Financial Journal

p. 7-17

Authors: Igor A. Yakovlev, Lyudmila S. Kabir, Svetlana I. Nikulina

The article analyses the development of regional financial cooperation of ASEAN and studies the main directions of financial initiatives and forming mechanisms. Considering the development of regional financial integration and assessing the role of concerted actions conducted by ASEAN Member States step-by-step the authors of the article have come to the conclusion that relations between countries in the sphere of financial cooperation are established on a firm footing. The objective of cooperation stated by ASEAN — the counteraction of financial instability — is quite achievable. The authors make assumptions explaining the peculiarities of the forming cooperation model. Moreover, the authors come to conclusion that it is necessary for Russia to strive for a decent place of a fully fledged participant of the forming new regional financial system as this process may cause fundamental changes in the international financial system.

p. 30-36

Authors: Valery L. Abramov, Petr V. Alekseev

The article describes the current state of investment cooperation in the EAEU, especially in the area of mutual direct investments, existing obstacles to mutual investment, the process of harmonization of investment legislation. The authors also elaborate proposals for the development of investment cooperation between the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union.

p. 46-52

Authors: Tatiana A. Malinina

Russian tax legislation in the sphere of regulation of the taxation of income from operations with financial instruments undergoes frequent changes. However, some innovations cannot be considered indisputable. The author discusses the reasonability for investments tax deductions in personal income tax in the Russian tax system, possible ways of their abolishment and suggests the amendments to the tax law to prevent incorrect use of the respective tax benefits.

p. 60-65

Authors: Dmitriy I. Babansky

The paper presents modifications of the Gini coefficient, which can be used in the definition of diversified fiscal policy at the regional level. Offered coefficients allow estimating the level of tax burden per unit of output as a relatively average for the manufacturing industries, as well as in the context of the sectoral viewpoint in the regions and the national average. Based on these results the share of the cost of production taxes and, as a consequence, the level of competitiveness can be estimated.

p. 76-87

Authors: Vladimir A. Danielyan

The paper reviews the literature on the retirement age determinants with consideration of a pension system features. The author explores, describes and compares the results of both theoretical and empirical works to reveal some stylized facts of a retired person behavior as well as explanation of those facts presented in the literature. The article highlights a use of implicit tax on continued work in an analysis of the pension reforms. The author also defines that empirical literature suggests little or no effect of elimination of income test on the retirement age. In the end of the article there is a comparison of considered features of Russian pension system with those of pension systems in other countries.

p. 97-107

Authors: Darya D. Shkuta

The article presents the results of a research on the development of proposals for the organization of the system of financial risk management of innovative activity at the institutional level. The author defines the functions of financial institutions of the National Innovation System (NIS) and systemizes the experience of implementing the above functions of the NIS financial institutions in developed countries. The article defines the current deficiencies in the functioning of these institutions in Russia. In addition, the author presents the suggestions on improvement of state policy and institutional framework for the financial risk management system innovation in Russia.

p. 7-15

Authors: Andrey S. Kizimov, Nadezhda A. Kuzmina, Milyausha R. Pinskaya

The article is focused on methodology of tax control on transfer pricing in respect of transactions involving intangible assets. Authors analyzed Russian legislation and court cases and revealed the sources of tax risks of taxpayers and government. These risks are related to the nature of intangible assets (uniqueness, lack of interchangeability), as well as to the differences in interpreting of intangible assets in different sources of legislation. The authors made an analysis of comparability of transactions with intangibles comparing Russian tax legislation and OECD recommendations.

p. 26-44

Authors: Alexander E. Abramov, Alexander D. Radygin, Maria I. Chernova

The paper presents a comparative analysis of investment potential of equity and bonds for long-term investors. It continues our previous research (A. Abramov, A. Radygin, M. Chernova, 2015) on the influence of investment horizon on risk-return trade-off between equity and bonds. This article discusses in detail the issue of asset allocation between equity and bonds for pension funds’ portfolio. The study is based on the approach that involves constructing portfolios with the same start date. This analysis confirms the hypothesis of the absence of significant influence of investment horizon extending on comparative advantages of equity versus bonds by risk-return criteria. The results are confirmed with the evidence from Russian and American financial markets. Because of this fact asset management of pension savings focuses on bond investment rather than on equity investment in most OECD countries.

p. 55-65

Authors: Olga V. Bogacheva, Oleg V. Smorodinov

The article continues analysis of international experience in the sphere of green bonds (the first article — Green Bonds as a Key Instrument for Financing Green Projects — was published in Financial Journal, 2016, № 2). The study is focused on the role of government and government measures in support of green bond markets. The authors identified the reasons for necessity of government regulation at different stages of green market and discussed the particular directions and measures of public support. As a result of green bond markets survey, the 10-point Agenda for public actions is formulated in the article in order to organize and develop green bond market. The authors also prepared a number of recommendations aimed at formation of green bond market in Russia.

p. 79-88

Authors: Evgeny A. Bogdanyuk, Pavel V. Trunin

The article considers key factors and consequences of the development of eurocurrency bank intermediation during the second half of the 20th — 21st century. The analysis finds a portfolio reason (changes in the risk-return trade-offs) and shifts in the investment flows direction (a rise in the share of developing countries’ savings in their total volume) to be the crucial factors of the disproportionately high growth rates of eurocurrency banking activities. The article studies monetary and financial stability issues against the background of eurocurrency intermediation development.

p. 98-104

Authors: Inna N. Rycova, Elena O. Metelkova

Evaluation issues of the effectiveness of the agricultural machinery industry state support are related to the budget expenditures on the agricultural machinery industry development of the Russian Federation and achievement of the public policy goals and tasks. In this article the authors analyze the crisis response measures to stabilize the situation in the agricultural machinery industry by type of machinery and equipment types with due regard to import substitution.

p. 115-125

Authors: Ekaterina S. Lavrenova, Olga S. Belomyttseva

The authors identify the impact of pension accruals on the operations of Russian non-state pension funds and describe the effect of the pension reform on pension accruals. A regulatory definition for the subject-matter of pension accruals in Russia is proposed. The article also studies the features and efficiency of retirement assets accumulation within the investment portfolio of Russian non-state pension funds. The authors draw conclusions and make recommendations with regard to the pension accruals management in non-state pension funds.

p. 7-27

Authors: Anna A. Belenchuk, Alexey M. Lavrov

Since the beginning of the budget reform in the Russian Federation significant experience has been gained in public finance management quality assessment. The article offers an approach to the establishment of the national system of quality assessment in public finance management, which combines Russian experience with the best worldwide practices and standards in this area. Thereafter, the suggested comprehensive system can be supplemented by some quantitative indicators to apply it in the cross-country and cross-region comparisons, in best practices distribution and budget reforms planning.

p. 41-51

Authors: Nataliya V. Golovanova, Evgeniy A. Dombrovskiy

The system of delineation of authority based on the Fiscal Federalism Development Strategy in the Russian Federation was introduced in 2005. However, the allocation of powers was not stable: the legislation was amended many times during the last ten years, which changed the volume of expenditure responsibilities. The paper presents an assessment of the monetary value of spending responsibilities transferred to regional authorities in 2005–2015 and its impact on the balance of the consolidated budget of the Russian Federation subjects.

p. 60-69

Authors: Tatiana Yu. Safonova

This article is devoted to taxation of structural instruments, including structural deposits. In the course of the analysis of the most common deals on the market the author develops the main approaches to the forming of special tax regimes to be applied to separate types of derivative strategies depending on their economic origin and organization of cash flows. The author pays special attention to taxation of structural deposits and barrier strategies.

p. 82-87

Authors: Makar I. Kudelich

The article is focused on possible approaches to the system enhancement of legislation framework of the Russian Federation development institutions in the context of increasing their efficiency, social and fiscal accountability and transparency of its activities.

p. 100-110

Authors: Alexander A. Tsyganov, Nadezhda V. Kirillova, Valery V. Kurganov

The subject of this article is the analysis of the energy conservation and efficiency insurance mechanisms. The article describes the features of insurance coverage in energy saving and energy efficiency activities; current practice, factors hindering the development of insurance activities on energy conservation; recommendations for improving the legislative and regulatory framework aimed at improving energy efficiency. This article was prepared in accordance with the results of the research carried out at the expense of budget funds for the state job of the Financial University in 2015.

p. 118-125

Authors: Nadezda V. Gavrilova

The article is devoted to the current trends in participatory budgeting, the mechanism which aims to involve citizens in the decision-making process of public budgeting. The first revealed trend is the use of ICT to increase the population coverage. The second trend is designing PB to involve particular social groups (youth, women, migrants). The third trend is involvement of NGOs to PB. The forth trend is integration of PB into the Open Budget policy. The fifth trend is broad experimenting to adapt PB to the needs of a particular locality and the emergence of a variety of innovative projects as a result.

p. 33-40

Authors: Maxim A. Kotlyarov, Inna N. Rycova

Analysis of the banking legislation of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member-states indicates common features of their banking systems. However, objectively existing differences in the legal framework and practice of particular countries, including Russia, require gradual harmonization of banking legislation with the aim of creating an effective common financial market. The paper offers recommendations for harmonization of banking legislation in various areas: terms and definitions, licensing procedures, activities of banks with foreign investments, deposits insurance schemes, etc.

p. 50-60

Authors: Igor Yu. Arlashkin, Alexander S. Gangan

Consolidation of federal matching grants is one of the trends in current intergovernmental budgetary policy. However, strategic documents in the sphere of public finance do not work out in detail neither the procedure for consolidation nor its result. The article attempts to provide a vision for a new system of consolidated matching grants and to assess the possible scope for consolidation with particular attention paid to the mechanism of granting.

p. 70-78

Authors: Tatiana S. Remizova

The territories of priority development (TPD) are created in the Far East of Russia in order to attract residents, particularly core residents, and the development of the Far East. The paper presents the main advantages of the residents, when placing them on the TPD and risks related to the financing of infrastructure in the territory at the expense of the federal budget. In order to assess the possible risks and the efficiency of the planned TPD the author analyses 6 TPD complex investment project profiles. The analysis outcome shows that the only way to reach target results is to involve residents with the relevant revenue volume and other production indices, which are stated in the complex investment project (CIP).

p. 89-100

Authors: Evgeny M. Gutzait, Anton M. Maryasin, Igor A. Yakovlev

The article develops an approach to the concept of the quality of audit services as a transition from the quality of the consumer (user) to the quality of services producer. The authors provide an estimation of influence of the disciplinary measures used in the audit on the basis of the expert estimation method. In addition, other capabilities of this method when solving audit problems are discussed in the article.

p. 110-116

Authors: Evgeny G. Anisimov, Vladimir G. Anisimov, Sergey V. Shkodinsky

The article describes the stochastic model for the dynamic evaluation of the grey imports volume and structure, which imitates the processes of its formation. This simulation allows to take into account available information about the grey imports and thereby improves the accuracy of its volume and structure estimation in more objective way than the common regression and expert models do.

p. 7-22

Authors: Victor Yu. Lyashok, Vladimir S. Nazarov, Maxim S. Oreshkin

Over the past 15 years the real size of pensions in Russia increased significantly. The article examines the main factors that influenced the dynamics of pensions in the country: wage growth, changes in employment and the number of retirees, the growth of informal employment, changes in taxes and contributions, transfers from the federal budget to the budget of the Pension Fund and other. In the work we construct a model to estimate the contribution of each factor and project the dynamics of pensions in the future in the absence of structural reforms of the pension system.

p. 5-16

Authors: Sergey V. Romanov, Nikolay N. Klisch, Darya S. Reshetnikova

The article presents the experience of civil servants performance indicators system development in the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation — the evidence from the department of budget methodology. The authors explore the main steps of performance indicators system development, provide the analysis of the main functional directions of the Department, present the main characteristics of the initial list of the performance indicators and suggest further directions of performance indicators application.

p. 24-33

Authors: Elena I. Andreeva, Dmitry G. Bychkov

One way to increase the efficiency of budgetary outlays on social benefits in Russia is to replace the existing multiple income support programs with a universal last-resort benefit, which targets the poorest with some sort of means testing technique. The practices of the United Kingdom and Georgia, two countries that chose this approach to reforming their national social support systems, provide some insights into the issues that Russia will quite likely have to address in the nearest future as well.

p. 47-58

Authors: Tatyana L. Zhuravleva, Maxim A. Leonov

This paper analyzes the development of the banking sector in Russia in recent years. It studies the access to financial services and the stability of the banking system with the special emphasis to regional development. Despite the growth of the deposit rate, the increased risks force banks to reduce lending that influences negatively their sustainability. The lack of the access to financial services together with decreasing competition level and growing concentration in the banking sector leads to the higher gap in financial development between Russian regions.

p. 67-79

Authors: Pavel E. Zhukov

The work purpose is a construction of the theoretical model for an estimation of possible joint influence of tax shields, default risk and transaction costs on the average cost of the capital, taking into account the results of classical works of Myers, Fama and French. Transaction costs are estimated as a difference between bond yield at issue and bond market yield. It is shown that the capital structure practically does not depend on tax shields, but essentially depends on transaction costs and default risk. The optimal capital structure is reached at the level of a debt equal to the maximal safe size.

p. 90-101

Authors: Olga A. Fetisova

The article defines the place of the information technology industry in the modern economy and reviews the key features of target costing and kaizen costing. The author developed and proposed to use her own goal costing method for calculation of the cost of information technologies goods (works, services), which is based on principles of target costing and kaizen costing. The study reviews the step by step algorithm of goal costing and gives the example of its using for calculation of the cost of goods (works, services) of information technologies.

p. 112-118

Authors: Tatiana I. Semkina, Olga V. Medvedeva

The article analyses the peculiarities and differences of the procedure of VAT taxation of precious metals in different countries around the world due to different methodology and procedure of taxation applied by those countries. Special attention was given to the changes in the procedure of VAT taxation of precious metals in the recent years.