Financial Journal

p. 27-40

Authors: Andrei I. Kostin

The relevance of the topic is justified by the fact that program- and target-oriented management methods have become an essential part of modern public finance. They contribute to the implementation of one of the key principles in this area, namely the principle of socio-economic efficiency of expenditures. At the same time, the practice of program- and target-oriented financing is currently evolving, and its final, stable forms have not yet developed. There are a number of serious difficulties in the implementation of program–target methods, in particular those related to the problems of applying formalized procedures for constructing a hierarchy of goals, tasks, and activities as well as linking resource needs to them. With program- and target-oriented funding of science, these problems become even more acute due to qualitative heterogeneity of both direct results and social outcomes. The article analyzes the existing organization of targeted funding in the field of scientific research. In particular, the problems of linking priority areas in the development of science and technology in the Russian Federation to program documents are considered. Presented are the findings of the analysis of target indicators and changes in their values as well as budget allocations for civil science under state programs and national projects in the Russian Federation. It is concluded that, in the framework of civil science spending, the program–target method of managing public spending remains largely formal, and that strategic and program documents and statistical monitoring of activities in the field of education, science, innovation and information technologies are not coordinated by goal setting and priority areas. The author suggests applying a tool for reviewing budget expenditures in the field of R&D as one of the efficient ways to assess the effectiveness of state programs.

p. 58-67

Authors: Igor Yu. Arlashkin

Three basic methods are employed to assess the fiscal capacity of territories for fiscal equalization: the representative tax system method, the historical data method, and the macroeconomic indicator method. Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, while the historical data method is considered the most accurate in terms of approximation of the values of fiscal capacity to actual budget revenues. The aim of the article is to compare the accuracy of assessing Russian regions’ fiscal capacities through various methods, as well as by combining them, and to propose measures to change the current methodology for fiscal capacity assessment. The calculations presented in this article for the Russian regions for 2018 show that, in fact, the representative tax system and historical data methods have a comparable degree of accuracy, and the macroeconomic indicator method is only slightly inferior to them. At the same time, while assessing the fiscal capacity in regard to individual taxes, both the method of historical data and the method of representative tax system may have an advantage in the accuracy of the assessment, the method of macroeconomic indicators being inferior to them (except for the case of corporate income tax). As the author’s calculations show, it is possible to improve the accuracy of assessing regional fiscal capacity through the following measures: (1) not taking into account data for the current financial year, that is, taking into account data for only two reporting years; (2) not adjusting income tax and personal income tax fiscal capacity to the rate of tax revenue growth; (3) using the method of macroeconomic indicators for mineral extraction tax and other tax fiscal capacity.

p. 87-104

Authors: Yuri A. Danilov

The macroeconomic stabilization that took place in Russia has led to a partial transfer of household savings from bank deposits to the securities market. This process determines the relevance of creating institutions to minimize the non-market risks of small investors. As global experience shows, among such institutions, the most important one is the compensation fund. The article discusses projects for the creation of a compensation fund in Russia, previously proposed by the Bank of Russia and the National Association of Stock Market Participants (NAUFOR). The results of recalculating the forecast balance of the compensation fund are presented, based on the previously formulated prerequisites of NAUFOR, but also underpinned by the latest quantitative data, which have changed significantly over the past two years as a result of explosive growth of household investments in the securities market. It is shown that in the new conditions it is impossible to ensure the adequacy of financing of compensation funds on the basis of previously proposed sources. The author presents a new approach to the formation of a compensation fund in Russia, which takes into account not only the new Russian realities, but also the existing global experience in the field of creating compensation funds. In the framework of this approach, the author proposes expanding the list of financing sources for the compensation fund. The article provides forecast estimates of the fund balance and ratios of compensation fund adequacy, calculated on the basis of these proposals, which indicate that this model of the compensation fund is economically viable and could be implemented as soon as possible. Further prospects for the development of a national compensation system, which could include compensation funds operating in various segments of the financial market, are considered.

p. 117-130

Authors: Maria G. Girich, Antonina D. Levashenko, Alexandra A. Koval

The field of electronic commerce nowadays is actively developing and stimulating the use of cashless payments. At the same time, payments for goods and services purchased via the Internet may not always be expressed in financial terms. For example, in the case of non-monetary transactions consumers receive products (goods or services) in exchange for their personal data. At the current stage countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in particular the United States and European Union member states, have been raising the issue of the possibility of applying consumer protection legislation to non-monetary transactions (when consumers acquire goods or services in exchange for their personal data), including the possibility to return goods or get a refund for a service by demanding personal data deletion. In Russia, the problem of personal data protection is not examined through the prism of consumer protection legislation. The present research methodology is based on methods of logical, systematic and comparative analysis. The purpose of this study is to analyze the application of consumer protection legislation with regard to regulation of consumer personal data in non-monetary transactions. Comparison of global trends with existing Russian legislation and development of regulation proposals for Russia are the main results of this study.