The paper focuses on main economic instruments for greenhouse gas emissions regulation (carbon tax, cap-and-trade, hybrid instruments) and aims at revealing the possible ways of emissions regulation in Russia. The main objective is to identify criteria of instrument choice and develop the framework of optimal instrument design required for establishing national system of greenhouse gas emissions regulation in Russia. First of all, the main outcome of the paper is that the choice of instrument is secondary to the establishment of the quantitative target of emissions reduction: with the current target, the use of any economic instrument is meaningless. Secondly, under current conditions of uncertain economic and technological pathway, critical dependence on energy prices along with institutional underdevelopment of Russia, the optimal system should contain the elements of price regulation. It should also be simple and transparent. Carbon tax is therefore considered to become the possible option, although, being not just the add-on to the fiscal system, but an integral component of large-scale low-carbon development strategy of Russia.

The article analyzes the main foreign approaches to the interpretation of the «sustainable development» definition, the directions for the formation of various concepts, programs, political attitudes based on the definition and ideas of sustainable development, identifies shortcomings of the most common approaches and concepts. An overview of the main approaches and theories of sustainable development is compiled, their classification is proposed, a spatial model of the conceptual areas of the concept of «sustainable development» and spheres of its application is presented. The study concluded that the alternative approaches to understanding the role of the environment in the existence of mankind, to the assessment of both the impact of industrial and agricultural production and the results of people’s livelihoods (especially in the context of a sharp increase of urbanization rate) on the global environmental situation, have led to the formation of various concepts of sustainable development that form the basis of national strategies and programs of sustainable development. As a result, the ideas, and the very concept of sustainable development, are increasingly becoming a field of disagreements and contradictions between states and individual regions of the world, rather than a common platform for combining efforts to solve global problems of mankind.

By default, it is assumed that competition policy, and especially antimonopoly control of mergers is subjected to the universal principles of preventing the threat of competition restrictions. However, the mergers approval policy in particular sector can be subordinated to specific objectives. In the article, based on the analysis of data of mergers decisions in the motor fuel sector by Russian Federation Federal Antimonopoly Service regional offices in 2010-2015, it was shown that the decisions were consistently subjected to the objective of maintaining the share of independent retailers of petrol in regional markets.

The development of information and communication technologies has contributed to the fact that the telecommunication industry has become one of the strategic sectors of the economy on which the functioning of other branches of the economy depends. Therefore, the objective of the study was to determine the factors that influence the competitiveness of telecommunications companies and shape the image of the future telecommunication sector as a whole. The article analyzes two theoretical approaches to the definition of competitiveness: static and dynamic. Due to the importance of the dynamic approach for determining the competitiveness for the telecommunication market, the main internal and external factors affecting telecommunication companies nowadays and having a significant effect in future were identified. External factors were determined using STEEPV-analysis. For internal factors, the following classification was proposed: technological, organizational and marketing innovations. Among the external factors, the digitalization of the economy and society becomes the most important for telecommunication companies, technological innovations are among the internal factors. The factors revealed during the research can be used for foresight of the telecommunications sector of Russia, the definition of scenario conditions for forecasting the development of information and communication technologies, the formation of a strategic policy of telecommunication companies.

Anti-corruption and competition policies intersect at certain regulators and at the goalsetting. Under different conditions effects of codirectional interaction and contrariety can occur. In this connection it is necessary to determine the factors of anti-corruption tools and antitrust policies interinfluence. This article focuses on generalization of available foreign studies, where relationship between indicators of corruption and competition are analyzed. The main objective of the study is to identify factors that influence the correlation between the levels of competition and corruption. In addition, the paper deals with the problem of choosing indicators of corruption and competition for targeting and selecting a set of competition and anti-corruption measures. Study findings can be used as guidelines for the competition authority and other regulators, whose activities are aimed at reducing the level of corruption.

In this paper we present the results of the analysis of the population change in nonmetropolitan city municipalities by components and concentration of population in the regions of the Central Federal District in 2011-2016. On the basis of municipal statistics, 281 municipalities were investigated, their typologization was developed in accordance with the contribution of various components to population dynamics. The article discusses the limitations of municipal statistics. The methods of average values, the balance equation, and the measures of population concentration are used. The main conclusions confirm the trends of population decline at the second stage of demographic policy, territorial unevenness and concentration of population in administrative centers and the closest settlements to them. Less than 2% of the municipalities in question demonstrate both natural and migratory growth, and in 70% of municipalities both migration and natural components make a contribution to population reduction. The relatively high proportion of the elderly population was observed in the studied municipalities; crude birth and death rates were worse than the average in the district.

This article presents the research methodology of cyclical fluctuations, which observed on the Russian labor market. The paper defines cyclical fluctuations as reactions of labor market macroparameters, expressed in variations of trend-cycles from trend. It introduced a conceptual framework, appropriate for studying cyclical fluctuations. Proposed methodological approach to the study of cyclical fluctuations on the Russian labor market includes: the choice of labor market macroparameters with an account of Russian statistics’ limitations; the decomposition of time series data; the construction of models using statistical methods and econometric tools; the identification of cyclical reaction’s key points (entry point, point bottom and the starting point of recovery), its depth and duration; and, after all, the comparative analysis of cyclical and seasonal variations of time series data. Presented methodology allows evaluating the presence of Russian labor market macroparameters’ cyclical reactions and analyzing how significantly different the cyclical nature of the Russian labor market from traditional models of labor market’s cyclical reaction.

The paper aims to study the nature of risk management in the context of the quality management system. Through historical and logical methods of research, we analyze the stages of formation and development of ideas about risk and its impact to economic activity. We consider different definitions of risks that were formulated by economists and presented in international standards, and analyze key moments which characterize the economic content of risk. Based on the considered approaches we propose the author’s definition of risk. Further, attention is paid to different risk classifications, and we analyze most known approaches to risk classification. As an alternative approach, we propose an authorial classification of risks based on key processes of the organization’s quality management system. The consideration of risks by the quality management allows, on the one hand, to integrate risk management into the existing enterprise management system, on the other hand, to react more effectively to possible changes and to use a unified management mechanism. The results of the research can be applied in practice to improve the quality management system of organizations in various business areas and to form a risk management system within the organization.

The degree of asymmetry of power is one of the key factors affecting the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee. The development of strategies for building relations should correspond to the legitimacy of the measures taken, as well as the costs of harmonization that arise in connection with a decrease in the adequacy of power relations between the subjects of relations. This article reveals the main factors that determine the legitimacy of power asymmetry, the consequences of not legitimate requirements described, as well as the costs of choosing different strategies on the part of the franchisor. The purpose of this article is to prove the inevitability of the emergence of power asymmetry in the relationship between the franchisor and the franchisee, as well as a theoretical description of the influence of asymmetry on their relationships. The results of the article can be used by franchisors in formulating strategies for building relationships with franchisees.