Vol 30, No 2 (2019)

The low-carbon economic paradigm is critically analyzed as to stabilizing the climate situation (not to exceed the 2°С growth of the global air temperature until the end of the 21st century) and improving the quality of life and sustainable economic growth. Climate change is emphasized as being just a part of the total risk for human life and health and economic growth, which is proved by the set of goals of sustainable development adopted by the world community. Hence, a solution of the problem of climate change is necessary—in the long and and distant future—but insufficient condition to minimize the risk for the quality of human life, primarily health, and sustainable economic growth. It is agrued that an efficient action strategy to reduce climate risks for socioeconomic development must target not finding the ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but rather development and implementation of a set of measures to ensure the basic goals of sustainable development. In addition, priority must be given to the reduction of emissions of hazardous substances, as well as to planning and implementing measures of the communitiesэ and economy adaptation to climate change with adaptation remaining a key component of the climate risk reduction policy. A case study of China—the global leader in low-carbon energy development race—proves that the strategic policy priority is not climatic but environmental and economic issues as well as (in case of nuclear power plants) military-strategic motivation.

The paper discusses the historical aspects of compiling tables of interindustry relationships in the Soviet Union and Russia. The basics of building the input-output tables in the concepts of the national economy balance and system of national accounts are compared. The paper describes the features and problems of their compilation in modern Russian statistical practice, in particular, those related to the construction of corresponding tables for regional interindustry balances.

New technological and institutional trends in the development of metallurgy under Industry 4.0 have been defined in the paper. Models for the development of metallurgy in the Central Urals region have been specified and a possibility of its progress as a science-intensive and high-technology complex able to meet the Industry 4.0 principles has been substantiated. An approach and its principal parameters were developed for generating a new image of the region’s metallurgical complex. These parameters were assessed using the technology of artificial neural networks, and the road map for repositioning the complex has been constructed.

This paper deals with the dynamic expansion of the production and processing of soybeans, a relatively new promising culture of the Russian agricultural sector, which can both significantly improve the supply of vegetable oil and protein food and feed products in the domestic market of the country and increase their supply to the foreign market.

This paper analyzes the state of main sectors of livestock farming, identifies trends in their allocation, and discusses factors and directions of their development.

The article presents the results of predictive studies of the development of new energy sources using the example of wind energy technologies in the countries of the North Sea Basin. Predictive estimates (based on the mathematical technique of learning curves), the dynamics of installed power and the generation of electric power by floating wind power stations, as well as the processes of replacing traditional energy with developing energy technologies in various countries, including Russia, are considered. The economic characteristics of energy technologies at an early stage of development are given.

Analysis of the dynamics of the number of patent applications allows us to identify the most general patterns of economic transformation. By creating varying conditions for research in different technological areas, it is possible to adjust the vector of social growth. The article shows that both before the emergence of the term “digital economy” and now, concentrating efforts of national investment systems in the field of computer technology is a necessary condition for ensuring technological sovereignty and achieving leading positions in the global economy in the foreseeable future and in the long run.

This paper presents calculations of the indices of science and technology performance and the dynamics of changes in the indicators of the Global Innovation Index for the Russian Federation. The method of calculating the indices is adapted for the regions of the Russian Federation. The dynamics of changes in regional indices is shown. The indices of science and technology performance of the regions of the Russian Federation and the countries participating in the Global Innovation Index are compared.

The article studies the reproductive potential and features of the functioning of the “rooted” regional economy using the example of the multiethnic North Caucasus territory. The article presents and conceptually interprets the results of a representative economic-sociological study on traditional economic forms and practices of the North Caucasus population (household farms, personal subsidiary plots, family farms, individual enterprise, self-employment). The economic assets of these forms and practices, their reproductive potential and their contributions to the region’s economy are estimated. The article reveals their key role in the economic structure of the rooted sector of the region’s economy.

This article contains an analysis of the ambivalent effects of the countercyclical anticrisis policy implemented in Kazakhstan in 2014–2017 when the recovery of economic growth was attended by the growing role of economic paternalism. The state provided support to all macroeconomic agents: it supported households to sustain the consumer demand, the business sector to support the accumulation of fixed capital stock, and budgets to increase public expenditures. In the authors’ opinion, in 2018 sufficiently favorable conditions will form for reducing the role of economic paternalism. The priority must be to recover the generation of population income from hired labor and entrepreneurship, growth of investment and innovative activities on the part of the business sector, and creation of equal opportunities and access to financial resources.