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Many countries seek to improve their pension systems by introducing corporate and individual savings plans to address the challenges of demography, social security, and economy. However, the establishing of a long-term, reliable savings system encounters multiple impediments. The retrospective analysis of Russian pension reforms offers some recommendations on solving the typical problems faced by reformers. Thus, in 2002 the Russian pension system was implemented by a mandatory savings pillar, which 20 years later the Ministry of Finance substituted by voluntary savings. As this period appeared shorter than the average life span, this measure proved ineffective in increasing pension payouts for future retirees. The frequent regulatory changes and the shrinking workforce coverage as the state prioritized the welfare of the current pension recipients also infringed upon the interests of future retirees. Pension savings investments were further affected by the economic policy aimed at the minimal return requirements which resulted in a more conservative asset allocation strategy and inefficient active management in non-state pension funds. The study demonstrates that policy actions to overcome these impediments and to raise the replacement rates for future retirees should include (a) steady regulations within a pension savings system of no shorter than 40 years; (b) the savings pillar covering no less than 80% of the workforce; and (c) the asset allocation strategy involving a bigger share of equity, longer time horizon and clear benchmarks. These recommendations can be applied to emerging market economies concerned with improving and reforming their pension systems.

Despite the increasing role of the state sector in the economies of many countries, the criteria and approaches to comparative analysis and evaluation of the performance of state-owned enterprises are still ambiguous, as are the methods for cross-country comparisons of the scale of state presence in the economy. The purpose of the article is to systematize the main approaches to measurement of the size of the state sector using Russian economy as an example, as well as to substantiate the significance of this information in assessing the performance of companies with different forms of ownership in the investment and managerial decision-making process. The problems of the information environment, such as the fragmentation of data, incomplete publication of company reports, and the specifics of national databases in different countries, complicate and distort empirical research. Meanwhile, there are significant differences in the performance of state-owned and private companies, as well as in their investment attractiveness to investors in the financial market. International approaches to solving these problems consist in the formation of consolidated and unified databases, inclusion of stateowned companies in the system of national accounts, and creation of guidelines on uniform principles of transparency and accessibility of financial reports. Given the growing restrictions on access to information along with the trend towards the growth of the state sector in Russia, there is an increasing need to develop a unified methodology to measure its scale and assess its impact on the economy, investment and stock market. The proposed methodology and the obtained empirical results allow not only to comprehensively assess the contribution of the state sector in creating GDP and increasing the capitalization of the stock market, but also to conduct comparative studies of performance indicators and stock returns in companies with different ownership structure, as well as an international empirical analysis of the state sector impact on the economies and the financial and economic performance of companies.