Search

Subject. The article addresses mechanisms to stimulate public-private partnership projects (PPP projects) in the principal-agent model in China. Objectives. Using the principal-agent model, we consider areas of incentives for PPP projects in China, on the basis of the behavior of private capital. Methods. Drawing on the perspective of public incentives for private capital, we developed a "principal-agent" matrix incentive model. It rests on four types of effort behavior that exist for private capital. Results. The results of the matrix show that when the cost functions of the behavioral capital models in public-private partnership projects are independent of each other, the public-party incentives should be formulated separately, according to changes in the marginal rate of return and marginal costs of various behavioral models. When the behavioral models of private capital are in unobservable state, the targeted incentives of the public side should coincide with the rate of change in the value of the behavioral models themselves. Conclusions. We examined four levels of presence of public-private partnership projects in the Chinese economy and explained five incentives that the Chinese government implemented for PPP projects. Combined with the findings of the matrix model, the promotion of scientific incentives for government behavior regarding private capital participation in public-private partnership projects ultimately contributes to PPP project implementation.

Lending to long-term investment projects in fragile countries requires additional financial instruments to control the sustainability of project cash flows and to increase the borrower’s financial discipline in debt servicing. This paper analyzes the special aspects of using financial covenants as credit risk mitigation instruments in project financing in Ukraine. It also argues that regulatory requirements to maintain financial strength indicators at the appropriate level have an indirect impact on the change in project finance loan rates. The study primarily aims at developing approaches to defining a credit rate corridor for an investment project, depending on changes in the values of financial sustainability indicators. The implementation of the proposed approach allows increasing the validity of credit risk components for investors and optimizing capital value for borrowers.As required by international practice, violation of covenant terms is the trigger for satisfying the creditors’ claims. According to the authors’ conclusions, the use of financial covenants as a tool for protecting the creditors’ interests should not be an instrument of unreasonable financial pressure on borrowers. The study reveals benefits and drawbacks of using financial covenants to mitigate credit risk and reduce the probability of a borrower default in the field of project financing in Ukraine.

The slowdown in economic development caused by the reduction in the efficiency of the functioning of state institutions determined the focus of the governments of most countries of the world on achieving sustainable economic growth, as well as ensuring macroeconomic and macrofinancial stability. A major issue that is dealt with is the weakening of the interaction of monetary and fiscal policies in Ukraine. It can be assumed that one of the reasons hindering economic growth is growing discoordination between monetary and fiscal policies. The purpose of this study is to assess the nature of monetary and fiscal policies in Ukraine in 2000–2017 and justify the need for coordination between them to stimulate economic growth. For the quantitative assessment of the influence of monetary and fiscal factors on GDP, the models of autoregression with distributed lags – ARDL are used. The analysis makes it possible to distinguish and characterize three stages of combining the rigid and stimulating monetary and fiscal policy in Ukraine in 2000–2017. The article examines the influence of the dynamics of the monetary aggregate M3, the inflation rate and the weighted average base interest rate on the growth rates of real GDP in Ukraine, the impact of using the “monetary clamp” effect on the increase in the NBU’s interest rate, and the direct effect of monetary factors on the fiscal policy. The authors conclude that the inconsistency of monetary and fiscal policies is one of the reasons for the high volatility of macroeconomic indicators. The article substantiates the conclusion that it is necessary to overcome the increasing antagonism between monetary and fiscal policies in Ukraine and to strengthen their coordination.

This chapter reviews the results of a study into corporate investment with reference to a current life cycle phase of an industrial enterprise. For the purposes of the study, a score-based model of corporate age evaluation was used taking into account objectives of the study and sampling specifics. The study based on Russian extraction companies reveals that massively growing companies tend to intensively raise their capital funds through loans predominantly. Once mature, they show a low-key investment activity. Aging companies lose flexibility from the perspective of effective investment instruments, reduce reinvestment, and enter stagnation.

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth’s ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (AGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. AGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world’s forests. All plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS-based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities., Measurement(s)above-ground biomass • organic materialTechnology Type(s)tree species census • measurement methodFactor Type(s)geographic location • tree speciesSample Characteristic - Environmentforest biomeSample Characteristic - LocationEarth (planet) Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.9850571

The article analyzes the influence of inflation on economic growth and substantiates the main directions of increasing the effectiveness of the central bank's anti-inflation policy. In order to determine the limit of inflation, the excess of which has a negative impact on the economic growth, the relationship is analyzed between the inflation rate and the real GDP growth rate on the basis of IMF statistics using the example of 158 countries. It was determined that in 2010–2017, in the global economy, the 6.0% inflation was the marginal value of the inflation rate, beyond which the economic growth rate declined or slowed down. Given the inverse relationship between the inflation rate and the real GDP growth rates as well as empirical calculations for the period 1996–2017, the threshold for inflation rate for Ukraine at the level of 4.51% was determined based on empirical calculations for the 1996–2017 period. The results indicate that the National Bank of Ukraine set the inflation target above the level of the calculated threshold inflation. It has also been established that the link between the rates of nominal GDP growth, as opposed to real GDP, and the inflation rate, is more direct and more tight. It is substantiated that to analyze such dependence it is better to use GDP deflator instead of CPI. The results indicate that deflation constrains economic growth much less than inflation. In order to increase the effectiveness of the central bank’s pro-cyclical monetary policy aimed at supporting economic growth, the relationship between the rates of real GDP growth and the indicator characterizing the gap between the growth rates of M3 and inflation, which actually reflects the real money supply dynamics, is determined. The results obtained allowed to conclude that in 2009 and 2014-2017, the artificial “squeezing” of the money supply took place in Ukraine, resulting in a decrease in the level of the economy monetization by 22.0% in 2017 compared to 2013.It has been proved that in order to minimize the negative impact of inflationary processes on economic growth, the policy of the National Bank of Ukraine should be aimed at eliminating the artificial squeezing of the money supply through a reasonable increase in the economy monetization and the implementation of an effective monetary policy.

The relevance of the article is due to the need of using non-traditional tools for capital raising and hedging financial risks in Ukrainian conditions that allow investors to protect themselves against possible losses during the entire life cycle of the investment project. The study is based on the National Bank of Ukraine statistical data, data of Ukrainian commercial banks, as well as on the authors’ calculations based on empirical and economic-statistical methods. According to international practices, hybrid financial instruments were classified and the special aspects of their use in Ukraine were studied to manage the risks of project financing. Specific features of using the structured bonds for financing investment projects are determined based on the synthetic securitization scheme. The experience of Ukrainian banks was analyzed and the necessity to use financial instruments such as guarantees and letters of credit in risk management of project financing was substantiated. It has been established that forward contracts, currency swaps and over-the-counter currency options are the most acceptable instruments for hedging foreign exchange risks of project financing. Further studies of the problem should include the need for legislative regulation of using hybrid financial instruments, as well as methodological and regulatory support for the risk management of project financing at all stages of the investment project implementation.

According to the Government of the Amur region, tax collection from the implementation of investment projects was tightly controlled from 2016, because of the region’s high debt load. This situation requires assessing the acceptability of the level of regional tax burden for business entities. The purpose of this paper is to develop a model for assessing the level of regional tax burden, taking into account the implementation of the largest investment projects in the territory. The main hypothesis of this paper consists, firstly, in the existence of tax burden, which is acceptable for regional economic entities. Secondly, this level of tax burden ensures the growth of fiscal revenues for the budget. We proposed to assess the level of tax burden on the basis of a three-factor linear heterogeneous production function, taking into account certain economic indicators of the largest investment project — “Construction of the Vostochny Ðiosmodrome†. The concept of the Laffer curve serves as a research methodology. According to our calculations, since 2011, the tax burden in the Amur region has a clear tendency to increase. At the same time, from 2007 to the present time, the tax burden exceeds its maximum permissible value and constrains economic growth in the region. If this trend continues, by 2018 tax revenues from the territory of the region will be on the verge of reduction. The obtained results show that the tax burden in the Amur region in 2017 is 16.81 %. To stimulate the activities of economic entities in the region, and as a consequence, to increase the GRP of the region, it is necessary to reduce the level of taxation by 4.77 percentage points (to 12.04 %), Thus, the current economic situation requires to change the course of regional taxation policy to a more liberal attitude towards taxpayers. Otherwise, soon the budget of the Amur region may fail to receive a part of revenues, as the region’s economic entities will not be able to meet their tax obligations in full and on time. The results of this study can be applied by the authorities of the Russian Federation and the Amur region for the development and adjustment of the main settings of tax policy.

The goal of this paper was to assess the connection between dark personality traits and engagement in harmful online behaviors in a sample of Russian Facebook users, and to describe the language they use in online communication. A total of 6724 individuals participated in the study (mean age = 44.96 years, age range: 18–85 years, 77.9% — female). Data was collected via a purpose-built application, which served two purposes: administer the survey and download consenting user's public wall posts, gender and age from the Facebook profile. The survey included questions on engagement in harmful online behaviors and the Short Dark Triad scale; 15,281 wall posts from 1972 users were included in the dataset. These posts were subjected to morphological, lexical and semantic analyses. More than 25% of the sample reported engaging in harmful online behaviors. Males were more likely to send insulting or threatening messages and post aggressive comments; no gender differences were found for disseminating other people's private information. Psychopathy and male gender were the unique predictors of engagement in harmful online behaviors. A number of significant correlations were found between the dark traits and numeric, lexical, morphological and semantic characteristics of the participants' posts.

Статья посвящена проблемным вопросам налогового стимулирования российских предприятий. Главная предпосылка исследования заключается в том, что отечественная практика налогового стимулирования не отвечает интересам государства, поскольку вступает в явное противоречие с декларируемыми принципам экономического развития. Так, предоставляемые налоговые льготы должны способствовать инвестиционной активности бизнеса. Однако, налоговые льготы зачастую представляются тем предприятиям, которые не способны использовать их эффективным образом. Обоснование системы налоговых льгот требует выявления факторов инвестиционной активности предприятий, уровень которой во многом определяется стадией жизненного цикла и отраслевой спецификой. Гипотезы о значимости корпоративного возраста и сферы экономической деятельности, сформулированные в целях настоящего исследования, получили эмпирическое подтверждение. Было доказано, в условиях экономического кризиса инвестиционная активность российских предприятий демонстрировала разную динамику. В частности, в обрабатывающей промышленности большинство предприятий наращивало объем основных средств, тогда как в сферах производства кокса и нефтепродуктов, молочной продукции, химических веществ и химических продуктов, связи на базе проводных технологий наблюдался спад инвестиционной активности. В то же время изменение инвестиционной активности в исследуемом периоде объяснялось разными факторами как для предприятий разных отраслей, так и предприятий одной отрасли, характеризующихся разным корпоративным возрастом. Полученные результаты позволили сделать вывод о том, что унифицированный подход к налоговому стимулированию инвестиционной активности предприятий нельзя признать оправданным. По мнению авторов, более эффективны «целевые» инструменты налогового стимулирования. Рекомендации в этом отношении могут представлять интерес для отечественного законодателя и тех лиц, в сферу интересов которых входит мониторинг инвестиционного климата в Российской Федерации. The article is devoted to the problematic issues of tax incentives for Russian companies. The main prerequisite of the research is that the domestic practice of tax incentives does not meet the interests of the state, since it is in clear contradiction with the declared principles of economic development. The provided tax privileges should promote the investment activity of business. However, tax incentives are often offered to those enterprises that are not able to use them effectively. Justification of tax benefits requires identifying enterprise’s investment activity factors, the level of which is largely determined by the corporate life cycle stage and industry specificity. Hypotheses about the importance of corporate age and economic activity, formulated for the purposes of this study, have been empirically confirmed. It was proved that the investment activity of Russian enterprises demonstrated different dynamics in the conditions of the economic crisis. In the manufacturing industry, in particular, most enterprises increased the volume of fixed assets, while in the spheres of petroleum products, dairy products, chemical products, communications on the basis of wire technologies, there was a decline in investment activity. The change in investment activity in the period under study was due to various factors for both enterprises of different industries and enterprises of the same industry characterized by different corporate ages. The results obtained let us conclude that a unified approach to tax incentives for enterprises’ investment activity cannot be justified. In the opinion of the authors, “targeted” tools of tax incentives are more efficient. The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project № 17-22-01002-OGN. Исследование выполнено при финансовой поддержке Российского фонда фундаментальных исследований (РФФИ) (проект № 17-22-01002-ОГН).

The article discusses the prospects for adapting unconventional tax mechanisms to tax administration in a secular multicultural state. The purpose of the study is to identify significant factors which determine the advisability of establishing socially oriented taxes as perceived by economists-to-be that do not possess enough information about alternative tax practices and mechanisms for their implementation. Scientific novelty of the research consists in the fact that it considers socially-oriented taxation in more detail; this type of taxation is suggested to be considered in conjunction with religious tax practices, which significantly complements existing ideas about the specifics of functioning of modern tax systems. The research methodology includes the use of the questionnaire method. The respondents are future economists – students of Saint Petersburg State University. At the first stage, we test the level of awareness of respondents about alternative tax practices. During the second stage, with the help of ordered logistic regression, we design a model that shows the degree of tolerance to socially oriented taxation. We prove that the level of loyalty in this question depends on respondents’ perception of social responsibility, including the mechanisms for its practical implementation. In particular, of relevance are factors such as the willingness to give up part of personal income to support socially vulnerable groups; positive attitude toward non-state administration of socially oriented taxes; expectation of corresponding benefits on individual income tax. The survey proves that respondents who do not have enough knowledge about non-traditional tax practices show a high degree of willingness to take additional social obligations. We think that the results of the research have scientific significance in the context of development of ideas about current tax mechanisms, as well as religious and socially oriented tax. In addition, they can be applied in tax administration in secular multicultural states. We think that a promising direction for further studies in this area is to carry out surveys among economists-to-be in various regions of the Russian Federation, as well as to involve representatives of the academic and professional community in the debate on modernization of tax arrangements

Over the last years, business concepts of new cyber intermediaries in the market of intellectual property have quickly transformed towards aggregating extra large portfolios of intellectual assets. Namely, in our previous work we analyzed aggregator models for digital images, video, audio and literary works (texts). Main focus was solely put on general concepts of managing risks related to large portfolios of copyright assets. In this paper, at first, we study specific nature of a market mechanism involved in sale of such assets. Sales statistics over a long time for a certain digital image is presented graphically in structured price brackets. Secondly, VaR (EaR) methodology, well known in financial engineering, is adapted and applied for the first time for quantitative evaluation of risks related to real intellectual assets (digital images) portfolio. Based on empirical distribution of revenue positions across a portfolio, a nonparametric method of historical simulation is applied to solve the task. Next, divergence of results of different approaches was evaluated including a simple parametric model. Our work proves that VaR (EaR) model can be successfully used for the portfolios of such assets class.

In the Russian Federation, corporate profit tax consolidation implicates rather tight restrictions on organizing a CGT. Even though earlier it was announced that the restrictions would be loosened, a moratorium has been declared on organizing consolidated groups of taxpayers since 2015. The purpose of our study is to outline existing criteria for creation CGTs and their influence on the scale of corporate profit tax consolidation in Russia as well as giving an outlook on CGTs expansion by assets and revenue. The results of organizing the CGT institution in 2012-2015 revealed their crucial significance for the Russian economy in terms of paid corporate profit tax. A model was based on the data collected from 10,000 major Russian companies describing the change of CGT share in CPT proceeds in case of lowering the CGT entry threshold. It was concluded that the relation between the CPT share and assets value or revenue differs only in case of major companies. It is expedient to specify only one criterion—either assets value or revenue—for lowering the threshold. Either choice requires a separate argumentation. Keywords—consolidated group of taxpayers, corporate profit tax, assets, revenue

Cadmium meta- and orthostannate were synthesized by thermal treatment using the coprecipitation method. Tin (IV) chloride, cadmium acetate were used as the initial components, the ammonium carbonate was a precipitant. The coprecipitated compounds and the thermolysis products were analyzed by TGA/DSC methods, the thermal treatment samples were studied by XRD and SEM. The formation of proper products in soft thermal treatment conditions was confirmed. The stannates formation in terms of submicron sized particles was observed by microscopial investigation.

This review is devoted to the computational methods and tools for modeling and analysis of various complex processes in physics, medicine, social dynamics and nature. We consider: 1) the multivariate data analysis based on Ω n k -criteria and artificial neural networks (ANN), 2) the applications of neural networks for the function approximation and for the reconstruction and prediction of chaotic time series, and 3) the use of cellular automata (CA) in pattern recognition and in modeling of complex dynamical systems.

A complete or total absolute error Δ for the approximate solution of Volterra integral equations of the second and the first kind is considered. This error is less or equal to the sum of errors of three types because of: input data inaccuracy and incompleteness (inherent error), approximate algorithms (method error), and realization of algorithms on computers (round-off error). The optimal numerical methods with pre-assigned accuracy allowing us to obtain Δ 0 and pre-assigned, are determined. The minimal in order numbers of necessary basic computers’ operations under realization of the methods and the respective algorithms are estimated. And also namely those equations and methods for which the numbers of operations are admissible in practice under rather small e are investigated.

Preliminary intelligence into the general theory of control and the examples of analytic solutions for some optimization problems are given. The conditions of existence of solutions are investigated. Stability of solutions and sequence of formulae for determination of gradients of specific functional are established. The structure of solutions for different optimization problems is considered in detail. The conditions of uniqueness of solutions and the example of non-uniqueness of solutions are adduced. Asymptotic properties of some solutions are found out.

It is shown that many problems of applied mathematics can be reduced to the solutions of Volterra-type integral and integro-differential equations. So, the numerical methods for V. i. e. developed in Ch. 5 can be used for the numerical solution of wide class of problems.

Most assumptions, biological in nature that follow from the known experimental data on idio-type anti-idio-typical interactions of various sub-populations of cells and antibodies of the immune network (IN), and from the foundation of the mathematical models (MM) of IN are considered. Such assumptions as the refractoriness of cells towards the action of antigen (Ag) during their proliferation stimulated by Ag and their passage out of proliferation according to a certain law after which the cells can be stimulated again lead to MM different from well-known ones.

The first part of the chapter is devoted to a formalized description of the immune status of an organism. The central part is mainly devoted to a formalized description of HIV based on some published information on the properties of HIV, and HTV population based on the MM of immune network of an organism. The joint mathematical models of a patient with HIV infection, i.e., AIDS is considered in short. The final part is devoted to the preliminary consideration of the applied problem consisting in selection of immune and other correctors that help the organism to neutralize HIV and to induce the immune status to the norm.

It is shown that the earlier considered technique for development mathematical modeling can be applied and grounded for simulation of various organism subsystems (OS) with applications to medicine and health care. In this connection, the mathematical models obtained can be useful for both common and nontraditional modes of a disease treatment. General theory is displayed on the examples of the subsystem of blood sugar and primary-pancreatic diabetes, cancers modeling, and the novel approach to low dose exposure effects’ extrapolation of OS modeling.

Besides MM of ES applications considered earlier, we dwell here on the following: i) Modeling of plant development ii) Modeling of animal development iii) Modeling of business development iv) Space crew as ES v) Health care as ES vi) Formalization of civilization conception vii) A few addenda: 1. New computers as ES. 2. Science as ES. 3. Education as ES. 4. MM of cells as ES. 5. MM of bio-fields as ES 6. Modeling of natural ES origin problems. 7. Modeling of life longevity problems.

An attempt of application of the new class of MM to some foreign currency conversion problems (FCCP) is described. The currency exchange rates formulae for the main products of two countries are established. The methods for determination of the prognostic values of currency exchange rates for short and long period of the time are developed. Some currency optimization problems are considered.

Mathematical models (MM) of the neo-sphere are developed by some combinations both of human activity (HA) models and the biosphere models and also by introduction of two relations: what humanity takes from the biosphere and what gives to it in return.

Here are special simple cases of MM of ES and examples of analytic solutions, The conditions for existence and uniqueness of solutions for the systems of equations and also stability of solutions are established. Some cases of non-uniqueness of solutions are considered. Cases of oscillating and wave solutions are found. Asymptotic properties of solutions are investigated.

V.M. Glushkov’s concepts of the scientific systematic analysis [3] and development [3, 4] (see also [7, Ch. 2]) generalized in the monograph [5] can explain many urgent issues of any country’s economy control reconstruction.