Damage from environmental pollution (damage from violation of environmental legislation) is a basic category in environmental-economic research and is assessed during the development of project documentation, environmental audit, evaluation assessment of the effectiveness of investment projects, environmental risks insurance. At the same time, variety of existing assessment approaches necessitates methodological and methods’ streamlining in the field under consideration. The purpose of the study is to review and systematize national and foreign experience in assessing damage from environmental pollution. Research methods: ecological-economic analysis, content analysis, information modeling, statistical analysis. The key findings of the study: identification of contradictions in the field of understanding and assessment of environmental pollution damage category, streamlining of methodological principles and methodology support in the field under consideration, development of approaches’ classification for calculating damage from pollution depending on the methods used and the directions of assessment, systematization of methodology support based on a wide range of criteria. Scope: environmental audit and expertise, environmental insurance, as well as regulatory documents of ministries (Ministry of natural resources, Ministry of ecology) and departments (Rostechnadzor, Rosvodresursy, etc.), scientific and educational publications on the assessment of anthropogenic load.

Competition development in production and banking sector of the economy, financial markets, and public administration based on digital and other innovative technologies in XXI century is associated with a disbalance in institutional interests of various entities, including banks and enterprises. The article offers indicators, criteria and methods to assess this imbalance. Further, the authors intend to report the methods that will allow to harmonize the institutional interests of the latter two subjects to enhance their efficiency on the basis of these assessments. In-depth analysis of the studies in Russia and abroad allows us to identify seven new terms for the development of institutional economics: “institutional interest” (II); “imbalance and balance of institutional interests” (III and BII); “index of intuitional interests” (III); “criterion of institutional interests” (CII);”balance and imbalance level of institutional interests“(BLII and ILII); “potential growth balance and imbalance level of institutional interests” (PGBLII and PGBILII)”. This provided a theoretical foundation to develop a new method and propose a new scientific category “supermarket of indices of institutional interests” (SIII). SIII is represented as a multi-level table including more than 425 indices on the basis of which CII is calculated. BLII (ILII) is offered to be measured through membership function according to Harrington scale using fuzzy III of different forms. Final assumptions of the method and its testing will be reported in further publications of the authors.

In this article the authors question the effectiveness of Russia’s government policy aimed at transition from demand economy to economy of supply. The authors argue that Russian financial policymakers incorrectly treat cyclical budget deficit as structural. Such approach creates an additional barrier to an aggregate demand growth in Russia’s economy, which still remains in recession. Revival of financial policymakers’ trend to excessive accumulation in the National Welfare Fund, post-election cuts in budget social spending and infrastructure investment together with extremely high interest rates pose a considerable threat to the national security. Revealing the effect of restrictive fiscal and monetary policies on deepening the recession, the authors identify the growth dilemma for Russia’s economy — either an inevitable halt or a radical shift to a new quality.

The last decades have been marked by the emergence of non-standard forms of employment and labour market precarity in most countries of the world. The paper provides insight into new modes and forms of employment as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the labour market configuration. The aim of this research is to examine various problems identified during the lockdown and to make recommendations intended to protect the labour market in case of emergency. The authors applied methods of classification, comparative analysis, system analysis and scientific observation. The findings of the research include the differentiation between modes and forms of employment, taxonomy of non-standard forms of employment that makes it possible to examine current changes, factors influencing the emergence of new forms of employment, analysis of labour market transformation in the time of a pandemic, measures which have to be taken at macro-, meso- and micro-levels in order to prepare for emergencies in the labour market.

The article is based on the research in mobile applications markets. The distribution of market power in these markets depends on the ability of a digital ecosystem’s owner to control the handling of mobile applications inside the ecosystem. The degree of this control is determined by the substitutability of different application stores as necessary facilities for the access to mobile applications. The authors provide the survey-based empirical estimates of such substitutability for Apple’s mobile application store — App Store. The results of further tests for market boundaries delineation confirm the embeddedness of final users in Apple’s ecosystem in absence of feasible opportunities to change the operating system and, consequently, the application store. The findings explain the degree of Apple’s market power and provide grounds for antitrust intervention.

The article analyzes the practical aspects of the functioning of some barriers to entry in the era of digital transformation of industry markets. It is noted that under the influence of digitalization processes, both positive changes in the mechanism of market operation are recorded, as well as a number of negative circumstances that have become a serious challenge for antitrust agencies. Control of big data, initial investment in digital infrastructure, and broad technological capabilities of digital blocking of users, against the background of powerful network effects and pronounced economies of scale, carry the potential for significant growth in the market power of individual firms. The article substantiates that such trends theoretically pose a significant threat to competition, and can form new types of entry barriers. At the same time, practical arguments are presented that indicate the ambiguity of this position.

In this article highlights the question of the phenomenon of remote work and its ability to involve a large number of people in labor relations and employment. The authors outline the problematic field of the formation of the effects of remote work on social, labor and demographic aspects. For this purpose, were characterized the main indicators of the Russian labor market and its informal sector, the unevenness of the population density in the regions of Russia, which can change, including under the direct influence of distance employment of people who do not migrate for job search. Analyzed the readiness of labor market subjects for this type of employment. And by this, are offered methodological approaches to the development of employment policy at the national and regional levels, taking into account the expansion and opportunities of remote employment.

Problem statement. Drawing on macroeconomic analysis (2011-2019), the author formulates the key problems in the functioning of retail segment of the national payment system: a) differentiation of regions according to the degree of payment infrastructure development; b) disproportion in the availability of trace elements of the payment infrastructure; c) high cost of acquiring services. The underlying scientific hypothesis is the possibility to overcome the above-mentioned problems by introducing retail payments using QR codes. The study examines economic relations arising in calculations using QR codes in Russia’s retail payment system. The methodological base of the study includes theoretical assumptions of banking management, as well as a problem-oriented approach. The study identifies a range of economic problems in the implementation of QR settlements in Russia which include: the need to upgrade mobile banking; banks’ lack of interest in promoting QR code settlements due to fears of lower transaction returns; a decrease in citizens’ interest in cashless payments caused by a contraction in bank loyalty programs; the inertia of entrepreneurs unwilling to switch from cash-based interaction with customers; the inertia of some customers and their lack of financial literacy; cyber threats; risks of unfair behavior of buyers. The author offers and justifies the ways to overcome them. The findings may help improve state regulation in Russia’s financial and banking sector.

Modern trends characterized by increasing Russian household debt against the stagnation of real income of the population demonstrate the importance of analytical tools within the regulator. It helps identify the level of debt burden in household sector and to develop an analytical toolkit that makes it possible to reveal debt burden. The paper uses the methods of statistic and graphical analysis as well as comparative and GAP-analysis. The empirical analysis is based on data of the Federal State Statics Service and Bank of Russia over a period of 1.01.2007–1.01.2019. The study develops the methodology to create an indicator for household sector debt burden both on macro- and micro-level. Based on the methodology, we develop a new financial stability index of household sector and its calculation algorithm. We offer the evaluation method of threshold value of this index and determine its quantitative value. The findings concerning debt burden level in Russia’s household sector drawn on the basis of this indicator confirm its suitability for using as an additional diagnostic tool of Russia’s financial stability.

The article traces the impact of innovation on employment and workers income during industrial revolutions. The aim of the study is to identify the business model that contributes to improving the well-being and reducing negative impact of innovative transformations on employees. To achieve this goal, we analyze: the conceptions of industrial revolutions; the “Engels pause”, which arose during the First Industrial Revolution as a “surge” in inequality due to the contradiction between productivity growth and profit, on the one hand, and the stagnation of workers’ real incomes, on the other; the effect of replacing manual labor with automated one; the problems of technological unemployment; the digital business model of sharing economy. The findings report conclusions concerning the change in economic development paradigm as a result of the replacement of classical consumption models by sharing economy business model, on the prospects of the sharing economy business model in the context of its ability to solve employment problems, overcome technological unemployment and increase employees’ income. The achieved results can be useful for policymakers and corporate structures that design innovative development strategies. 

 Innovations in management is one of the most relevant research topics within the global academic community, and the one that encourages the development of multinational companies. The purpose of this article is to examine the key sources of managerial innovations within Russian and multinational companies operating on the Russian market. The empirical study is based on a sample of over 1,000 employees from nearly 800 companies operating in Moscow and the Moscow Region The findings show the importance of “internal know-how” and “access to consulting services” as the key drivers of managerial innovations for companies operating on the Russian market. “Collaboration with other Russian players” is limited mainly to Russian companies. The “collaboration with multinational players” is an underdeveloped source of managerial innovations among Russian companies, resulting in the slowdown of Russian managerial practices’ development. The analysis traces the correlation between managerial innovations’ drivers and the type of economic activity, size of business and the degree of internationalization. The study reveals specific features that contribute to overall understanding of the research topic and its implications.