International reserve assets of the Russian Federation: Problems and prospects

Russia’s gold and currency reserves (GCR) and control over them are analyzed. The main components of international reserves are characterized in detail. Successes in GCR accumulation (third place after China and Japan by this indicator) are considered. Special attention is paid to the development and control over the gold-mining industry. Control over international reserves and prospects for improving its efficiency are analyzed.     

Nominal shocks and the current account: A structural VAR analysis of 14 OECD countries

This paper provides some empirical evidence on one of the most controversial theoretical implications of the new open economy literature, which refers to the role of the current account in the international monetary transmission mechanism. In order to throw some light on this issue, two structural VAR models are estimated separately for 14 industrialized countries. The main empirical results highlight the importance of the role of nominal disturbances for current account fluctuations. Additionally, it is found that expansionary nominal shocks generate temporary current account surpluses, whose size is positively correlated with the openness of the individual countries. JEL no. C32, E40, F41, F42     

Interrelations between the dynamics of oil prices and demand: Contemporary characteristics

The article shows that the unprecedented rise in oil prices was in recent years accompanied by an increase in oil consumption. The author considers the growth that was seen in the magnitude of oil sales despite multiple increases in price to be, along with the buying up of oil as a high liquidity asset, a phenomenon that indicates an approaching crisis and allows us to create new approaches to its forecasting.     

Natural resources valuation in the system of national accounts: Statistical calculation challenges and experience

The concept and application of the rent-based method of valuation of natural resources in the system of national accounts are discussed. The untenability of direct transfer of the bookkeeping method, which for all intents and purposes underlies the formation of the SNA balance of nonfinancial assets, to the domain of macrostatistical measurements is demonstrated.     

Analysis of the social policy parameters by forecasting indicators of social sector financing

The paper continues the publication started in our journal (2007, no. 1) of the forecasts made in the integrated system “Population, Incomes, Consumption” developed by the Central Economics and Mathematics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The forecasts cover indicators of social sector financing at different level: macro-level, by population groups, and by family type. The paper shows that expansion of the statistical base and its updating after the population census in 2002 have lead toserious changes in the forecast of the major social policy parameters. Their detailed analysis and conclusions are presented.     

Problems of information support for predicting labor migration in Russia

The main sources of information for the study of labor migration are discussed, as well as foreign experience in conducting surveys and application applying other sources of migration data. We propose methodological approaches to organizing a household survey to obtain information on labor migration including identification and selection of respondents and determination of basic sets of questions for the survey questionnaire.     

Determinants of Efficiency in the Electricity Industry: Bayesian Analysis

Atlantic Economic Journal -