Licensing is one of the main administrative tools used for state regulation of the economy. It can serve as a fairly accurate «barometer» of the administrative burden, which the government provides the business with.

This article analyzes the licensing of certain types of economic activities in the context of the whole system of administrative regimes of the economy. The authors conclude that the legal acts regulating the licensing can be a model for the regulation of other administrative regimes.

Special attention is paid to the history of transformation of the licensing system for the past 20 years, including the period of the administrative reform. The paper assesses the effectiveness of the measures taken in the framework of the reform. The authors concluded that, despite some deregulation, in many cases replacing licensing in other administrative regimes has maintained or even increased the amount of administrative pressure.

The authors examined in detail the innovations of the Federal Law of May 4, 2011 N 99- FZ «On Licensing Certain Types of A Activities», highlighting its advantages and disadvantages. The main advantages of the law are the reduction of the list of licensed activities, the introduction of perpetual licenses, the use of information technology in the licensing procedures. The main disadvantage of the law is increase in terms of administrative procedures for licensing.

In 2012 the Ministry of E Economic Development of Russia has created an information system for collecting data on the licensing of certain types of economic activity. The paper contains an analysis of the statistical data obtained by using this system. It allows us to assess the extent and pattern of functioning of the institution of licensing.

The article also provides an analysis of some current problems of licensing: the restriction of places of the licensed activity; the consolidation of licensed activities; the uncertainty of the forms and methods of verifying compliance with the licensing requirements; the lack of communication between the licensing bodies and the tax authorities. According to the analysis of these problems, the authors formulate proposals to improve the licensing system.