The generalization and systematisation of the literature on the history of reforms accumulated for twenty years allow to organise the ideas of the transformations processes and to set a new vector of understanding the socio-economic development of Russia in the last decade of the 20th century — the first decades of 21st century. The first step is the analysis of the publications reflecting the preparation, a course and results of a modern economic reform in the 1990th. The historiographical review includes the monographs written by both apologists of «shock therapy», and their opponents and critics, first of all by Academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences. This literature analysis reveals the range of opinions concerning the preference of a «shock» variant of transformations, the assessment of the results of the reform by the end of the 1990th and the possibilities of the alternative ways of transition from the planned to the market economy. In particular, the apologists of «shock therapy» refer to the threat of hunger and civil war to justify the decisions, which have caused the decline in production, a hyperinflation and other negative tendencies. Their critics note that a lack of the support of the population has caused a failure of market transformations. While recognizing the obvious, that is an essential deterioration of economic indicators, the apologists see their success in the development of a system of market institutions and consequently, insist that there was no alternative to the realized reform. In turn, their opponents believe that there were the alternatives of «shock therapy», and the gradual cultivation of the institutions of the market economy would be their distinctive feature, but not their introduction by the administrative order.

The paper discloses the understanding of new reality (normality) for Russia that consists in the strengthening of the role of a man-personality and in the expansion of the economic autonomy of the territories in their interaction with the federal center. The rationale is based on a hypothesis according to which in the conditions of new reality, the increase of the well-being of the population and the overcoming of economic inequality between the territories are provided by the expansion of their economic independence as it leads to the increase of their intellectual, engineering and manufacturing potential. In the research, the author used the basic concepts of the classical economic theory, the theory of behavioural economics, interdisciplinary approach and statistical grouping method. The dynamics of the economic independence of the territories, which is manifested in the decrease in a number of donor regions and the socio-economic dividing of the territories, is shown. The assumption is proved that the consequences of the territorial stratification are the restraining of the growth of their socio-economic development and possibility probable emergence of «regional peripheral economy» with the property of the dependence of the periphery on the center, the decrease in a local initiative, the inhibition of technological development. The need to use the social psychology of the population, the psychological sets of economic development, «the second invisible hand of the market» and soft power to overcome the «regional peripheral economy» is revealed. The result of the research is the proof that the expansion of the economic independence of the territories is not only the increase of the self-isolation of regions and municipalities, but also the need to save the considerable part of the income from the production of goods and services created by the local population under control of the regional and municipal authorities and direct it to the increase of the well-being of the population of the territory. The idea of creating the legal document to provide and strengthen the economic independence of territories is offered; the suggestions on the principles of its contents and structuring are stated.

The subject matter of the article is the description of economic growth. Modern economy is characterized by a high rate of changes. These changes are the limiting parameters of modern development, which requires a modification of the basic models of growth, the substantiation of the expediency and necessity of a rapid development strategy. In a simple mathematical form, the statement of the problem of economic growth in the “green economy” is examined, in which the costs of environmental measures are not considered a priori as hampering economic development (as it is common for a number of modern neoclassical and neo-Keynesian growth models). The methodological basis of the article are the econometric approach and modelling method. The article has a theoretical character. The main hypothesis supposes that the rapid development strategy cannot make an adequate development strategy under certain conditions, but may be acceptable in other its specific conditions. In this sense, the important growth conditions are the availability of resources, the effectiveness of institutions and the current economic structure, the technological effectiveness of economy, as well as the conditions of technological development (“green economy”) and the path of such development. In the article, on the theoretical level of analysis, the substantiation of the adequacy of the rapid development strategy for an economic system is given, whose goal is to achieve the standard of living of the countryleader. Based on the assumptions introduced, the period for which the rapid development strategy might be implemented and the economic lag of the country might be reduced from the country-leader is determined. The conditions that ensure the impact of innovations on the rate of economic development are summarized. The introduced range of dependencies and relations can be useful for the elaboration of the theory of innovation development and for the formation of a new conceptual framework of the model of economic growth of a rapidly changing economic system (competing at high speeds). Based on the analysis of proposed theoretical models for Russia, the following conclusion is made: the rapid development strategy may be effective only if it combines the stimulation and innovations as well as the classic productions, therefore, recreating the earlier lost sectors of economics. This will help to overcome the technological gap.

The article presents the flowchart of the and analysis and information system “Anti-crisis” intended for the integrated assessment of the parameters of the economic security of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. This system takes into account the risks, threats and their forecasting. The scheme reflects the interaction of separate program modules. The integration of modules with the unified database management system is described: access to the database, automatic backup and recovery of databases in real time, data transmission through an open channel with the use of modern encryption-decryption algorithm. The main units of the system are allocated: a diagnostic block of the economic security condition, block of the well-being of an individual and the territory of residence, block of extremism, correlation block, block of modelling and forecasting the security of the entities of the Russian Federation. Within the block of the modelling, the main generalized mathematical model based on the system of the nonlinear differential equations and created for the purpose to take into account the correction coefficients, as well as all types of interaction of indicators, is given. The main types of optimization problems of the interaction of indicators by using the generalized model, are compiled. On the basis of the developed optimization problems, the forecasting from 2016 to 2020 is made.

The relation between regional and macroeconomic growth in Russia for the period of 1990 — 2013 are considered in the paper. The purpose is to estimate this ratio depending on the phase (stage) of development. The hypothesis is that the increase in regional disparities within the post-Soviet period picked up by standard measures and noted in the literature, is not associated with the systemic removal of regional indicators from each other. The specific forms of convergence-divergence are typical for the Russian regional space and they have to be identified. The dynamics of regional space configuration in Russia is considered from a new perspective — as a mass distribution of the gross domestic product of regions by the value of growth rates. The estimation and forecast of the structural characteristics of the gross regional product (GRP) mass distribution are made on the basis of the “distribution dynamics” approach up to 2025. The average annual growth in 2025 is expected at around 104.5 %, while growth differentiation significantly increases. The phase of macroeconomic growth for the last 15 years is reflected in its regional components. The GRP growth in Russia in general, both before and after the crisis of 2009, forms a more dense distribution than in 2009. The general trend of the 2000th and subsequent years is characterized by a certain decline in per capita GRP differentiation in relation to the main regional space (74 regions). The results of this paper may be useful for regional regulation policy purposes. A set of the Russian regions in the years of 2009–2013, against to the dominant tendency, provides a dynamics, that can be compared to the number of countries with a developed market. There is an urgent need to create a special research project to study this phenomenon.

The Europe 2020 Strategy has formulated key policy objectives or so-called “headline targets” which the European Union as a whole and Member States are individually committed to achieving by 2020. One of the five headline targets is directly related to the key quality aspects of life, namely social inclusion; within these targets, the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Condition (EU-SILC) headline indicators at risk-of-poverty or social exclusion and its components will be included in the budgeting of structural funds, one of the main instruments through which policy targets are attained. For this purpose, Directorate-General Regional Policy of the European Commission is aiming to use sub-national/regional level data (NUTS 2). Starting from this, the focus of the present paper is on the “regional dimension” of well-being. We propose to adopt a methodology based on the Empirical Best Linear Unbiased Predictor (EBLUP) with an extension to the spatial dimension (SEBLUP); moreover, we compare this small area technique with the cumulation method. The application is conducted on the basis of EU-SILC data from Austria and Spain. Results report that, in general, estimates computed with the cumulation method show standard errors which are smaller than those computed with EBLUP or SEBLUP. The gain of pooling SILC data over three years is, therefore, relevant, and may allow researchers to prefer this method.

Since July 2016, in all regions of Russia, it is planned to introduce the electricity tariffs with the social norm of consumption. The calculation method of the social norms of consumption for the different types of households is approved by the Government decree of the Russian Federation. The resolutions of the decree regulate the volume of electricity supply within a social norm not less than 70 % of the real volume of the supply of electric energy to the population. In this article, the analysis of the validity of the methods for calculating the social norm on the basis of the statistical analysis of the data on electricity consumption by Russian households is made. The purpose of this work is to develop an econometric model of electricity consumption by Russian households and to calculate reasonable social norms for different categories of households on the basis of this model. As the explanatory variables, the factors describing the size and living conditions of households were selected: the number of residents, the presence or absence of electric stove, the type of settlement (city or village), the climatic conditions of the region. The simulation results showed that according to the requirements of the social norm (at least 70 percent of the actual volume of electric energy delivery), the norms for households consisting of one person should be from 110 to 210 kWh depending on the living conditions. The necessary increment of social norms for the second, third and subsequent members of the households of different categories are also identified. The received values of social norms are not quite consistent with the values regulated by the legislatively approved method. For some types of households, the values are underestimated. The developed model considers the regional specific features of electricity consumption and can be useful for the calculation of the social norms of electricity consumption in the regions of the Russian Federation.

This paper explores the correlation between the degree of competition between higher education institutions (HEIs) and the efficiency of regional higher education systems using evidence from the Russian Federation. The choice of the regional system of higher education as a unit of analysis is explained by the features of the Russian system of higher education, especially by “closeness” in the borders of regions. We propose a special approach for the evaluation of the regional higher education system efficiency from the public administration perspective. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), we investigate the efficiency of higher education systems in the regions and compare the results with the extent of higher education competition within them. The results indicate that higher efficiency scores and higher competition between HEIs in Russian regions are positively correlated. Moreover, by introducing socio-economic context status as a grouping parameter, we are able to specify the conditions of this relationship. The study explores that correlation between efficiency and competition is stronger in developing and low-performing regions. At the same time, higher education systems in developed regions consist of different HEIs, which create a competitive environment, although their efficiency level varies considerably. Taking into account all limitations of the study, these results contain several important issues for policy-making and higher education research discussions. They challenge the universalistic assumptions for the direction of higher education development.

This article presents the results of the research of the application on a state level of the program management approach to the territorial development of small business. Studying the main mechanism of the state policy implementation in the sphere of small business on a regional level, the authors have revealed the necessity to take into account the territorial specificity while the government programs of small business development are being formed. The analysis of the national practice of utilizing the program management mechanism in the regional system of the government support of small entrepreneurship was conducted on the example of Omsk region. The results of the analysis have shown the inefficiency of the current support system for small business and have determined the need to create an integrated model of territorial programming, which would not only contribute to the qualitative development of small business, but also provide the functioning efficiency of program management mechanism. As a result, the authors have created the two-level model of the programming of the territorial development of small business, which allows to satisfy purposefully the needs of entrepreneurship taking into account the specificity of the internal and external environment of the region. The first level of the model is methodological one and it is based on the marketing approach (the concepts of place marketing and relationship marketing) to the operation of the program management mechanism. The second level of the model is methodical one. It offers the combination of the flexible methods of management of programming procedure (benchmarking, foresight, crowdsourcing and outsourcing). The given model raises the efficiency of the management decisions of the state structures in the sphere of small business. Therefore, it is interesting for the government authorities, which are responsible for the regional and municipal support programs of small business, as well as for the theorists and practitioners of public administration where the program management mechanism is just developing its methodological form and content. The developed model may become the basis for the methodologies of management of strategic planning system in Russia.

The subject-matter of the article is the research of the problems of economic and mathematical modelling of the green economy at the regional level. The purpose of the research is the substantiation and development of economic and mathematical tools for the modelling of economic and ecological systems at the regional level on the basis of the principles of the green economy. The hypothesis of the study is based on the thesis that in the conditions of the resource exhaustion and depletion of natural capital, the technogenic deposits as well as production waste and consumption can be considered as the resource base for modern production, whose use leads to the elimination of accumulated environmental damage and substitution of natural resources. In the article, the approaches to the system modelling problems are considered to develop the green economy at the level of the country and its regions. The relevance of the transition to a green economy is confirmed by the theoretical and practical research in the field of the cyclic development of socio-eco-economic systems. A number of formalized models and methods for solving current environmental-economic issues including the economic valuation of accumulated environmental damage, eco-economic assessment of the efficiency of natural resource substitution with resource-substitute are proposed as well as the choice of an optimal set of resources-substitutes taking into account the financial and natural resource constraints. The standard models of green growth are considered. These models take into account the exhaustion of natural resources, involvement of the resources of technogenic deposits in the economic circulation through the implementation of investment projects on the elimination of accumulated environmental damage. The results of the study may be used in the different regions of the country for the justification and implementation of investment projects in the framework of the Federal Target Program “Elimination of accumulated environmental damage” for 2015–2026.

Obviously, we face an economic crisis that dominates the headlines of daily newspapers, academic journals and features as the title of TV-and-radio casts alike. And, not withstanding political differences, there is widespread consensus that the economic crisis is only the tip of an iceberg. However, there is little readiness to go beyond the inherited fundamental assumptions of a “modern industrial capitalist market society”. The article argues that all the categories are increasingly under threat. The social quality, the quality of life and the noosphere paradigm of global social development offer space for considerations that question societal developments not only on the phenomenological level. Instead, the authors ventilate gnoseological, ontological and axiological prerequisites of sustainable global social development. The noosphere paradigm is enriched with the theories of social quality and the quality of life, thus contributing to the wider and diverse debates on what can be called people's humanistic socialism. In view of the complexity of the impending transition from the present to a future global society with people’s humanistic socialism, it is necessary to plan it thoroughly, beginning with the support of the processes and institutions that currently provide a seedbed; developing new transformational forms of the future features of global society has to go hand in hand with this. It makes sense to carry on with the conceptualization of questions bearing on the formation of nooshpheric social quality and its design.

The paper is dedicated to the study of the evolution of economic institutions in the resource-producing region, to the investigation of their specificity and institutional traps. As the initial data, the legal framework, the experience of the functioning of economic institutions and statistical data were used. The subject matter of the research is the influence of regional specificity on the evolution of economic institutions. The research topic is the analysis of the evolution, specificity and institutional traps of the economic institutions of the resource-producing region on the example of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug — Yugra. The purpose of the research is to identify the relationship between the regional specificity and the direction of the evolution of economic institutions. The hypothesis of the study is that the regional specificity has an impact on the evolution of economic institutions and contributes to the formation of institutional traps. The framework methodology of the work is a comparative institutional analysis. As a result, the stages of the evolution of economic institutions are determined, their regional specificity and institutional traps are revealed. The scientific input is in the revealing of the specificity of institutional traps at the regional level as well as the influence of specificity on the evolution of economic institutions. The author came to the conclusion that the specificity of the region's economy affects the specificity of institutions as well as the formation of institutional traps. At the same time, some traps have a system-wide character and do not depend on the specificity of the region; this applies to the basic economic institutions. The most strongly the regional specificity is appeared in the evolution of the economic institutions for development, whose institutional traps are in many respects predetermined by the regional specificity. The results can be applied by the public administration at the regional level for the development and introduction of amendments to the legislation and further research. There is still the question of what comes first — the regional economic institutions or the economic development of the region, that is necessary to study both the co-evolution regional institutions and regional economics. Also, more research is needed to assess the impact of institutions on the level of transaction costs of economic entities.

The article is devoted to a relevant problem of labour migration, the potentially possible threats and advantages of attracting and using of foreign migrant labour in the framework of the Russian economy are considered. The purpose of this work is to establish the how the migration processes influence over the current state of the Russian economy, and whether it is possible to meet the demand in the labour force by attracting labour migrants. The research method is the analysis of the statistical indicators of the Russian regions’ development, of demographic, migratory and financial situations in the Russian Federation. The results of the study are presented in the form of a quantitative assessment of the potential threats to the internal market due to the use of external migrant labour, which has already led to the Russian economic disruption, the devaluation of the Russian ruble, the growth of current account deficit, the load on the pension system of Russia. Therefore, we must not forget the positive aspects — rejuvenation of the age composition of the population, occupation of vacant jobs by the workers in the disadvantaged Russian regions, the increasing size of tax revenues to the Russian budget system by filing patents on employment activity. The presented results of the study can be used by public authorities in the migration policy, labour and social work for the development of the state programme stimulating internal and external migrants for employment in the regions with a shortage of manpower. The conducted research allows to define the relationship between labour migrants and economic activity of local population, to characterize the reasons of external labour migration and to analyse the consequences of migration for the host country.

The article is devoted to the relevant problems of educational migration flows both in the real and virtual environment. The article discusses the positive and negative experience with virtual platforms in Russia and abroad. Particular attention is paid to the cultural and cognitive characteristics of the students belonging to the Generation Z, which requires the creation of entirely different instruments for implementing the educational process. The authors propose the method of creation, control and evaluation of feedback in the process of virtual educational migration using the latest IT- technologies that are utilized to create ultra-fast feedback and allow to bring new technologies into the learning process. In this scheme, the student is no longer a passive listener, but an active creator of new knowledge. The methodical research toolkit includes the mathematical, engineering, information methods of processing the results, including computer simulation. The testing of methodological tools was held at the University of Economics in Bratislava (Slovakia). These results confirm the possibility of the new method of providing feedback.This enable to improve the training quality of students, who are the members of the educational migration flows. Moreover, the training and examining may start at courses on adaptation, enabling to pre-determine the necessary competencies. In addition, it is cost-effective to limit the real presence of foreign lecturers at the host university to a certain minimum, followed by the support for virtual feedback. However, the use of IT- technologies is not a sufficient factor in improving the quality of education and the level of progress achieved by the trainees, but it can be a good helper in the course of the examination, automation of the selected methods of control, as it is a more individualized approach to learning.

The subject-matter of this article is migration from Russia. The study deals with current aspects and new forms of emigration. The goal of this paper is to identify new patterns determining the emigration from Russia. The article views the emigration in a broad sense, including, in addition to classic emigration (i.e. leaving the home country for permanent residence in another country), various categories of return migration (labor migration, shuttle traders, seasonal migration, episodic migration, economic tourism, business migration, education abroad, etc.). With the emergence of these new forms and categories, there is a need to clarify the migration concepts. This analysis is built on a broad historical perspective on emigration, which has been a typical phenomenon for Russia over the last three centuries. The article is based on such economic theories, as the human capital theory, new economic theory of migration, Todaro’s economic theory of migration and other. In this article, a variety of methods are used, including historical analogy, statistical and mathematical approaches, sociological and econometric models. The article analyzes the patterns of modern emigration from Russia. It also considers certain aspects in the legal regulation of migration processes, with a focus on emigrants, including potential emigrants. In conclusion, the article notes the need for the state control of emigration processes. This means not so much the improvement of statistical records for this group of migrants, but rather specific government measures aimed at providing the state support to these categories of migrants in order to prevent the nonreturn migration. In other words, it is not aimed at banning the emigration (a measure, the adverse effects of which were noted as long ago as by Mikhail Lomonosov), but at providing the state support to these categories of migrants in order to prevent the non-return migration. The findings of this research can be used in improving the migration policy implemented, in particular, by the Federal Migration Service of Russia.

The subject matter of the research is the system of strategically focused financial analysis regarding an assessment of the financial condition of the enterprise. The hypothesis of the study is to assume the possibility of developing the financial and strategic model of the comprehensive assessment of the financial condition taking into account the integrated impact of environmental factors (general for the most Crimean health resorts). The methodology of the work is based on the most general principles of system analysis. The basic method of the research is the matrix method as the most common one for the system analysis. The graphical and statistical methods are also used. The result of the work is the comprehensive method of financial analysis developed as a model based on the matrix relation between the original visual profile of the internal environment and the dynamic type of external environment. The difference of the visual model of financial state from the existing graphic methods consists in fixing of the new strategic types of financial state on the basis of financial stability in visually grouped areas of financial coefficients in theme groups (configurationsprofiles) with certain combinations of the forms and sizes. The new analytical instrument of «frigate model» can be applied in all analytical activities of the health resorts departments related to the analytical assessment of financial state. The advantage of «frigate model» in comparison with a classical method of the forming of the types of financial condition is that the proposed model allows to allocate more differentiated types and in addition, to identify the stages of enterprise life cycle based on the relative indicators of the analysis of financial state (objects-coefficients), and not just on the financial management. Through this, the consistency of interaction between the financial analysis and management is achieved.

The article studies the ways and level of the protection of the rights of shared construction participants in Russia, and the utilization of builders liability insurance for the purpose to identify the problem regions and the prospects of the development of mechanisms ensuring the liability of developers. The basis for the article was the study of real estate developers in 15 cities with the population over 1 million people. The article presents the data of the types of fund raising for building housing in the cities with the population over 1 million people, the regional differentiation in this parameter is highlighted. The article has explored the implementation of mechanisms ensuring the liability of developers for transfering premises to the shareholders. The main factors considered in the article are the form of registration of the relationship between a developer and an individual — an investor, as well as the mechanisms ensuring the liability of developers. It is shown that in some regions, the level of protection of the participants of shared construction is low. The mechanisms ensuring the liability of developers including the legal requirements for liability insurance and guarantee of credit institution are systematized. In the article, the key term of the liability insurance of builders for default on obligations or improperly performing the obligations on the delivery of residential properties, and also the condition of the guarantee of credit institution on the delivery of residential properties are considered. The regional features of how people participate in the construction of housing are described in the context of mechanisms ensuring the liability of developers. The use of various ensuring mechanisms, the differences in insurance by the commercial organizations and by joining the mutual society are shown. The results of the study can be used at the correction of the state and regional policy in the field of housing construction. In the article, it is shown that in the future, the strengthening of the value of financial mechanisms providing the liability insurance of developers should be expected in the connection of the growth of a number of incomplete housing for which the law provides a compulsory liability insurance of developers or security of credit organization.

In the article, the effect of interaction between the development level of regional innovative capacity and its innovative and institutional infrastructure is traced. The research objective is to prove the hypothesis of the essential impact of the regional institutional and information environment on its innovative capacity, the identification of the effect of their systemsupplementing interaction. From the standpoint of the methodology of system-structural research its components are allocated within the innovative capacity of the regional innovative system (RIS), they are presented by a corporate sector, the structures of small and medium business, and also by the subjects of ethnic economy. The use of essential-analytical and functional approaches has revealed the leading role of intangible assets of the corporate sector of the economy in region’s innovative development. The correlation and regression analysis has confirmed the essential dependence of the innovative activity of the region on the systemic completeness of the development of its institutional and infrastructure environment. The results of the research have shown that to ensure the system-supplementing effect of the interaction between innovative capacity and the factors of its activation in the sphere of institutional infrastructure, it is necessary to consistently develop its operational base — the institutions of RIS. The recommendations reasoned in the article may be used for the development of regional innovation strategies, the formation of innovation clusters. The three-component structure of the innovation cluster of the region is offered; its integrating function in relation to the innovative components of the regional sectoral clusters is determined. The factors constraining the growth of innovation activity of the regional economic subjects are revealed and the recommendations on the development of the institutional and infrastructural environment of the Rostov region are substantiated.

The article examines the motivations for Master’s students’ choice of individual trajectories. In the course of their studies, the students’ trajectories have educational, scientific and professional aspects. Educational, scientific and professional students’ trajectories determine a system of interaction between master’s students and other people in the context of educational process (teachers, other students) and beyond it (employers, research workers from Russian and foreign universities). The authors emphasize the importance of studying the master’s students’ individual trajectories from both scientific (identifying the peculiarities of students’ trajectories formation and development) and practical points of view (investments to master’s students to enhance the professional competence in the regional labour market). The authors have analysed the master’s students’ individual trajectories on the basis of monitoring data obtained from the survey carried out in February and December 2014. The master’s students’ assessments allowed to identify what educational experience they were able to get during the education and whether their experience met their expectations. The master’s students’ economic expectations are examined during the implementation of educational and professional trajectories. The analysis of the results has shown that the biggest gap between the expectations and the experience of the master’s students was found according to the criteria related to the student’s scientific trajectory and opportunities to participate in the internationalisation processes. The results of the research may be used to improve the master’s programmes taking into account the revealed master’s students’ expectations, as well as to ensure highly qualified professionals in the labour market and for the effective investments to the human capital by the government authorities.

The paper established a number of "stylized facts", one of which is a confirmation of the S. Kuznets’ hypothesis of the nonlinear dependence between the degree of inequality in income distribution and welfare economic systems on the example of a group of Russian regions for the period 2002–2012. It is shown that, for a given sample, the welfare and economic growth factors amplify their influence on inequality in income distribution in the post-crisis period. The monotonous growth of income inequality which was observed before the crisis of 2008 is slowing in the process of raising the per capita gross regional product (GRP) during the post-crisis period, and for the foreseeable future, in some regions, its direction can be reversed, while maintaining a trend of socio-economic development. Despite the persistence over time of a convex nature of S. Kuznets’ curve for Russian regional data, its parameters changed during the reporting 2002–2012 period. The maximum point of the curve shifts to the left, its convexity increases. These facts indicate that the income inequality growth of the Russian regions’ as a result of growth of per capita GRP is slowing. For some regions in the post-crisis period, the income inequality does not grow with the growth of per capita GRP, or it even reduces. This fact can be attributed to the implementation of the Russian federal socially oriented projects and programs in recent years. The results can be used for the development of regional economic policy in order to regulate the level of income distribution inequality in the regions of Russia.

The purpose of the article is to compare the new term for the Russian economy — «priority development areas (PDA)» with the existing concepts of «special economic zone (SEZ)» and «regional development zones (RDZ)». In the article, the characteristics of territories with a special tax regime and its benefits for investors are examined. The subject matter of the research are the conditions that shape the favourable environment of investment activity due to the provided state support in newly created priority development areas in comparison with the existing tools, such as special economic zones and zones of territorial development. It is hypothesized that there is a direct link between the existence of tax benefits and other forms of the state support of investors provided in a territory with a special tax regime, and the attraction of investors to the region. In the study, the method of comparative analysis and statistical grouping methods are used. The common features of the analyzed types of territories are revealed according to certain characteristics; these are the federal status and the special regime of the investment activity implementation. In the article, their distinctive features such as the terms of creation, management of territories and measures of the state support are substantiated. The results of the research presented in the article confirm that the residents of newly created priority development areas in the Far East have more competitive and preferential terms for business in comparison with the residents of special economic zones and zones of territorial development in the Russian Federation. In the article, the administrative risks of the transfer of authority for the management of territories to the private companies are substantiated. The absence of interrelation between the declared specialization of the created priority development areas with the special regime of business activity and the types of economic activity determined by the resolutions of the Russian government for the certain territories where the preferential legal regime works, is revealed. This increases the insufficient tax yield in the regions as the benefits are granted to non-priority activities. The proposals for the legal response to the revealed problems have been formulated. The results of the research may be used by the federal and regional authorities in forming the proposals for updating the laws and other regulations in the sphere of the creation of the territories with the special regime for investors.

The subject matter of the article is the development of theoretical positions and methodical approaches to the integral evaluation of the financial state of the region’s metallurgical enterprises. The purpose is to show the possibility of dividing the integral evaluation into separate elements for using this tool to build individual models based on the forecasting of the various coordinates of the financial position of enterprise. The hypothesis of the study is based on the objective need to improve the integral evaluation of the financial position of enterprises. This involves the modernization of existing theoretical and methodological approaches to the increase of the quality of analysis by eliminating certain shortcomings of discriminant models in order to clarify the algorithm of constructing the integral index. The methodological bases of systemic approach and mathematical modelling in economics are applied: the methods of financial analysis, grouping, abstraction, comparison which give the possibility of determining the financial indicators needed to build the predictive models of financial state; the methods of correlation and regression analysis, which allow to improve the integral value and to build the mathematical forecasting models. With the purpose of improving the integral evaluation of the financial condition of enterprise, the geometric interpretation is used, which involves the dividing of the integral indicator on the individual elements. The special feature of the proposed methodological approach consists in the implementation rules for the certain procedures of the evaluation of financial position and generalization of the analysis results. The proposed approach can be used by financial analysts to elaborate the strategic plans of company development and structure optimization of financial resources. This research allows to define the quantitative influence of separate parameters on the general assessment of the financial position for the purpose of its forecasting, which is understood as the system of the evidence-based probabilistic assumptions of the basic and alternative structural changes of the enterprise’s assets and liabilities.

The article focuses on assessing the effectiveness of investment projects implemented on the principles of public-private partnership (PPP). This article puts forward the hypothesis that the inclusion of multiplicative economic effects will increase the attractiveness of public-private partnership projects, which in turn will contribute to the more efficient use of budgetary resources. The author proposed a methodological approach and methods of evaluating the economic efficiency of PPP projects. The author’s technique is based upon the synthesis of approaches to evaluation of the project implemented in the private and public sector and in contrast to the existing methods allows taking into account the indirect (multiplicative) effect arising during the implementation of project. In the article, to estimate the multiplier effect, the model of regional economy — social accounting matrix (SAM) was developed. The matrix is based on the data of the Sverdlovsk region for 2013. In the article, the genesis of the balance models of economic systems is presented. The evolution of balance models in the Russian (Soviet) and foreign sources from their emergence up to now are observed. It is shown that SAM is widely used in the world for a wide range of applications, primarily to assess the impact on the regional economy of various exogenous factors. In order to clarify the estimates of multiplicative effects, the disaggregation of the account of the “industry” of the matrix of social accounts was carried out in accordance with the All-Russian Classifier of Types of Economic Activities (OKVED). This step allows to consider the particular characteristics of the industry of the estimated investment project. The method was tested on the example of evaluating the effectiveness of the construction of a toll road in the Sverdlovsk region. It is proved that due to the multiplier effect, the more capital-intensive version of the project may be more beneficial in terms of future tax revenue. The proposed method can be used by the state and municipal authorities in the evaluation and substantiation of projects on a public-private partnership.