Issue 2021 no2 contents:

The article aims to show how decisions taken by a government body can directly contradict the goals for which it is endowed with appropriate powers. The effect is demonstrated by a recent antitrust case against the mobile operator Tele2. The hypothesis of the study is that the regulator's decision finding an antitrust violation, based on an incorrect interpretation of the behavior of an oligopolist, may have negative consequences for competition in the market. The theoretical part of the work is based on the concept of a maverick firm. The empirical base of the work is formed by data on the mobile communication market in Russia from 2017 to 2020. The paper shows that the observed results of the mobile communication market performance in Russia do not indicate the reduction incompetition. We prove that the behavior of "Tele2" in the mobile communication market meets the criteria of a maverick firm, a concept known in the research literature and in the foreign law enforcement practice. We explain why the interpretation of the behavior of a maverick firm as abuse of dominance (reflected in the antitrust case) contradicts the economic essence of such behavior. Possible anticompetitive consequences of such an interpretation are determined. The analysis underscores the role of meso-institutions in terms of the efficiency and effectiveness of the public administration system in the field of competition protection and reveals the sources of side effects of antitrust policy, which, among other things, can manifest in the incentives for less active competition. The article was written on the basis of the RANEPA state assignment research programme.

The paper analyses the extent to which environmental priorities of the government affect procurement activities of government bodies, state-owned companies and public institutions. Environmental priorities are not formalised in Russian public procurement legislation, but they are reflected in the strategic documents, and as such may implicitly shape procurement activities. By surveying public bodies in 22 regions of the Russian Federation, we evaluate factors affecting decisions to use, or not, environmental criteria in procurement. Just about a third of surveyed government authorities and public organizations use environmental criteria in procurement. The type of the law, the position in the public power hierarchy, the size of the organization, the degree of employees’ awareness are key determinants of the decisions of organizations to follow environmental priorities in procurement. Results indicate a role for the commitment to government goals, as well as a possible effect of the fear of making an error in procurement decisions. Including explicit environmental requirements in the public procurement legislation and developing a set of model criteria may help further support pro-environmental public procurement.

Currently, socially oriented nonprofit organizations (SO NPOs) in Russia are actively engaged in the process of social services provision. The support provided to them, including the financial support provided by the regional authorities, is extremely important for SO NPOs. This article describes the reasons why the state involves NPOs in social services provision and gives them support, and the advantages and disadvantages of NPOs in services provision. We analyze the size, structure and dynamics of financial support for nonprofit organizations at the regional level and factors related to the size of support, as well as the criteria for granting subsidies (one of the types of support). The criteria were analyzed based on the regional legislation of 52 regions of Russia. The analysis of the size, structure and dynamics of financial support was conducted on the data from registers of SO NPOs that received support of 43 regions of Russia for 2016-2018. Our analysis demonstrates an increase in the total amount of support and a significant intraregional and interregional differentiation in the size of support. Using the method of ordinary least squares, we found that the average per capita value of financial support provided to the SO NPOs at the regional level is positively associated with per capita regional budget revenues, the share of education expenditures in the total amount of regional budget expenditures and the quality of life in the region.

Transformation of technological processes in many industries, and growth of remote working in particular, speeded up in 2020 by quarantine measures, is most evident in largest cities of the world. Russia is not an exception, with Moscow being the example of this process going-on intensively. Authors argue that due to Russian socio-economic realities (an established settlement system, the structure and the size of property ownership, the income level) the development of remote working in Russia will most likely lead to an increase in time spent by Russians in their “second homes” (dachas). Data supporting the hypothesis of the “shift to dachas” are provided. The article is devoted to factors contributing to such a shift, with special emphasis made on real consequences of the government policy. Analysis made by the authors using the data from Vladimir region shows that state-sponsored rural areas development programs lead to more intensive use of dachas in those areas. At the same time depopulation of rural areas continues regardless of government efforts, and pressure on local budgets increases. Based on the conducted analysis, authors formulate policy proposals on how to use the noticed trend in order to boost the regional development. Main idea is to make it possible for taxpayers to split their income tax payments between budgets of territories, where real estate objects belonging to them are located.

The article analyzes the administrative transformations of the internal organization of the federal executive bodies of the governmental block. The study examines the evolution of approaches to the organization of the Headquarters of the federal authorities, the reasons that served as prerequisites for such transformations. In particular, it is noted that many of the implemented approaches were previously formulated in the methodological recommendations of the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, but only in 2020 they were imperatively fixed in the acts of the Government. The article assesses the possible consequences of the implementation of the various aspects of the proposed administrative changes, including the risks of abuse in reducing the number of civil servants, as well as in rationing of «standard» units.

The study notes that the administrative changes under consideration do not apply to the federal executive authorities of the presidential block, the executive authorities of the regions, as well as the local administrative bodies. At the same time, this stage of administrative transformation may become the main stage in the future for carrying out a larger-scale administrative reform in the context of building a unified system of public power.

Special attention is paid to the experience of building an official structure in the US federal authorities, as well as to the analysis of recent changes in the field of the US civil service. According to the obtained results the conclusion is made that the Russian administrative reform affects not only on the quantitative reduction of public servants, and establishes requirements for setting the number of the structural units and characteristics of their administration, but also has significant potential for development to legally and theoretically justify the allocation of positions to specific groups and categories.

In recent decades, one of the most important trends in public administration reforms has been fiscal decentralization. At the heart of this process is the principle of subsidiarity, according to which local governments must fulfill their own set of functions and make their own budget decisions at the expense of local tax revenues. The importance of fiscal decentralization is noted in international documents, such as the Maastricht Treaty and the European Charter of Local Self-Government. This paper provides an overview of research related to existing academic knowledge in the area of ​​fiscal decentralisation and intergovernmental fiscal relations. The main attention is paid to the opportunities and limitations of decentralisation, the existing empirical estimates of its impact, the latest theoretical concepts of intergovernmental relations and the key principles of regulations.

The article examines the impact of raising the retirement age in Russia on the economic activity of older workers in 2019, the starting year of the transition period for raising the retirement age, which preceded the COVID-19 pandemic. The probabilities of employment, unemployment and inactivity of persons of pre-retirement age was estimated using a multinomial logit analysis.  Multinomial logit analysis was based on microdata from the Rosstat Labor Force Survey for 2017-2019. The models included the socio-demographic characteristics of the population of the several age groups. The obtained estimates show a small, but numerically noticeable increase in the probability of employment and a decrease in the chances of leaving the labor force for persons of pre-retirement age in 2019 compared to 2017 and 2018. These results were supplemented by an analysis of microdata on the registered unemployed of the Tyumen region for 2019, provided to the authors by the Department of Labor and Employment of the Tyumen Region. The results of the study show that higher education is the most important factor in the competitiveness in the labor market for persons of pre-retirement age. Despite all the instruments of the state regulation implemented in 2019 which tend to support the employment in the older age groups, individual characteristics of pre-retirees made greater impact on their competitiveness on the labor market. Thus, implications for the policy could be to focus efforts on supporting professional education and training for adults.