Search

This article provides an overview of the alcohol reform in the Russian Empire during the second half of the 19th century based on the key publications in «Ekonomicheskii Zhurnal» (‘Economic Journal’). Crop distillation on preferential terms is considered in detail. The statistics resulting from the changes in the drinking business over the studied period are analyzed. The assessment of the reform’s success and effectiveness in fiscal and budgetary matters by A.P. Subbotin is discussed. The contradictory basis of the wine monopoly is shown: while reducing the rates of «public drunkenness», it also retained the revenue from alcohol sales to the state budget. The alcohol policies pursued by Western European countries and the USA in the 19th century are outlined. The findings reveal that the alcohol reform in the Russian Empire was influenced by these foreign models. A.P. Subbotin’s position that the government sought to maximize the fiscal potential of alcohol production and trade is justified. The legislative framework of the state policy on the sale of alcoholic beverages is summarized. It is concluded that A.P. Subbotin was the first to highlight the necessity of taking into account the regional diversity of the Russian Empire when developing and implementing alcohol-related policies.

The paper analyzes the concept and indicator of vertical fiscal imbalance (VFI) and its capability in assessing the creditworthiness (debt sustainability) of Russian regions. It is found that VFI does not replace other indicators of debt and broader fiscal sustainability, but complements them by providing diagnostics of the balance of incoming and outgoing intergovernmental transfers in addition to the balance of expenditures and revenues (budget deficit). Vertical fiscal imbalance has a close inverse pair correlation with the share of own (tax and non-tax) revenues and fiscal capacity, and can therefore reflect creditworthiness (along with the amount of debt and capital expenditures). Technically, it is advisable to carry out an analysis using VFI with a recalculation accounting for subventions. It is concluded that vertical fiscal imbalance is an important element of the methodology of diagnosing fiscal sustainability. Further study of features of the concept, as well as the use of VFI in the analysis and regulation of intergovernmental relations, suggests a promising outlook.

The authors investigate the prospects for the spatial development of modern Russia highlighting the supporting regions considered in the budgetary aspect. The relevance of the study is due to the insufficient evidence for the effectiveness of the current policy of “equalization”, as well as the need for breakthrough growth of the Russian economy within the framework of national development goals. The present paper aims to identify one of the key elements of the supporting framework of the spatial organization of Russia in terms of the level of fiscal capacity. The research methodology is based on the use of complex, statistical and comparative analyses. The authors used official data of Rosstat on the population, tax and non-tax revenues, gratuitous receipts in 2010 and 2019 by regions of Russia. The authors highlight the key aspects of the spatial development of the Russian economy in the regional context: human capital development, economic development, the functioning of spatial structures of various types, fiscal capacity, environmental component, location of information and communication infrastructure, and geopolitical position. The influence of the fiscal capacity parameter on the sustainable socio-economic development of the region is justified. The fiscal capacity index of the constituent entities of Russia is analyzed at the end of 2010 and 2019, the main trends are identified. The study presents a cartographic visualization of the Russian regions by per capita fiscal capacity for tax and non-tax revenues of the consolidated budgets in 2019. The authors carried out a comparative analysis of the revenues of consolidated regional budgets on the macro-regional level, as a result of which the leading regions were identified and their budget parameters described.The present paper outlines one of the key elements of the supporting framework of Russian spatial organization from the point of view of fiscal capacity and identifies potential regions supporting spatial development in the context of macro-regions. The authors conclude that the supporting framework of the spatial organization of Russia, formed by the level of fiscal capacity, characterizes the financial potential of the territories, which can contribute to the development of interregional cooperation, including through the use of mechanisms for ensuring “horizontal” inter-budgetary transfers and budget loans. The prospect for further research on this topic consists in assessing and shaping other elements of the spatial development of Russia and identifying, by uniting them, supporting regions that can stimulate the development of not only the semi-periphery and periphery of their macro-regions but also of the entire country.

Three basic methods are employed to assess the fiscal capacity of territories for fiscal equalization: the representative tax system method, the historical data method, and the macroeconomic indicator method. Each of these methods has its own advantages and disadvantages, while the historical data method is considered the most accurate in terms of approximation of the values of fiscal capacity to actual budget revenues. The aim of the article is to compare the accuracy of assessing Russian regions’ fiscal capacities through various methods, as well as by combining them, and to propose measures to change the current methodology for fiscal capacity assessment. The calculations presented in this article for the Russian regions for 2018 show that, in fact, the representative tax system and historical data methods have a comparable degree of accuracy, and the macroeconomic indicator method is only slightly inferior to them. At the same time, while assessing the fiscal capacity in regard to individual taxes, both the method of historical data and the method of representative tax system may have an advantage in the accuracy of the assessment, the method of macroeconomic indicators being inferior to them (except for the case of corporate income tax). As the author’s calculations show, it is possible to improve the accuracy of assessing regional fiscal capacity through the following measures: (1) not taking into account data for the current financial year, that is, taking into account data for only two reporting years; (2) not adjusting income tax and personal income tax fiscal capacity to the rate of tax revenue growth; (3) using the method of macroeconomic indicators for mineral extraction tax and other tax fiscal capacity.

The article considers the main approaches to improving the financial incentives of investment activity in municipalities. Are summarized changes to the legislation on the formation ofthe revenue base the municipal budgets. Suggest ways to improve theformation of the expenditure part of local budgets, aimed at activation of investment and innovation at the municipal level.

The Russian Federation has a high degree of the socio-economic differentiation among its regions, which objectively requires large-scale redistribution of funds between them. Intergovernmental transfers are one of the main tools of this redistribution. Other things being equal, an increase in transfers to the region leads to an increase in the unpaid goods’ consumption by its residents, which ultimately affects their welfare. Moreover, these changes stimulate interregional migration. Therefore, the resulting change in welfare depends on multiple economic forces. Based on a computable model of general equilibrium with two regions, I assessed the effects of intergovernmental transfers for the Khabarovsk Krai’ economy. The specific feature of the model is the behaviour of regional governments, which optimize the regional tax rate and budget expenditures in a non-cooperative game to maximize the utility function of resident households. The latter are completely mobile between regions and consume two types of goods, private and state-provided ones, under given budgetary restrictions. I carried out simulation estimations for two scenarios differing in motivation incentives of households to change their residency. Calculations have shown that a sharp increase (more than twofold) in the federal budget grants may lead to a significant inflow of labour resources to the recipient region, but changes in welfare, wages and per capita household consumption will be minor. The reason is the behaviour of the regional governments, balancing the households’ consumer basket by changing the volume of local government spending. Ultimately, the actions of regional authorities seeking to maximize the residents’ welfare will result in such changes in tax revenues, which will compensate the increase in households’ consumption of the state-provided goods by the decrease in funding of the same goods from the regional budget.

The article is devoted to the development of classification of the subordinate entities of the Russian Federation based on the data of the State statistical reporting for 2005-2011 and aimed at assessment of financial solvency of regions concerning budget backing, attracting of investments, promoting export-import relationship between foreign countries and their fiscal policy in the relations with the federal center. The main achievement is a new approach to formation of integrated characteristics (indexes) which work equally well during different periods of development of the economy (range 2005-2011 contains upswing, crisis and an initial stage of its surmounting). As a result 4 indexes reflecting separate sides of affluence of regions were designed, and common criteria of classification were created on their base. As a result all the regions were divided into 6 well interpreted classes. Shows non-conditionality the classification by regressions on indicators of well-being and evaluated regression of recent on financial indicators.

The paper provides the estimation of budget sufficiency of the region’s municipal formations. The municipalities of Kemerovo region are the object of the research. Problems affecting the budget sufficiency of municipal formations at the expense of own income were identified and possible solutions are proposed, which, in the author’s opinion, will significantly increase the level of budget sufficiency of municipal formations’ own revenues.

The privatization process and the entire economy in the last decade in Bosnia and Herzegovina have strongly established small and medium-sized enterprises as the basic form of economic organization. That is to sa , the economic structure of Bosnia and Herzegovina, besides enterprises concerning electric power and mining industry and infrastructure , is made mostly of small and medium -sized enterprises formed with private capital. The development of small and medium-sized enterprises has high priority within political plans of Bosnia and Herzegovina, while process of merging in European Union provides new market chances for small and medium-sized enterprises within competing sectors. Given these facts, the paper will elaborateto to what extent institutional support, fiscal burden and incentive mechanisms are are present in small and medium-sized enterprise sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as to what extent the mentioned factors have impact on this secto. However, the focus will be laid on the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Republic of Srpska. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]