To assess the economic impact of COVID-19 and to study the specifics of functioning of cultural institutions in the conditions of the pandemic, the authors analyze the 2019—2020 indicators and conduct an expert survey of the heads of cultural institutions of various types located in both capital and small towns, and rural areas in all federal districts. The analysis of the budget financing of cultural sector in 2020 compared to 2019 in Russia as a whole, and in the Russian Federation regions showed a noticeable slowdown of growth rates of expenses for culture and a decrease in the share of these expenses. The analysis of the dynamics of GDP per capita (in constant prices) and the share of household expenditures on recreation and cultural events in total household expenditures made it possible to predict a further reduction of these expenditures and, as a consequence, revenues of cultural organizations and extra-budgetary revenues of state and municipal cultural institutions. The analysis of the dynamics of the number of employees in cultural organizations by forms of part-time employment showed that in the conditions of coronavirus expansion, cultural organizations sought to keep jobs for their employees, but they also used various forms of part-time employment. The expert survey of cultural executives and managers confirms the deterioration of financial support for cultural institutions, including the emergence of difficulties associated with the failure to meet indicators established in the state assignment, and the cultural infrastructure lagging behind modern requirements for online formats. Specific measures are proposed to improve the situation in the cultural sector.

The paper analyses income-related health inequality in Russia using empirical estimates of mean values of several health indicators and related cumulative curves and concentration indices estimates made on the RLMS-HSE 2018 data. The study has revealed that (1) the proportion of people with poor health is higher in the groups of respondents with low income; (2) having a higher education impacts on self-assessed but not on the other more objective health indicators; (3) inequality in health, measured in terms of individual income, is higher among men than among women, and, conversely, inequality in access to health services is higher among women; (4) continuous/ordered health indicators produce lower inequality values compared with dichotomized indicators. The methodology and estimates presented in the paper can be recommended as controls for health and related programs results.

Academic mobility facilitates interactions of different scientific schools and collectives, influences formation of academic relations and indirectly affects positions of universities in academic rankings. Mobility helps establish networks of professional contacts, and that might have a positive impact on the level of research, allowing efficient academic collaboration, access to results of different studies and collected data. Mobility is an important issue not only for universities, but also for researchers because their collaboration with the colleagues and participation in joint projects characterize them for other members of the academic community, and that increases the value of academic networking. However, the way of evolution of the institution of networking raises various questions about the objectivity of the recruiting process and advantages that some candidates get over their rivals. The purpose of this article is identification and analysis of those factors that force the institution of mobility in the Russian academic reality to work against general social interests and the interests of universities.

The paper deals with social and economic consequences of COVID-19 in the context of long-term trends of economic development. The current crisis is compared with economic and war cataclysms of 20th—21st centuries. Special attention is paid to types of anti-crisis policies as well as to relations between anti-crisis (short-term) and modernization (medium-term) challenges. The paper discusses the influence of pandemic on budget and monetary policies, trends of globalization, and new approaches to government regulation of economic development.

The study discusses underlying factors of labor productivity in firms of basic non-resource industries of the Russian economy and considers the role of innovation and investment activity, human capital development, competitive environment and government support. The data is based on the results of a survey of managers of 713 companies in basic non-resource industries (manufacturing, agriculture, transport, construction). We find high level of divergence of firm productivity at the industry level. We show that higher level of productivity is accompanied with investments in human capital, in fixed assets, as well as the use of digital technologies, but we do not find that higher productivity is accompanied by innovations and expenditures on research and development. We show that productivity growth is combined not only with investment, but also with innovative activity (process innovations) and R&D expenditures. The driver of productivity growth is the private sector: the increase in productivity is driven by firms serving the demand of private medium and large companies. Competitive environment is another factor: moderate competition with import (which acts as a stimulus for innovations of Russian companies) is a condition for the productivity growth.

The transition to digital technologies is associated with an increase in consumer requirements in a saturated market. The influence of these technologies on the configuration of value chains and on the spacial location of production links of these chains is considered. An approach based on the analysis of real situations in individual industries is used to identify the changes under study. It is shown that the popular concept of the “smiling curve”, which characterizes the distribution of added value between the chain participants, needs to be adjusted when the supplier has unique competencies. The relatively high return on assets of such suppliers is demonstrated by examples. It is shown that firms that form global value chains strive to possess their own competencies that are most important for these chains. The risks faced by value chains in a downturn in the global economy and measures to improve the sustainability of such chains are considered.

The oil and gas sector (OGS) plays a key role in the Russian economy. In the context of the growing complexity of the resource base, the formation of the knowledge economy, its stability and competitiveness will largely depend on innovative, technological development. An increasingly important development factor for the OGS is the possibility of using new knowledge and technologies: ownership of the rights to the results of intellectual activity, to technologies that allow the development of hard-to-recover resources, to extract more and more complex reserves. For the effective development of the OGS, it is necessary to maintain adequacy of the mineral resource base and the knowledge base of the OGS. This means that the generation of new, more complex knowledge must correspond to the objective complication of the resources being mastered, the development of innovative technologies. Based on the analysis of the dataset on patent activity in relation to inventions for the OGS, the key actors in this segment of innovation have been identified. These include Russian oil and gas producing companies, as well as foreign companies present in the Russian market, primarily large oil and gas field service companies. The analysis of the internal structure of the knowledge base of the OGS (in terms of patents for inventions) has shown the presence of significant risks for the development of the Russian OGS along an innovative trajectory. These risks are associated with the formation of weak prerequisites for the creation of breakthrough technologies, radical innovations, and with a high role of foreign companies.

The paper analyzes the main contradictions and consequences of Modern Monetary Theory. The consequences of budgetary deficit using as the main instrument of economic policy are estimated. The influence of this policy upon inflation expectations and currency rate dynamics are examined. The specifics of balance method using in the studies of systems with high intensity of the elements interactions is revealed. The necessity of testing mathematical and balance methods conclusions upon the preservation of the economic meaning is underlined.