The article considers the interrelationship between external and internal factors of economic growth and their influence on the Russian economy at the turn of 2012-2013. Slowing of basic macroeconomic indicators is connected with fast reduction of financing sources - the investment pause of the biggest Russian companies and a sharp decrease of state investment. Besides, foreign investors withdrew their money from financial assets of Russian companies. The article presents the quality assessment of changes in domestic economic activity and volumes of financial flows between Russia and the rest of the world, taking into account possible impact of geopolitical shock caused by the events around Ukraine.

The paper analyzes the recent suggestions to abandon inflation targeting. The author shows that the idea of an inflation target should still be an inherent element of macroeconomic stabilization policy, but the practice of inflation targeting should be improved following the post-crisis realities. The key goal would be to maintain public confidence in the activities of the central bank.

The paper focuses on regional economic integration provided by interregional railway freight. The analysis reveals two realized models of spatial integration: “all-with-all” and “hauberk”. A set of indicators for regional integration evaluation is proposed and verified with statistical data. The ranking of regions by their integration performance is presented. It discovers a macro-region of higher integration impact that consists of 5 neighboring regions of the Ural and Volga federal districts. Special government support is suggested for macro-regions of this kind.

The industry character in a number of Russian cities historically remains monopolar. According to the authors, the way of their development can be chosen by assuming that the distribution by type of production for the whole region should be close to statistically normal. Diversification based on the proposed mathematical algorithm contributes to solving a topical problem of reducing the number of depressive monocities as concentrators of social tension in Russian society.

The paper studies the evolution of Russian urban system; the hypothesis of the multiplicity of spatial equilibrium due to the transition to the market is tested. Distribution functions and regression equations are used in the analysis. The conclusion is that Russian urban model is changing, the agglomeration p rocesses are strengthening and the heterogeneity of the urban system is growing.

The article discusses the phenomenon of academic rent, specifies the main aggregates of the concept. The author proposes the method for determining the value of immaterial part of academic rent, based on interviews with experts from leading Russian universities. The article presents the results of surveys and applied calculations, which show a gradual decrease of the academic rent volume. This new concept is used to explain several paradoxes of the Russian market of higher education. The transition of the university system from the model of academic rent to the model of scale’s effect is proved.

The book by S. Chernavsky is devoted to the reform of the Russian energy sector and the economy as a whole. The author assesses in detail carried out reforms and develops policy recommendations in the interest of the society. In some chapters of this book the author plays the role of an analyst, in the others - that of one of the participants directly involved in the reform or its main developer. In all cases, the analysis is combined with the use of modern economic theory, mathematical models of the behavior of economic agents and empirical data. Many mathematical models presented have been developed and evaluated in cooperation with the leading Russian experts in the field of mathematical modeling and econometrics analysis that determines their validity. The obtained results and policy recommendations allow us to count on lower transformation costs and higher probability of successful implementation of reforms.

Economics textbooks for undergraduate students require regular updating. This is particularly relevant for the authors of modern economics textbooks for students of non-economic profile because of the need to present economics in the context of a variety of real life areas. Professor L. S. Grebnev in his book “Anti-SaM ” criticizes the existing textbooks and elaborates on the specific features of a modern textbook for non-economists.

The comparative social and economic analysis of character and consequences of agrarian transformations in China and Russia is presented in the article. It is shown that, unlike China, the agriculture of Russia continues to remain in conditions of the deep system crisis creating a serious threat to food and general national security of the state. Ways out of this crisis are grounded. Special attention is paid to using the Chinese and broad foreign experience on providing priority of the rural development, changes necessary for this purpose in agrarian policy, the system of state regulation and farm management.

The article analyzes the ratio of state and private forms of ownership of land and studies its local markets. The data collected as a result of field research of rural communities and also provided by real estate agencies allow to track the real growth of private property on land in municipalities. Studying the condition of local land markets at the level of rural communities one can make a number of unfavorable conclusions, such as growth of shadow sector and speculation in the prices of land plots within settlements. All these tendencies call into q uestion the existing scenario of carrying out privatization in Russia.