The article discusses the problem of the reducing life quality of Russians in the new conditions of the market economy. The Russian phenomenon of the use of "palm oil" as a priority raw material in food production is analyzed against the decrease in its use in the EU countriesand against the expansion of the daily diet of the Chinese due to increased dairy food consumption. Opposing points of view of key industry associations (the Dairy Union of Russia and the Fat and Oil Union of Russia) have been identified and are presented in the context of palm oil use in dairy food production. The results of a statistical study of the demand for palm oil from Russian importers against the background of an increase in the value-added tax rate from 10 to 20% in October 2019 are presented. The data of customs statistics on palm oil imports were analyzed in the context of countries of origin, nine codes of the commodity nomenclature of foreign economic activity, months and years within the five-year period of 2016–2020, as well as in the context of the importing regions of Russia. The results of statistical processing of data by the Federal Customs Service revealed no effect of the sharp increase in the VAT rate on the volume of palm oil imports. The analysis of foreign statistics revealed a significant presence of actors in the chemical industry among transnational companies that are the largest consumers of palm oil. The model of entrepreneurial behavior based on consumption in palm oil production, formed and widely spread in the Russian food industry market, is criticized. 98% of palm oil and its fractions imported into Russia goes to the needs of food industry enterprises, and the authors consider that the foreign ownership of these enterprises plays an important role. In the authors' opinion, in many respects, the latter fact determined our country's ranking first in the food chemistry sector in the distribution of published patent applications by technology field for the top 10 origins in 2014–2016. In this respect, Russia is far ahead of China, the USA, Japan, South Korea, Germany, the UK,France, and Switzerland. In China, systematic research is being carried out on the ratio of palm oil use in the food (primarily, instant noodles, other fast food) and non-food (chemical industry, including cosmetics production) sectors.
This article examines loss-making entrepreneurial activity, which is understood as the entrepreneurial activity of companies that have shown unprofitable results of their economic activities for several periods. The reasons for this can be different, such as using the company as cost centers in a group of companies; reflection of incomplete profits through transfer pricing, cost reduction (payment of taxes, fines), falsification of reporting data, etc. The main, final "beneficiaries" and "creditors" of companies' activities are the state and foreign investors. They deal with the consequences of such activities that range from a decrease in tax revenues to a distortion of official statistics that serve as an important signal for economic policy. Consequently, there is a need to assess the performance of such unprofitable companies. The aim of the article is to develop methodological aspects of measuring the scale of shadow economic activity, identify problems in such a complex and multifaceted process, and propose ways to solve them. The calculation methodology is based on the analysis of the dynamics of the development of companies in Tomsk Oblast in the period from 1991 till 2021. The results of unprofitable "entrepreneurial" activities are assessed based on the analysis of the economic efficiency of 83,549 companies in Tomsk Oblast. The Index of Bad Faith is made to assess the size of the shadow economy as a percentage of GRP. It combines the factors of income from entrepreneurial activities (data on it is distorted), hired workers (unregistered or hidden from the authorities), and envelope wages. The share of the retained number of inactive companies for 10 years is found, minus the rate of natural decline in the number of companies in the total number of retained companies for 10 years from 1991 till 2001 and from 2001 till 2021. The average value obtained for these two periods is the size of the Index of Bad Faith equal to 39% and showing an upward trend. The index retains its structure and is working regardless of the organizational and legal form and industry of the enterprise, which is proved by the example of unitary enterprises and companies in the construction industry. The results of the study show that most of the existing methods are applicable to assess the state as a whole, and, due to the lack of indicators, they cannot be applied in assessing the shadow economy of the region. The proposed Index can be used to assess the shadow digital economy in the regions. Methods for minimizing such "unprofitable activities" were also proposed: creating an information accounting and analytical system, reducing the tax burden, systematizing the processes and accounting for the registration of companies in order to prevent the formation of new ones after admitting the reasons for unfair business conduct of the previous ones in terms of evasion in repaying debts to creditors, etc.
In the present study, the authors attempt to systematically consider the amount of accumulated scientific knowledge about human capital. A critical analysis of the array of research works allows seeing the full coverage of various aspects of human capital, eliciting problem areas, and defining possible trajectories for the development of the theory of human capital. The above explains the aim of the study, which is to analyze the works of domestic and foreign researchers on key aspects of the theory of human capital and to form a critical view of the degree of knowledge of these aspects. To reach the aim, the authors selected a representative sample of works by domestic and foreign authors, analyzed the content of the selected works, and made a review reflecting the key aspects of the theory of human capital and the degree of their study. The research methodology the authors used includes a systematic approach and analysis, and a tabular method. The results obtained indicate that by now the key aspects of the theory of human capital have sufficient research coverage. On the other hand, the diversity of researchers' views, approaches and methods has led to a lack of a single opinion on a number of significant issues in the academic community. As a result, it hinders the further development of the theory of human capital and its successful application. Thus, at present, there is no generally accepted and well-established definition of human capital and a unified understanding of its socioeconomic essential nature. Changes in the essential nature of human capital under the influence of transformational processes occurring in modern society are not revealed. There are no relevant works of the past two to three years covering the role of human capital in regional development, while this topic is significant for Russia. There is no generally accepted methodological framework for assessing the value of human capital at the regional level, which hinders the analysis of accumulated human capital and trends in this process. In the field of analysis of factors of human capital accumulation, there are no works that highlight factors that affect the implementation of existing human capital. There are no works that reflect methodological approaches to managing the accumulation and distribution of human capital. Thus, the authors come to the conclusion that one of the most relevant directions in the further development of the theory of human capital can be the development of an inter-territorial (interregional) balance of human capital. This strand of research should cover a wide range of issues, including the development of methodological tools for assessing the accumulated value of human capital, identifying trends and factors that affect its distribution and final use, and developing approaches to managing the accumulation and rational distribution of human capital.
In the article, the authors analyze behavioral practices and consumer strategies of digital resistance. They aim to identify the ways to minimize the adverse effect of digitalization. The general framework for this study of digital resistance is the diffusion of innovations theory, which explains resistance to digitalization as an inevitable process that flows simultaneously with and antagonistic to digital innovation. The research is based on the materials of a preliminary in-depth interview about the level of consumer resistance to digitalization. The article proposes an original methodology for measuring the level of readiness to adopt digital innovations. It also shows the results of its testing on a small quota sample. The methodology is a tool to test a potential consumer's willingness to adopt general and industry-specific digital.
The article examines the features of distribution of a new investment instrument for the country – individual investment accounts (IIAs) – in the regions of Russia in 2015–2019. The author believes that the introduction of IIAs as an instrument for private investment in the domestic financial market was associated with the need to more actively attract domestic investment to the national economy when access to external financing was seriously limited. The article analyzes data on the number of open and declared individual investment accounts of types A and B in Russia, draws conclusions about regional imbalances in their development, identifies leading and outsider regions, and outlines the prospects for further research of the problem. IIAs are a completely new and one of the "youngest" financial and investment instruments on the Russian securities market. The emergence of IIAs as an instrument for private investment in the securities market was seen as a significant increase in the openness of the Russian stock market for private investors and as a promising way to attract domestic investment in the national economy of Russia. IIA is an excellent opportunity to diversify one's investments; however, simple calculations show that the percentage of funds recoverable from the amount of assets on the IIA is significantly small. Summarizing the results of the comparative analysis, it can be stated that at the moment IIAs have not yet become a widespread and massive instrument in Russia for attracting domestic investment to the country's economy. Today, only 0.07% of the working-age population of the Russian Federation owns such accounts. There are regions with only single cases of opening and declaring IIAs by citizens, and some regions do not have a single IIA opened during the five years of this instrument's existence on the market. In general, the IMS market is characterized by significant imbalances. Against the background of outsider regions, there are also leading regions in which the opening of IIAs has become a fairly widespread phenomenon. These are the Central and Volga Federal Districts, and among the constituent entities of the federation are Moscow, Moscow Oblast, and Tatarstan. One of the pressing problems today is identifying the reasons for the existence of such disproportions and taking measures to popularize IIAs as an instrument for internal investment in Russia, especially in the regions that are outsiders of the investment process.
