Involvement of resources in Russia’s construction materials complex

The problems of using resources in the construction materials complex of the Russian Federation are reviewed in the paper. The processes of involvement of resources in the economic application in the main types of economic activities providing production of materials are analyzed. The scope of limitations of resources used in economic branches is revealed on the basis of research of corporate and financial development mechanisms. The necessity to strengthen reproduction processes in the country as a basis for the formation of demand for domestic constructional materials is substantiated.     

Promotion of foreign direct investments in Russia to improve the quality of economic growth

This paper provides a systematic overview of theoretical recommendations on how to stimulate the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI). It presents the dynamics and breakdown of FDI in Russia. The authors use econometric analysis to assess the prevailing motives underlying FDI in Russia and other countries and formulate their recommendations on FDI stimulation policies for the coming decade.     

Opportunities and challenges of Russian high-technology complex modernization

The article examines the status and trends of Russian science-intensive and high-technology complex development after the implementation of anti-crisis measures, and provides a comparative assessment of the sector condition with the general situation in Russian economy. It is suggested that the key challenges of modernization should be the reintegration of the institutional structure of the national economy reproduction and reindustrialization of country. In addition the paper put forward the hypothesis that formation of high-technology industries, national innovation systems, and modernization processes are common in nature and based on the emergence and development of capital new forms.     

Forecast for GDP energy intensity in 2020: Russia and other developed countries

A forecast of the energy intensity of the Russian GDP in 2020 has been prepared based on a one-factor regression model and using statistical data on the internal consumption of fuel-energy resources and GDP in 2000–2008. According to the obtained regression equation, the bulk of consumption of fuel-energy resources does not depend on the GDP size (i.e., the constant term of regression is 768 tce), while the part of fuel-energy resource consumption depending on the GDP was 214 tce for 2007, or 21.8% of the total consumption. The calculated consumption elasticity coefficient of the GDP primary fuel-energy resources is 0.17. It is shown that the objective of 40% decrease of GDP energy intensity by 2020 against that of 2007 is a challenging task taking into account the economic crisis of 2008–2009 and the difficult process of overcoming it in 2010–2012.     

Performance evaluation of the use of accumulating systems in the power industry

Under rapid surges in gas prices, the difference in the costs of electric power production between peak (and half-peak) and base load plants is quickly increasing, so that accumulating systems that allow transfer of cheap night energy to peak and daytime zones have proved highly efficient. A method to evaluate the economic efficiency of such accumulating systems is presented, which is based on model simulation in order to find the optimal tariffs differentiated by time zones.     

EFFECT OF TEXTILE QUOTA RESTRICTIONS ON U.S. COTTON TEXTILE IMPORTS BETWEEN 1964 AND 1973

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of U.S. cotton textile quotas on cotton textiles imported into the U.S. between 1964 and 1973. The findings showed that cotton imports requiring more processing stages had significantly greater 10-year average prices than other groups. Changes in the dollar value of imported cotton textiles during the decade have mainly occurred because of an increase in the average prices rather than resulting from a redistribution of imports from low to high average price groups. The weakening correlation between changes in the dollar value and in the quantity of high unit value groups indicated that the control on quantity has not precluded increases in total dollar value of imports in higher processing stages, especially since 1970. Since fabrics with a relatively stable average price accounted for the major importation of cotton textiles during the 1964–1973 period, the overall control by quantity in this decade was still quite good, even though average prices of apparel were rising.     

On specification testing of ordered discrete choice models

We discuss how to test the specification of an ordered discrete choice model against a general alternative. Two main approaches can be followed: tests based on moment conditions and tests based on comparisons between parametric and nonparametric estimations. Following these approaches, various statistics are proposed and their asymptotic properties are discussed. The performance of the statistics is compared by means of simulations. An easy-to-compute variant of the standard moment-based statistic yields the best results in models with a single explanatory variable. In models with various explanatory variables the results are less conclusive, since the relative performance of the statistics depends on both the fit of the model and the type of misspecification that is considered.     

Wholesale trade in Russia today

This paper compares the official and alternative statistical estimates of the financial performance of wholesale trade in 2001 and its dynamics in 2000–2004. The causes of the sector’s high profitability and the rise in turnover in recent years are ascertained. A comparative study of wholesale trade in the Soviet era and the present is made and the functions of wholesale in today’s Russia and economically advanced countries are contrasted. The negative role of wholesale trade in the present economy of Russia is demonstrated, which stems from the special characteristics of the functions it performs. The case is made for a sharp increase in the sector’s taxation and the amount of its possible tax load is calculated.     

Can Rich Countries Become Pollution Havens?*

This paper bridges the gap between two‐country Ricardian trade models where differences in environmental policies create pollution havens in a poorer region with weaker pollution regulations, and 2 × 2 Heckscher–Ohlin models that predict under certain conditions that pollution havens may occur in a richer region with tighter regulations. By relaxing the Heckscher–Ohlin assumptions of factor price equalization and no specialization, we show how creation of pollution havens in either region is possible, due to the interplay of policy and factor‐endowment motives. We also analyze the conditions for creating pollution havens in the cases of exogenous and endogenous environmental policy.     

The Influence of Demographics and Household-Specific Price Indices on Consumption-Based Inequality and Welfare: A Comparison of Spain and the United States

Previous research has suggested that inequality is lower in Spain than in the United States when it is based on income. For the present article, both inequality and social welfare are examined, with household consumption expenditures used as a proxy for household welfare. For tractability, equivalence scales depended only on the number of people in the household. Household-specific price indices were used to express the 1990-1991 expenditure distributions in 1981 and 1991 winter prices. Our results reveal that inequality and welfare comparisons are drastically different for smaller and larger households. When all households are considered, the two-country comparison suggests that the income inequality ranking can only be maintained for expenditure distributions when economies of scale are small or nonexistent. However, welfare is always higher in the United States than in Spain. Because inflation during the 1980s in both countries was essentially distributionally neutral, all results appear to be robust to the choice of time period.