Contenu du sommaire : Focus

This paper discusses the short run advantages of the Russian economy, connected to natural resources on the one hand, and to the scientific and technological culture of the workforce on the other hand. It analyses the utilization of the accumulated financial resources, provided by the sale of natural resources, for investment in industrial and high-tech projects in the sphere of science-intensive production and financial control. A schema of the flexible reconstruction of the existing system of production with the aid of an appropriate credit policy by the Central Bank is proposed. JEL: O16, E58, P2

This paper analyses the optimal monetary policy under incomplete pass-through and asymmetrical price rigidity. In a general equilibrium sticky price model of a small open economy we find that the optimal interest rate rule is to respond to real exchange rate shocks, reducing pass-through. Moreover, the extent of the optimal intervention depends positively on the degree of pass-through and negatively on price rigidity. Therefore, monetary policy should adjust more in the case of depreciation of the domestic currency than in the case of its appreciation due to higher downward price rigidity and lower downward pass-through. We use this prediction to evaluate the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Russia. We find that the present policy is too inflationary and suggest that less effort should be made to prevent nominal appreciation of the Rouble. JEL: E12, E31, E52, F41

The aim of this paper is to draw up a methodological framework for analysing the dynamics of change in post-communist transition. The paper presents a new approach to innovatory institutions and to the specific features of Russia regarding the intermediate level of institutionalisation represented by labour markets. The tool provided by institutional trajectories permits some understanding of the debate between socially accepted norms coming from the past and the set of formal rules required for a prosperous future. “Too soft” or “too hard” behaviour by employers is both the consequence of the distance existing between required rules and effective rules influenced by societal norms, or between required rules and accepted norms. This expresses the difficulty of, and the need for building a new market salary relationship in Russia. JEL: A14, J2, J61, J63, J64, J65, P23, P36, P37, R23

The aim of this paper is to consider the changes in Russian personnel management practice with reference to western management methodology. At first appearance, the Russian labour sector is observing processes similar to those in Western countries; it is establishing contract rules and procedures, is increasing all types of flexible work patterns, and is developing social partnership institutions. At the same time, the transformational nature of these processes among countries in transition, is encountering difficulties and contradictions. The choice of western theoretical approaches for the analysis of Russian personnel management practice was based both on the study of Russian bibliography on the subject, and on empirical databases, communicated in interviews with personnel mangers in Russian organizations. JEL: M12, J81, P31

This paper considers the changes in personnel-management functions in connection with the dynamics of Russian labour market during Transition period. The authors investigate the difficulties in the process of the establishment of internal labour market in Russian organizations, related to the “soft” tendencies in labour restructuring and the transformation of personnel-management functions following market traditions. JEL: J6, J4, P2

Entrepreneurs have been at the centre of economists' concerns and public policies since the beginning of the 1980s in capitalist economies. Entrepreneur in the contemporary economy is a socialized entrepreneur because he develops his activity in a particular economic environment which is structured by big firms (the network firms) and the directives of public choices. Much of today's Russian youth is fascinated by the idea of the free market economy and by the success of some entrepreneurs who have become billionaires. Who is the socialized entrepreneur in Russia today? His main objective is to develop an enterprise for intellectual achievement (Schumpeterian argument of the innovative entrepreneur) or for financial security? JEL: L26, L53, P2

The entrepreneurialism in Russian higher education took extreme forms in the beginning of market reforms and a system of “checks and balances” from which it is only emerging with great difficulties. Regional/industrial collaboration between universities and public and private enterprises has been more a lifeline for regional economies than competitive boosters for regional economic activity as envisaged in most Western countries. Not all Russian universities have taken such steps and some large-scale classical universities have declined in quality. A key element in whether universities succeed in these new conditions is their commitment to “permanent investigation of the external and internal environments”. JEL: I23, I28, O31, P2