Safety and soundness of banks is an important condition and essential factor for successful economic development of any country. Although considerable research has been carried out on the banking system, only a few studies were entirely devoted to the analysis of the factors effecting the capital structure of commercial banks which is indispensable for their efficient operation. The article provides a brief comparative analysis of the resources of commercial banks in Russia and China. It showed the similarity of the resource structure of the banks of two countries. The analysis of studies on the factors affecting the capital structure of commercial banks of these countries has been carried out. It has been revealed that there is a growing research interest in the study of the factors affecting the capital structure of commercial banks. However, in China the studies are trying to identify mechanisms for the managing factors whereas in Russia they are intended to find managerial solutions to increase the growth rate of the economy by increasing the capital of commercial banks.

In the world theory and practice, investment and project analysis is based on cost-benefit analysis, aimed at assessing commercial and economic efficiency of investment projects. The existing methodologies, guidelines and regulations used by state authorities in different countries to select investment projects for the provision of state support measures include the main aspects and criteria of cost-benefit analysis, but at the same time, contain a number of significant drawbacks. The author has developed a new selection methodology for investment projects to provide state support measures, taking into account imperfections of the existing methodological approaches as well as criteria of the applicable regulations, which is recommended for practices in the territory of the Russian Federation. The article provides the examples on how to adapt it and a comparative analysis of the results of the investment project selection.

This paper attempts to analyze the existing environmental issues in the Russian Federation with the help of macroeconomic indicators, with special emphases being placed on the Human Development Index (HDI). The work presents the algorithm of HDI calculation, examines its advantages and disadvantages and describes the possibility to reflect the environmental situation with the help of HDI. Scientific novelty of the study is the proposed method of computing HDI taking into account the situation in the field of waste management (earlier, macro indicators with environmental adjustment took into account only water and air pollution). Inclusion of waste accumulation parameter tends to decrease most regional HDIs in comparison with their traditional values, which underlines the gravity and relevance of waste challenges in the Russian Federation. The article highlights the shortcomings of the Russian environmental waste policy, and proposes the ways to stimulate the reduction of waste generation and accumulation.

The work is aimed at modelling and analyzing joint behavior of currency exchange rates in 3 developing European countries - the Check Republic, Hungary, and Poland with the use of Copula functions. The study focuses only on in ternal relations with no consideration for any additional (external) factors. When building the models, several elliptic and Archimedean Copula families were estimated, and pair-Copula (vine) constructions of different families were considered. The work reveals the most appropriate in terms of consistency to the available data model based on the multivariate elliptical Student Copula. The work estimates the parameters of inherent interconnection narrowness of the currency rates under study based on the selected model built on the daily data in relation to RUB over the period 2007-2017. Besides, the paper considers two approaches to interval forecasting - with the use of correlated multiplier function and wave function which accounts the most likely value range as of the given date. The time-horizon of the study was 30 days. In the conclusion of the work, a comparative analysis of the proposed approaches was carried out, and the comparison was made between the forecasts and actual figures.

Over the recent years the Russian Federation has been actively promoting the idea of establishing supranational economic unions such as the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The paper presents the short review of the Union formation, the prospects of development and studies the possibility to converge national types of economic activity into a general mechanism. The aim of the research is to analyze operating conditions of national electric power complexes and to reveal the factors interfering the formation of common power market of the Eurasian Economic Union. The research was carried out on the basis of historical, economic, statistical, comparative, logical, factorial, and system analysis methods, which has made it possible to reveal the main obstacles impacted on the formation of the common market. As a result of the analysis, the potential of national economies, the volumes of development and consumption of electric energy, the structure of generating capacities, the cost of electric power of the states and the principles of functioning of the national power markets were presented. In course of the research it has been established that the formation of common electric power market will face the following challenges: the scale of separate national industries in relation to other national electric power complexes; divergent national industry structures influencing the final cost of electric energy tariffs; lack of technical capacity to converge national electric power complexes into a common electric power market, etc. The paper presents the mechanisms for the solution of the specified problems.

Innovative activity in the form of innovative projects aimed at upgrading production potential is a cornerstone for technological advancement of the largest integrated enterprises - regional versatile holdings - which have played a key role in economic development of the Kemerovo region over the last decade. Regional holdings, being conglomerate structures, form innovative processes in various industries of production, and produce various needs for the sphere of innovatics, with some of them being satisfied by other market participants. It forms close interactions in the innovative sphere and leads to the inevitable perception of the methods applied in innovation management accepted at large holdings by all participants of innovative processes, in particular, in case they carry out a part (stage) of process or a major innovative project for a holding as a customer. The degree and forms of impact of innovative activities of holdings on the innovatics of other participants as well as the directions of their interaction seem various; however, participation of large and authoritative holding structures in such projects has become a peculiar trigger giving boost to a new quality of innovative activity at the enterprises. The synergy effect resulting from such an interaction is sure to make a positive impact on innovative development of Kuzbass regional economy.

The system for monitoring the efficiency of regional tourist and recreational services in Russia has not fully been formed yet; it is rather fragmented and represents only accounting and analytical parts. At the same time, monitoring the effectiveness of regional tourism and recreation sector is necessary to improve management and decision-making processes by the coordinating structures. It can also be used as a tool to monitor implementation of the programs and strategies for the development of regional tourist industries. The article presents a unique adaptive-functional model of the system for monitoring the effectiveness of regional tourist and recreational services and defines the structural elements and the information base. The proposed monitoring system is based on the use of methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of tourism activities which involves evaluating the effectiveness of three aspects: social, economic and networking in the regional area of tourist and recreational services.

The paper analyzes the current state of the non-profit sector in the Russian economy on the basis of conducted sociological survey aimed at establishing the degree of awareness of the population regarding the activities of Dmitry Zimin’s foundation and the attitude of the respondents to foreign investment in the Russian educational projects. The study used methods of statistical and structural analysis as well as the synthesis of the respondents’ answers to the questions concerning the activities of Dmitry Zimin’s foundation and foreign investments funds in the Russian educational projects. It reveals that most of the respondents have no idea about the activities of the above foundation, but the attitude of the respondents towards foreign investments in domestic education has been overwhelmingly positive. The article also discusses the impact of legal acts and government regulations on the activities of non-profit organizations. In particular, it concerns the FL No. 121 “On foreign agents”. The work provides a comparative description of this normative act with the similar laws applicable in other countries. The paper not only examines the root causes of the problems arising from attracting foreign investments and donations by non-profit organizations but identifies the main factors that contribute to the growth of the non-profit sector in Russia. Besides, the two-way communication between the non-profit sector and the society affecting the level of public demand for services provided by nonprofit organizations is considered. The results obtained in the course of the study indicate the existence of a large number of obstacles for the fully functioning of non-profit organizations in Russia and attracting cash flows from abroad. In particular, one of the problems revealed in the course of the study is low awareness of the population about the specificity of this method of financing as well as the activities of non-profit organizations as a whole. The recommendations for improvement of the regulation of non-profit organizations include raising awareness of the population on this issue and easing control of the activities carried out by non-profit organizations acting as foreign agents.

The article examines the current problems of production diversification by the example of a specific defense enterprise. One of the main concerns here is the preservation and reproduction of outdated principles for constructing organizational management structures. This is one of the extreme difficulties in the transition of defense industry enterprises towards free market economy. Instead of the existing linear-functional management structure, the paper proposes a new business approach to its construction as one of the options for restructuring the organizational structure, providing for the correct description of all business processes of the enterprise both in cost and in technological sections. For a particular enterprise, it is proposed, within the framework of using the process approach, to consider the general production process as the unity of two main subprocesses: operational and innovation, with the operational process being a solution to the current production and sale issues whereas innovative, respectively, to all challenges for the future production. The model of interaction between the services of innovation and operational management is built, which provides for the setting up a technical support service and an innovation center to improve the organizational structure of the enterprise.

Under the influence of various social phenomena and disasters in society, the architecture of social, cultural, legal and spiritual values tends to change. Over the recent years, the importance of old-fashioned moral fabric, the need to achieve moral benefits has been challenged, and the main task of the people today is to overcome the dependence on negative social phenomena and eliminate their consequences. Social phenomena such as war and famine has accompanied human civilization throughout its history, which was invariably reflected in literature (mythology) at the early dawn of human civilization. However, the analysis of the effects of social disasters on all spheres of human life has not been conducted yet, especially on a global scale. This paper provides a theoretical analysis of the variability of legal culture, behavior, emotional life of individuals under the influence of certain social phenomena, such as war and revolution, famine and epidemic. The analysis is based on the monograph of Pitirim Sorokin “Man and society in conditions of social disasters”. Interest in legal culture as a social phenomenon and process devoted, at different times, sociologists such as Anthony Giddens, L. Petrazhitsky, O. Comte, G. Spencer, Max Weber, Javier Trevigno, Alfred Whitehead. Using the descriptive form of the presentation of the material, the author of the article describes the main sociological concepts used as part of the definitive apparatus of P. A. Sorokin in this monograph. The main factors that change social processes under the pressure of these social phenomena are formulated. Changes in the socio-cultural organization of society in the dynamics are considered. In the sociological aspect, the nomological culture and the degree of its volatility under the pressure of wars and revolutions, famines and epidemics are touched upon. The objective of this article is to correctly perceive the destructive impact of negative social phenomena on the values of the individual in particular and society as a whole. The aim of the work is to analyze the causes of such influence. The actualization of the four social ills listed by Pitirim Sorokin in modern reality has not lost its social significance at the present time. Although in the time described by the author (the twenties - forties of the XX century), the epidemic was only a satellite of war or famine, and in the modern world such support has ceased to be mandatory. The latter, too, shows its allied solidarity and importance only in the presence of war. Therefore, in modern historical segments, it almost does not appear. The key and interesting problem, highlighting which we will debate the arguments of Pitirim Sorokin, is the legal culture as a separate social phenomenon, which is directly dependent on the depth and catastrophic scale of the war or revolution, famine and epidemic.