The cluster approach in the innovation development strategy of foreign countries

Foreign experience in carrying out cluster policy and the scales of distribution and the variety of cluster structure types abroad are considered and generalized. The main attention is given to innovation directivity as the key factor of increasing regional and national economic competitiveness. The important role of the state in formation of effective cluster policy providing substantial improvement in the business climate and stimulating the priority development of high-tech fields is placed in strong relief. The next issue of the journal will contain an article about the situation in Russia (Ed.).     

The Poverty of Politics: How Income Redistribution Hurts the Poor

In spite of the significant research literature identifying a tradeoff between income redistribution and economic growth, massive public programs have been implemented to help the poor by transferring income to them. Since Lyndon Johnson's war on poverty began in 1964, over 3.5 trillion dollars have been transferred. However, the possibility that everyone, including the poor, may in fact be made worse off by the transfer has largely been ignored. With a simple algebraic model, the authors demonstrate that, over time, both high and low-income groups are harmed by redistribution. In addition, social mobility, as well as political concerns with relative poverty and international income redistribution increases the damage to all income groups produced by redistribution.     

The dynamics of socioeconomic reform in Russia: Medico-demographic indices

A medico-demographic periodization of Russian socioeconomic reforms is presented, according to which the state of public health is characterized by different vectors.     

Toward the assessment of the Russian population mortality risk factors and the feasibility of their reduction: Comments on the World Bank Report “Dying Too Young”

A comparative study of external mortality risk factors according to World Bank experts (Dying Too Young Report, 2005) and findings of other projects, as well as mortality reduction programs, is presented. The World Bank experts overrate the significance of smoking and lead pollution as mortality factors and underrate that of alcohol, air pollution, and unfavorable occupational environments. In addition, the impacts of radon, climate warming, and low temperatures, which are very important negative factors for Russia, are overlooked in the Report. Although mortality reduction measures are very topical under the current demographic crisis, certain federal target programs envisage very general measures, and the death rate remains high. Road Safety Improvement, which is the most concrete among these programs, may indeed help reduce road accident-related mortality. The importance of air pollution as a risk factor may grow as a result of changes in the structure of the fuel balance and an increased share of coal combustion.     

Recent Trends in the Skill Composition of Legal U.S. Immigrants

We examine fluctuations in the predicted educational attainment of newly arrived legal U.S. immigrants between 1972 and 1999 by combining data from the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service with the Current Population Survey. A mid-1980s decline gave way to a noticeable improvement in the skill base of the immigrant population between 1987 and 1993. A short decline in the quality of immigrant skills—less severe than that of the mid-1980s—took place in the mid-1990s. In 1998, the trend reverses once more: The labor market quality of new legal U.S. immigrants improves. The primary sources of the fluctuations include changes in the quality and quantity of immigrants obtaining an adjustment and variations in the distribution of source regions and entry class types among new legal U.S. immigrants.