International Practices for Russian Taxi Market Regulation

The analysis of international experience in regulating taxi markets allows to identify potential risks of regulatory interference in the passenger transportation markets in Russia. Section 1 examines the international experience of tariff regulation and taxi market deregulation measures, taking into account empirical studies of the tariff restrictions effectiveness. Section 2 contains examples of quotas, restricted the number of passenger taxis or licenses. Since regulatory practice is not limited to these methods, section 3 provides cases of establishing additional requirements for the carrier's activities. The conclusion contains all cases summary and a list of potential risks of implementing the tariff regulation policy in taxi market in Russian Federation. It is concluded that markets with dynamic pricing may react ambiguously to the straightening or weakening of tariff and quotas regulation.The research is based on the theory of institutional change, including developments on the problems of institutional design and regulatory impact assessment.The choice of cases is determined by the information availability about the results of the introduced regime of taxi services regulation. This makes it possible to analyze the qualitative characteristics of relevant market dynamics without diving into quantitative calculations and collecting statistics.

Prospects of AI Implementation into Business Management Practices: a Survey (based on the materials of the Research Seminar on Digital Economy Studies at the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University)

The article represents the survey of main results of the regular research seminar on digital economy studies at the Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University with the focus on artificial intelligence (AI). The survey includes the discussion on the AI concept itself, the assessment of AI impact on labor markets through the lens of human workforce substitution, and the summary of real and prospective directions of AI use by Russian companies. In particular, those directions include production, marketing, pricing, insurance, accounting and audit, security. The barriers for AI development in Russia are also identified.

Review of the 151th meeting of the Dispute club “Economic Policy Knots” of the Association of the Russian Economic Think Tanks on the Topic “What is the Twenty-first year preparing for us?”

The work is devoted to a review of the results of the 151st meeting of the Dispute Club “Economic Policy Knots” of the Association of Russian Economic Think Tanks (hereinafter referred to as ARETT) on the topic "What is the twenty-first year preparing for us?" The purpose of the event was to discuss issues of economic and market development in 2021. The debaters were Alexei Leonidovich Vedev, head of the financial research laboratory of the Institute for Economic Policy named after E.T. Gaidai, and Natalia Vladimirovna Orlova, head of the “AO ALFA-BANK” macroeconomic analysis center. The review presents the key ideas of the disputants, and also summarizes the main results of their answers to questions.

Russian Agri-Food Export in the context of Pandemic Shock

Agri-food export and its development are an important area of economic policy in our country. In recent years, its dynamics have been impressive. In this regard, the main factors providing its positive dynamics are of interest. It is also important to assess the impact of the pandemic shock, including changes in migration processes, as well as export restrictions that were introduced in 2020. They remain in effect in the current period. How these factors can affect in the short and long term and what alternative solutions exist is of practical and theoretical interest.

Conscious Consumption Ideology and Brand Values Perception

In modern terms, a new view of consumption is being formed, its impact on human health and the natural environment surrounding it, the commitment to the principles of a healthy lifestyle and a conscious attitude to the surrounding world is growing. As a reflection of these ideas, the trend for conscious, ethical consumption is actively developing. In response to the rapid development of digital communications of consumers and the formation of new demand parameters, there are changes in the market positioning of brands of companies around the world, so it is important to understand the vectors of these changes and the intensity of their impact. It is necessary to assess the real relevance of these issues, in particular, for the Russian markets. including representatives of various, especially youth, consumer audience. The purpose of this study is to obtain evidence of the use of the ideology of conscious consumption in the promotion of leading domestic and foreign brands represented on the Russian market on the example of clothing brands, as well as to test the perception of this ideology among young consumers. The applied methodology for analyzing the marketing content of leading foreign and Russian brands on the Internet showed a slight use of social and ethical parameters in marketing, and the survey of representatives of the youth audience of consumers of premium brands on the examples of clothing brands demonstrated that the parameters of conscious consumption are important for the surveyed youth audience, but differently affect their perception of the brand value.

Russia in the Remaking: Civilization, Technogenesis, Economy

The article presents an overview of the plenary conference of the international scientific conference «Russia in the remaking: the Civilization, Technogenesis, the Economy» organized by laboratory of philosophy of economic together with the scientific council «Center of Social Sciences of MSU» held on December 9–11, 2020 in the online format at Faculty of Economics of Lomonosov Moscow State University. Reports that consider from various positions the state and prospects of the Russian society, the Russian economy and, broadly, the Russian civilization, were presented at the plenary session. The presented points of view allow us to take a fresh look at what's happening in the country and in the world in times of COVID-19 challenges.

Realisticity of Individual Choice Model Does Matter: On Cartel Prosecution

Criminal prosecution of monopolistic activities in the form of market cartelization is the most sensitive tool for individuals, which can have both a serious deterrent effect and limit behavior that is beneficial to public welfare. This paper discusses the theoretical aspects of the issue of choosing a regime of antitrust enforcement in connection with the design of amendments and enforcement of the norms of Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, taking into account possible differences between the initialization, conclusion of a cartel agreement and participation in it. The article shows that there are various options for the relationship between the concept of conclusion and participation in the agreement, including anti-competitive one. However, this requires the application of realistic assumptions regarding the behavior of individuals. Practical issues of designing criminal penalties for cartels are considered taking into account various legal concepts, including the form and types of guilt, as well as on the basis of a comparison with other articles of the Criminal Code that punish collective unlawful acts. In connection with the problem of reproduction of an inhospitable tradition, the Russian antitrust identified the risks of imputed imputation (risks of I type errors) and insufficient punishment of the cartel organizer (risks of II type errors) in case of underestimating the importance of economic concepts based on the principle of methodological individualism and the assumption of bounded rationality of individuals.

Theoretical and Methodological Approach to the Study of Residual Value

The purpose of this article is to expand the understanding of the negative environmental load from production activities. It is based on the theoretical foundations relating to residual value. It also makes use of environmental and economic accounting introduced for deep analyses of hidden residual values, in particular in discussing concluding terminal costs and remedial costs in the context of dynamics of environmental sustainability. A complex understanding of the hidden residual value is suggested on macroeconomic in the capital concept and global levels. The macroeconomic measures (indicators) are considered in accounting the hidden environmental impact resulting from production activity.

Digital Protectionism: Myth or Reality?

Many governments continue or even return to protectionism, with a special influence on digital protectionism that has emerged in the era of digital development. Compared to the traditional protectionism the digital one usually differs due to the expansive growth of digital companies and the enormous amounts of data they gather. The authors focus on the two main elements of digital protectionism – a regulatory regime that creates barriers to cross-border data transfer and benefits in antitrust legislation in respect of internal companies. The purpose of the article is to identify the risks of applying special regulation of personal data protection and using antitrust policy to regulate digital companies functioning as means of protectionism. The analysis includes two stages: comparing of personal data protection and digital protectionism aims, assessing the protectionism motives within the framework of antitrust regulation. Based on the results of the study the authors come to the conclusion that industrial and antitrust regulators should take into account the risks of implementing digital protectionism to the competition.

Smoke or Breathe? Assessment of the Impact of the Tobacco Industry on the Environment

The tobacco industry has a long history. The use of tobacco products caused controversy among leading doctors, scientists and economists for a long time. A huge number of studies have revealed the undoubted harm of tobacco use on human health. Despite the adoption of laws in many countries that prohibit or restrict smoking, the tobacco industry is still one of the leading branches of the economy. Whereas the harm caused by tobacco products to the human body has been thoroughly studied, and the composition of cigarette smoke has been identified with an accuracy of 7,000 different chemical elements, the damage caused to nature has not yet been discovered. In this study, we will assess the impact of the tobacco industry on the environment. In order to do this, we will consider all stages of the existence of tobacco products: from the cultivation of tobacco leaves to direct consumption and subsequent disposal of cigarette butts. Each of the stages contains clear and threats to the environment. The study is based on the experience of China as one of the largest tobacco producers and consumers. China is a country experiencing serious environmental problems, but plans to reach the level of carbon neutrality by 2060. The result of our analysis will be a quantitative assessment of the harm (in particular, CO2 emissions) caused by the tobacco industry to the environment in China, as well as recommendations for reducing the calculated effect.