The research analyses the question of to what extent the focus on state projects between Russia and China is based on the Russian desire to switch from an economy that is dependent on natural resources. Through the analysis of existing capabilities of the Russian companies to propose opportunities for innovative and technological projects that can be used in the long run. At the same time, the research will focus on energy trends and their presence in Russian and Chinese energy markets.

The idea that high levels of economic inequality negatively affect the rate and sustainability of economic growth is quite popular in the scientific literature. Therefore, it is usually proposed to take some regulative measures to reduce economic inequality in order to boost economic growth. Should the thesis be considered as a populist slogan or a scientifically proven fact? This article analyzes the results of 22 empirical studies on the relationship between economic inequality and economic growth conducted during the period of 1917–2018. We used meta-analysis to examine and systematize the results of previous empirical studies. The literature review and the analysis of the results from previous studies mainly indicate a negative relationship between economic inequality and economic growth (59% of the previous empirical research). The research gap is that on average these studies are rather controversial to each other and we cannot say that we understand these relationships correctly. To answer the questions concerning the interrelations between income inequality and sustainable economic growth, we made our own empirical research. To do this we used a qualitative pairwise correlation comparison method and analyzed panel data of 39 countries for the period of 1980–2019. The correlation between income inequality and sustainable economic growth was evaluated basing on the Gini index (GI) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Our calculations and analysis show that on average, in approximately 57.8% of moments in the period between 1980–2018, this correlation was positive in our sample of countries. The novelty of our study is that we show in detail how income inequality and economic growth are interconnected for each particular country and on average for the whole sample of countries. In addition, we used the inequality transparency index to adjust our calculations for data quality. Three hypotheses were tested in the study. Only one of them was confirmed by our research. The level of income inequality determines the direction of its impact on economic growth. An increase in income inequality in countries with low levels of inequality in most cases boosts economic growth and vice versa. Additionally, we received partial confirmation of our other hypothesis and found out that the correlation between economic growth and income inequality is definitely more negative for countries with low income and more positive in countries with high income per capita.

The paper aims to analyze the decision making based on expert polls for short-term foreign exchange (FX) forecasting from the viewpoint of the economic behavior theory. The paper offers the assessment of the problem of decision making for forecasting and investment into foreign currency. This study analyzes the relative accuracy of expert polls and forecasts, based on historical data, in the prediction of the most liquid currency pairs (EUR/USD, USD/JPY, GBP/USD) as well as USD/RUB currency pair on time horizons 1, 2, 6, and 12 months. Observation period lasted from January 2018 to January 2019. For EUR/USD (56-62 experts), the polls were more accurate than historical simulations. For GBP/USD (28-70 experts), historical simulations were more accurate than polls. For USD/JPY and USD/RUB, historical simulations are better earlier, while polls are slightly better later. The main conclusion is that EUR/USD historical modeling is usually less accurate on the horizon more than half a year as compared with expert polls for making the decisions about the future exchange rate.

<span>В работе исследуется рынок зеленых облигаций</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceBefore"> </span><span>–</span><span class="myHorizontalScaleForEmDashSpaceAfter"> </span><span>ключевой инструмент финансирования растущего сектора «зеленой» экономики. Анализируются особенности ценообразования на этом рынке в части наличия специфических премий/дисконтов за риск. Методами исследования выступают обзорный анализ и систематизация результатов научных и эмпирических исследований по проблематике оценки премий за риск, предоставляемых финансовым рынком в период с 2007–2019 гг. инвесторам зеленых облигаций. Выявленные значительные расхождения в стоимости привлеченного капитала (от -18 до +12 базисных пунктов к стоимости аналогичных коричневых облигаций) главным образом зависят от деловой репутации и статуса эмитентов этих бумаг. Для мелких и средних частных эмитентов зеленых облигаций стоимость привлеченного капитала может оказаться выше, чем для аналогичных эмитентов классического долгового рынка, не обладающих зеленым статусом.</span>

The paper explored the problem of income inequality in Russia in the context of the sustainable development of Russia. The research starts from the historical analysis of income inequality dynamics in Russia. Then, we discussed the problem of the inconsistency of data, comparing different sources (official data from the Rosstat database and alternative data from the World inequality database). The purpose of this research was to assess Russian specifics of income inequality and answer the question of if the income inequality in Russia is excessively high and needs extra government regulation in order to reach the trajectory of advanced sustainable development. To this end, we made intercountry comparisons and used the method of building income inequality heatmaps basing on a dataset from the World Inequality Database. Our sample includes the per-adult equivalent of household market income distribution in 27 developed and developing countries and world regions. The result of the research was that there are many countries in the world wherein the differentiation of income exceeds Russia’s. Russian income inequality is lower than the world average, but the structure of the Russian household income distribution stands out by an extreme concentration of national income in the hands of the top 1%. We supported our results via the independent data from the Credit Suisse wealth inequality report, connecting a record level of wealth inequality in Russia with its problem of top 1% income inequality. It is recommended to gradually increase marginal tax rates on the income and wealth of the top 1% and continue developing an effective progressive tax system in Russia.