Financial Journal

p. 9-23

Authors: Alexey M. Lavrov, Olga K. Yastrebova

This article is focused on general trends and innovations in budget process in OECD countries over the past decade and considers the possibility and conditions to apply them to the budget system of the Russian Federation. The article also compares the models of classic performance-based budgeting (PBB) with the next generation PBB models, defines general trends in PBB development and typical mistakes of PBB implementation in OECD countries. Taking into account the foreign experience and the accumulated Russian practice, the authors suggest a number of measures to increase the effectiveness of the PBB application in Russian economy. In addition, the authors summarize the experiences of using a Spending Review (SW) by OECD member countries and propose a two-stage approach to implement a SW process as part of the budget process in the Russian Federation. The role, functions and experience of implementation of independent fiscal institutions (IFI) in OECD countries are considered in the article. The question is raised about the feasibility and possible options for the creation of IFI within a separate structure under the aegis of the executive or the legislative authority of the Russian Federation. The authors consider the international experience in fiscal risk management and provide the quantitative probability assessment of fiscal risk realization and fiscal costs caused by them. Moreover, the authors give recommendations for improvement of the fiscal risk management in Russia.

p. 36-46

Authors: Yelena I. Andreeva, Dmitry G. Bychkov, Olesya A. Feoktistova

In spite of the improvements in the demographic situation in Russia that have occurred in the 2000s and that have been triggered, among other things, due to the introduction of a number of new family support benefits and increasing amounts of the existing ones, the amount of family support benefits as percent of the GDP in Russia remains lower than it is in most European countries. The efficiency of such benefits as a policy method to increase the birth rate remains questionable as well. The paper presents an attempt to estimate the amount of federal government expenditures that will be required to fund new mean-tested family allowances introduced in Russia in the beginning of 2018 — the monthly allowance upon the birth of a first and/or a second child, and to estimate the effects of these allowances upon the poverty headcount and the income gap in Russia. The authors conclude that a clearer definition of the social policy goal, such as increasing the human capital of the new generation rather than increasing the birth rate, and finer tuning of benefit parameters, which would require harmonization of eligibility criteria for different family support measures and universal applicability of federal family support measures, disregarding the region of family’s residence, could increase the efficiency of these benefits as a poverty prevention tool and provide more universal and transparent social support to families.

p. 59-72

Authors: Olga V. Bogacheva, Oleg V. Smorodinov

The article is focused on determination of key development directions of environmental risk management in G20 countries, based on the analysis of its current state. They are: 1) application of new classification of risk factors in environmental risk management; 2) application of new, more precise and efficient instruments and methods of environmental risks’ identification and analysis; 3) formation of publicly available environmental database; 4) integration of instruments, methods, procedures and results of evaluation of environmental risks into enterprise-wide risk management system of financial organization. It was noted in the article that financial institutions also started applying the newest methods and instruments of risk management (such as scenario analysis, stress testing, probability modeling, systems analysis, etc.). The authors claim that one of the keys to financial institutions’ success is an ability to integrate procedures, methods and instruments of environmental risk identification and evaluation results into enterprise-wide risk management system (ERM). The article also conducts a case study of application of the newest methods and instruments of environmental risk management by financial institutions in various G20 countries. The authors draw a conclusion that G20 countries, which are planning a transition to sustainable development, need to increase their efforts in order to put in place environmental risk management systems.

p. 84-93

Authors: Amir K. Sembekov, Yeraly G. Budeshov

This article examines the issues of assessing the competitiveness of the national insurance markets of the EAEU. It also analyzes the main criteria characterizing the level of competitiveness of the national insurance market in the conditions of the integration union. As a result of the research, the main competitive advantages and weak positions of the national insurance markets are identified in the context of each country, based on the application of the methodology for assessing the competitive advantages of the insurance markets of the EAEU member countries through the «competitiveness polygon». Using economic and mathematical modeling the authors estimate the influence of factors of the industry competitiveness of the insurance markets in the conditions of the integration space of the EAEU. Measures aimed at enhancing competitive advantages in the activities of insurance companies and forming a competitive national insurance market of the Eurasian Union are proposed at the end of the article.

p. 109-119

Authors: Leyla B. Mokhnatkina

The article is focused on financial and budgetary aspect of regional economic security. The author considers a concept of budget balance in a broad and narrow sense and determines its quantitative and qualitative characteristics. An approach to the structuring of public debt, which helps to assess the impact of market and non-market debt obligations on the balance of regional budgets, has been implemented. The author critically evaluates approaches to normalization of the budget deficit and public debt implemented in the Russian budget legislation. There is also an analysis of the dynamics of regional budgets’ balance in relation to the dynamics of public debt by the example of indicators of the Russian Federation and Orenburg region. At the end of the article the author draws the conclusions concerning the account of short-term and long-term economic effects on the debt policy of the subject of the Russian Federation and formulates a more reasonable use of the budget balance indicator as an indicator of financial and budgetary security of the regions.

p. 129-131

Authors: Mstislav P. Afanasiev, Nataliya N. Shash

The review on the R. Thaler’s book “Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics” in the Russian translation presents the main conceptual ideas of behavioural economy. The architecture of a consumer’s choice in the course of economic decision-making processes of all types is described. The authors draw the conclusion that Thaler’s approach can be applied to macroeconomic and the government activities, especially in the sphere of monetary, budgetary and tax policy.