Financial Journal

25-38

Authors: Vladimir V. Vagin, Irina V. Petrova

The article is devoted to the relation between public participation and the effectiveness of budget expenditures. Studying the effectiveness of budget expenditures is one of the most relevant topics of public finance. At the same time, the question of whether civil participation has an impact on improving the efficiency of public spending is not often considered in the scientific literature. The authors analyze the development of the system of civil participation in the implementation of projects of state programs and national projects of the Russian Federation, and conclude that civil participation is important for improving the efficiency of budget expenditures. The results of citizens’ participation in the implementation of "Formation of a comfortable urban environment" federal project are chosen as the basis for the empirical analysis of this article. The authors attempt to determine the main approaches to forming indicators of the effectiveness of public participation in state programs and federal projects. The article also contains recommendations aimed at encouraging event organizers to engage citizens at the regional and local levels.

54-68

Authors: Igor Yu. Arlashkin

The article examines the instruments used in intergovernmental fiscal relations in order to promote economic growth of the regions of the Russian Federation. The task of stimulating regional economic growth is relevant in the need for the Strategy of Spatial Development of the Russian Federation until 2025 to be implemented. The article deals with various instruments of tax decentralization as well as three main types of fiscal transfers: “grants” (primarily equalization or balancing transfers), “subsidies” (earmarked co-funding transfers), and “other intergovernmental transfers” (other earmarked transfers). All these instruments are assessed from the standpoint of stimulating economic growth with special attention being paid to the tools used by regional governments to promote local economic growth. The article summarizes the results of the main econometric studies on the topic. As a result of the present study, it is shown that the main instruments for stimulating regional economic growth are earmarked transfers (primarily capital transfers) and decentralization of taxes on income (primarily corporate income tax). At the same time, since 2015 “other intergovernmental transfers” have been playing a more significant role in stimulating economic growth than “subsidies”, which is associated with an increase in the equalizing effect of the latter. Decentralization of property taxes has most likely not had a significant impact on regional economic growth, and the negative effect of equalizing transfers (“grants”) is smoothed out by special clauses built into the methodology for their distribution.

87-99

Authors: Makar I. Kudelich

This article attempts to identify and analyze the problems of forms of financial participation of public partners in PPP agreements, which may be solved by legislation improvement. The article presents a comparative analysis of Russian and international practice and legislation in thefield of types and procedures for choosing forms of state financial participation in PPP projects. Conclusions are made about the absence of formal criteria for choosing the form of financial participation of a public partner in the PPP agreement and the rules for determining their volume, about the uncertainty and shortcomings of legislative regulation of “financial provision” in relation to a public partner, about the refusal from using the provision of debt financing and budget investments in share capital of project companies, on the establishment of high security budgetary requirements for regressive rights of the state in relation to the principal, which make the use of state (municipal) guarantees unclaimed in Russian practice of PPP projects.

113-125

Authors: Olga V. Bogacheva, Oleg V. Smorodinov

Among other things, the introduction of new pay systems in Russian federal institutions (2008) resulted in rapid growth of the variable part of wages. In the early 2010s, in numerous institutions this figure exceeded 50 %, and it still remains at an unreasonably high level. It is known, from the history of labor relations, that violation of balance between fixed (salary) and variable parts of wages leads to a reduction in motivation levels of employees and, as a consequence, to deterioration in productivity indicators and labor quality. In OECD countries, at the legislative level, the concepts of base and full rates of pay are introduced, and the number and size of incentive and compensation payments are optimized. The rates of base pay are regularly reviewed, taking into account changes in consumer prices and the cost of living. This practice allows a reasonable balance to be maintained between fixed and variable parts of wages. At the level of institutions, competency standards are being developed that ensure optimal differentiation in the size of the fixed part of wages and minimize the possibility of making incentive payments to employees simply for the performance of their job duties. The purpose of the article is to develop proposals for solving the problem of imbalance in the structure of wages of employees at Russian federal institutions, based on modern foreign practice in this area.