The relevance of the study of platform employment is determined by the fact that under the influence of digitalization, demographic and other challenges over the past decade, its scale has radically increased in the world. The emergence of digital labour platforms has become one of the important tools of the new organization and structuring of the labour market. The article reveals the scale of platform employment, statistically confirmed signs of its instability, as well as its positive and negative effects on workers, employers, and the economy as a whole. Measures are proposed to enhance its positive and prevent negative effects. The subject of the article is the socio-economic aspects of employment through online platforms. Platforms are digital (virtual) technological devices-software, algorithms, control systems using artificial intelligence and other digital means of labour. These new tools allow legal entities and/or individuals to join the unlimited and unknown circle of other individuals or legal entities (so-called crowd workers) for the production of goods and the provision of specialized services on a paid basis. The purpose of the article is to study the extent of the spread of platform employment, the mechanisms of its economic power over customers, to identify the benefits and risks of platform employment, as well as tools for using the former and limiting the latter. We used general scientific methods (system analysis, comparison, description, generalization, systematization, formalization), special methods (source analysis, SWOT analysis, expert assessment method, statistical methods), institutional approach and other methods of scientific research.

The article deals with the problems and opportunities of development of human capital in Russian “smart” cities. The formation of the digital economy involves new skills, knowledge and competencies associated with the use of new technologies. The high level of human capital is becoming particularly important in “smart” cities, where the introduction of digital technologies into the management system creates various exchange, control and regulation networks that ensure the self-organisation of urban management systems and the optimisation of the environment. The development of human capital becomes possible by choosing the most effective organisational solutions that would ensure access of residents to new technologies and infrastructure and create opportunities for cooperation between city authorities, residents, scientific and technical institutions and business. One of the most effective solutions is the creation of living labs — open innovation systems that provide cooperation of stakeholders, access of residents to new technologies, exchange of skills and experience, implementation of interdisciplinary projects, creation of grassroots innovations, and integration of educational and research activities. In Russia, centres of innovative youth creativity, technoparks, innovation clusters can be used to create living laboratories in “smart” cities. Сenters of innovative youth creativity is the most successful and perspective way to realise the living labs format. In this centres it is possible to build stable connections between the residents and various stakeholders, and provide development of intelligent systems focused on solving problems of urban governance. However, their development requires overcoming such issues as the coordination of the activities of various stakeholders, uneven territorial distribution of organisational opportunities, promotion of interdisciplinary research and development.

In the article, the author examines the trends in taxation of digital companies in the European Union (EU), as well as analyses the challenges posed by digitalisation to the current tax system, alternative approaches to taxation of digital companies; identifies existing problems in the taxation of digital companies; considers the challenges and contradictions of introducing additional taxes on digital services. Based on official EU statistics, the author analyses the specifics and problems of taxation of digital companies in the territory of the EU Member States and the entire region as a whole, and consider the role of various tools in the development of optimal taxation of such companies. The result of the study revealed a separate injustice in the taxation of digital companies compared to traditional companies, identified the main problems of the taxation of digital companies, defined the future direction of development of the taxation of digital companies in the EU.

In this article, the authors analysed the readiness of Russian regions for the integration of technological innovations. In this context, managerial dichotomy “borrowing/creation of innovations” is of fundamental importance. The right choice of the way to increase productivity in the regions of the country represents a nontrivial task since the wrong solution would lead to significant economic losses. The authors proposed to use the concept of technological boundary to increase objectivity managerial decisions making. “Technological boundary” means the relative productivity of the region corresponding to the average productivity in the United States, the excess of which allows the region to develop new production technologies. The use of the concept of technological frontier and comparison of labour productivity in the Russian regions showed that only two regions in the country could act as drivers for the development of their own new technologies. At the same time, the available data and calculations show that in many regions there are leading companies of different industries with extremely high productivity and ability to act as innovative local drivers within the regions. This circumstance made it possible to formulate a multi-step strategy to accelerate the technological diffusion for Russia.

Social networks have firmly entered the lives of billions of global Internet users worldwide. They communicate in social networks, play online games, make purchases, organise online events — exchange content from all walks of life [1, 2]. The most popular and well-known services in Russia are Vkontakte (vk.com), Youtube.com, Facebook.com, Odnoklassniki (Ok.ru), etc. The interfaces of such platforms allo — fake accounts. In this paper, we propose an approach to detect bots using the LiveJournal social network as an example. For this, we investigated the characteristics of the user’s egograph and performed a comparative analysis of the results of the classification algorithms.

The features of the transformation of national innovation systems into an instrument of the dominance of conservative leaders of technologically developed markets are described. The difference in institutional conditions in the activities of companies in global innovation markets leads to the emergence of institutional rents. It is shown that in the framework of the formation of a global innovation system, on the one hand, the institutional strength of transnational corporations as market leaders is increasing, on the other, new global transformation processes are underway. They are based on flexible network structures and the dominance of intermediaries with the transition to a system of intermediary monopoly. Such transformations pose new threats to global crises and open up “windows of opportunity” for the Russian innovation system, which is in an institutional trap in which, due to the dominance of foreign companies in most technologically advanced markets, domestic business is forced to give them high institutional rents and is deprived of it this significant part of the resources for its development.

In the world, the theory of the circular economy and its formation in the real economic system is rapidly developing. Many international organizations (OECD, EU) and countries already have their programs for developing such an economy. The article emphasizes that the practical implementation of the concept of “best available technologies” is vital for the transformation of the current linear model of the economy in many countries, including Russia. In Russia, there are many obstacles to the formation of a circular economy; the inertia of the existing export-raw material model is excellent, which is unsustainable and linear. A dangerous trend is the growth of waste intensity at the macro level. The article analyzes and adapts for Russia the UN Sustainable Development Goals directly related to the circular economy, proposes and quantifies key indicators. In the field of quantitative indicators, four areas have been identified for the development of crucial indicators set for the circular economy in Russia. An author’s formula for structuring the consumption of natural resources taking into account technological efficiency and waste is proposed. The importance of using the proposed toolkit of natural-product verticals combining primary natural resources / raw materials with final consumption and allowing us to estimate the size of the lost primary natural resources is emphasized. The indicators of waste management, in combination with production and consumption systems, are analyzed. For a circular economy, it is fundamentally important to calculate the resource and material intensity indicators of various sectors and their weight in the gross product, which will allow to assess the impact of potential structural changes on waste generation and conduct a comparative analysis with the corresponding indicators of other countries.

Modern regional development strategies are implemented only for the part that meets the interests of corporations. The national economic approach is ignored. Western models within the framework of economics do not correspond to the state of the Russian economy. The theories of the peripheral economy of the 19th century were not only accepted but also realised during the reform of the economy of the Russian Empire. Loss of value with a “non-market” approach to exchange with other countries was considered as a necessary condition for “industrial education of the nation”. Examples of projects implemented in Siberia demonstrate this clearly. It is no secret that many infrastructure projects, in particular transport projects, are obviously unprofitable. Pipeline transport is created in the interests of mainly large resource-exploiting companies that prefer export destinations. The economic block of our government is focused on maximising cash income, and preferably as soon as possible. It should be recognised that the theories (scientific basis, if any) used to reform the Soviet economy of the 90s did not correspond to the object. Our economy was in a different environment of economic regulation, in which other laws apply. We propose to use the forecasting experience based on spatial models of the national economic level, which are based on the laws of political economy: maximisation of the degree of satisfaction of the needs of the country’s population, the law of planned (propor tional) development and the law of value.

The purpose of the article is to show the relationship between the mobilization model of economic development and the modernization of Russia, which was catching up. The mobilization model is understood as a development scheme aimed at achieving emergency goals through exceptional means and emergency organizational forms. The period of the first half of the twentieth century was chosen as the most characteristic for the relationship between this model and the restructuring of the economy when the foundations for further transformation of Russia were laid. Using the method of comparative historical analysis of implemented and alternative modernization options reveals the relevance of the topic. It is related to the fact that modern assessments of the Russian experience mix up the mobilization model with the idea of planning and centralization of control in general, which prevents the use of theoretical and practical achievements of the past. They consist of proving the possibility of combining the plan and the market based on indicative planning.

Amid the state budget deficit, there is a problem of financing social projects. In this regard, new sources of extrabudgetary funding for social issues need to be sought. Financial instruments capable of implementing various social programs include social bonds. This study identifies the main characteristics of social impact bonds (SIB): fundamental principles, mechanism of work. The current work describes the practice of implementing social impact projects on education, poverty, ecology, etc., presenting the experience of the USA and several European countries. This study analyses Russia’s present state and prosperities in the development of SIB projects. The research defines the unique catalyst-funds role in processes of impact investment, as well as the suitability of their creation in Russia. The author analyses opportunities and likely risks from social impact projects realization.