization of the rights, obligations and commitment restrictions, which were accepted upon the Russian Federation accession to the World Trade Organization along with the admission of direct branches of foreign insurers. Aspects of national insurance industry protection and the dynamics of foreign investors interest in registered capital of Russian insurance companies are described as well. The authors propose the main approaches and key areas of necessary national legislation changes in connection with the Russian Federation WTO commitments for the commercial presence of foreign insurance companies’ branches in Russia.

p. 37-45

Authors: Yuri A. Spletukhov

The article is devoted to the analysis of separate aspects of insurance supervision in the states of the Eurasian Economic Union (ЕAEU). The special attention is given to similarities and differences in this practice between countries. The author decides on description of the activities of insurance control authority, procedures of provision of insurance activity licenses, requirements to the internal checking systems, supervision of the financial state of insurers.

p. 53-59

Authors: Marina V. Kashirina, Maxim A. Zhuravlev

The article considers the results of applying of the new scheme of taxation of gas companies, taking into account the conditions of the extraction. The key issues of the gas and gas condensate taxation are revealed. The authors analyse the possible ways of improving of the gas industry. The article also includes the conclusions about the necessity of introduction of the tax on the extra income and the financial result in the Russian tax legislation.

p. 66-75

Authors: Maksim K. Shabalin

The article presents a fundamental change in the classical approach to business valuation on the Gordon method, which allows adapting the financial model to the factors that do not have a permanent character. As a result, a temporary jump in asset yields will not significantly influence the outcome, which would broaden the scope of applicability of the formula with a stable economic situation in the more approximate one to the Russian economy.

p. 88-96

Authors: Yury V. Belousov

Enhanced public participation in the budget process is seen as an element increasing the efficiency of public finance management in the Russian Federation. The article is a theoretical framework for improving the methodology for monitoring fiscal data transparency in the Russian Federation, performed by the Financial Research Institute commissioned by the Russian Finance Ministry. The article discusses the theoretical issues related to the definition of public finance management, investigates the mechanisms of interaction of public and executive authorities in order to improve the efficiency of budget spending. In addition, the author presents the practical recommendations on the use of corporate financial management experience to the general government sector.

p. 108-113

Authors: Oleg D. Averchenko

Recently the topic of use of guarantee schemes for financial services consumer protection under the interaction of insurance sector and the bank sphere development has become very relevant. In Russia the proper attention to similar schemes of financial services consumer protection and increase of trust to the financial market is not paid. The aim of this article is the research and development of suggestions for improvement of the mechanism of guarantee schemes of protection of consumers of financial services under the interaction of insurance sector and the bank sphere. With the help of methods of the analysis, logical generalization and also the analysis of foreign experience the author develops the possible improvements of the mechanism of guarantee schemes of financial services consumers protection under interaction of insurance sector and the bank sphere in Russia.

p. 16-25

Authors: Anna V. Tihonova, Sergey O. Naumchik

The article presents the results of research carried out by an international team of scientists in the framework of the grant entitled “Improving the fiscal and budgetary instruments of state financial support for agriculture in order to ensure economic and food security” (RGNF № 15-22-01004, BRFFR № G 15 P-015). The authors carried out the comparative characteristics of the tax conditions for conducting agricultural business in Russia and Belarus in the framework of the basic system of taxation and preferential agricultural tax. Based on a comparison of tax fields between the two states the authors propose directions of improving the agricultural tax arrangements.

p. 45-54

Authors: Victor А. Gorelik, Tatiana V. Zolotova

This paper examines the problem of finding an optimal portfolio of securities by using the probability function of portfolio risk as a constraint. The authors obtained the value of the risk coefficient for which the problem of maximizing the expectation of the portfolio return with a probabilistic risk function constraint is equivalent to the maximizing the linear convolution of the criteria “expectation — variance”. Results of the study are demonstrated on specific data using the developed tools.

p. 66-78

Authors: Mikhail V. Milchakov

An urgent task under the conditions of large regional debt increase is to support the stability of regional budgets. The article includes the analysis of basic reasons of subnational deficit and debt increase, regional features of borrowing and spending, the information about regions with difficult debt situation. Taking into account the practice of federal support in this sphere, the author presents the suggestions for regional budgets maintenance and debt reduction. The implementation of formulated suggestions will enable to make better conditions for regional budget stability.

p. 89-97

Authors: Svetlana Yu. Filina

Analysis of the foreign anti-crisis debt management policy with its following possible adaptation in Russia is the aim of this article. In current crisis conditions, on one hand, there is a raising need in allocation of extra sources for Russian budget deficit financing, and, on the other hand, a need in “painless” and just-in-time debt redemption which payments matures in nearest time. This applies also CPI index linked bonds issued in Russia in 2015. In this article the author also observes the anti-crisis methods of public debt management based on the USA and Brazil practices.

p. 105-114

Authors: Vladimir V. Vagin

The article deals with the theoretical basis of the development of participatory budgeting in the Russian Federation. The author offers the main principles of the development and regulation, the effects and the organizational structure of initiative budgeting — the first stage of a participatory budgeting in the Russian Federation. The article also highlights several trends in the development and regulation of initiative budgeting, as well as describes the institutional infrastructure.

p. 28-40

Authors: Alexey V. Moiseev, Diana K. Mashtakeeva, Petr N. Novikov

Association of financial market participants The Council for The Development of Professional Qualifications is a new structure designed to coordinate the activities of its members in the formation and support of functioning and development of the professional qualifications sectoral system in close collaboration with the Ministry of Finance of Russia and other engaged federal executive authorities. The article describes the basic principles underlying the association’s activities and its coordination, expert and advisory function. The experience of the Association, its Council, as a collegial management body can be used by other sectoral councils on vocational qualifications, especially after the adoption of the federal Law on the independent evaluation of qualifications.

p. 52-59

Authors: Tatiana I. Semkina, Alexey V. Sorokin

In recent years the role of property taxes in contributing to budget revenues have diminished. Analysis of practice shows that there are some shortages in the mechanism of applying these taxes. In the article we emphasize possibilities of revenue growth from these taxes.

p. 70-81

Authors: Olga V. Bogacheva, Oleg V. Smorodinov

The article contains analysis of properties of green bonds as the one of the popular financial instruments in transition of foreign economies to low-carbon and climate-resilient development. The article examines the history of the green bond market formation and focuses on the issues of standardization and labeling. The authors present a new green bonds classification based on the most recent international methodological sources. In addition, the authors he made a conclusion about viability of utilizing green bonds for fulfilling the tasks of green growth in the Russia’s economy.

p. 88-99

Authors: Roman S. Gubanov, Larisa V. Zhuravleva, Olga V. Korableva

The problem of an assessment of the inventions importance is an economic problem as only the small share of the patented inventions is realized in the market. At the same time the considerable share of programs of innovative development is based on use of patent rights. The article gives an example of determination of the patent use efficiency in case of introduction of a know-how. Authors present also a method of calculation of the integrated (discounted) income, which is taken out when using of the patent as the criterion of comparison of the results and innovative expenses at the innovative development programs implementation.

p. 111-117

Authors: Svetlana V. Krivoruchko, Valery A. Lopatin

The article considers the issues of smooth rendering of payment services and rapid growth of operational risks and money laundering and terrorism financing risks resulting from wide utilization of electronic means of payment as well as the problem of reducing the bank and non-bank credit institutions share market resulting from expansion of the alternative payment service systems using “money substitutes”. The ways to solve problems are proposed by the authors as well.