The article shows how the process of the Chinese economy’s digitalization, which began in urban areas, manufacturing, and rich provinces of China, now starts to engulf the rural areas. The digital gap between certain provinces and between urban and rural areas must be liquidated as part of the Chinese government’s strategy to make the country a thriving innovation society by the mid‑21st century. The article lays out basic directions and means of bridging the digital gap between urban and rural areas and several aspects of digital modernization in China’s agriculture. A particular focus is on developing green, environmentally friendly agriculture and the birth of a green way of life in rural areas and smart villages.

The subject of the study is the risks of the development of digital currencies. The study suggests that when solving the existing technological problems of creating a digital currency, Suppose we are talking about digital currencies not controlled by the state and the central bank. The study suggests that after solving the existing technological problems concerning the creation of digital currency, a reorientation of the national entities can occur to make payments in digital currencies to anonymize payments, avoid taxes, and reduce the costs associated with the transfer. As a result, the capabilities of national state bodies in regulating the economic activities of economic entities may decrease. The share of their shadow interaction may also increase. Problems in the performance of the fiscal function of the state may become more acute. The purpose of this research is to conceptualize the risks of the emergence and regulation of the use of supranational digital currencies as a means of payment. The moving of national cash flows to the supranational level – to the sphere of digital currency exchange will negatively affect the completeness of filling the state budget and its ability to perform basic functions. This process will create a real threat to economic security. The study reveals aspects of the development of the digital ruble and the possibility of reducing the risks of using digital currencies by creating new mechanisms for state regulation of economic entities. The research examines the prospects for reducing the attractiveness of supranational digital currencies.

The article analyses the consequences of dividing large companies into priority and non-priority ones for the state by including them in the List of the system-forming companies and carrying out appropriate support procedures in relation to them. We have shown that such procedures for the state were rather institutional than financial and costly since support was transferred to large state-owned banks that carried out it while maintaining the principles of self-sufficiency of investments. Comparison of two samples of companies included in this List and their counterparts, not from the List demonstrates a clear difference in their dynamics before the adoption of the List and after it. Priority companies are steadily and many times (3–4 times) growing in terms of revenue, non-priority ones “stagnate”, remaining practically at the same level even at current prices. The almost one-time division of companies by priority in 2009 turned out to be stable over the next decade, which allows us to speak of the resulting redistribution of markets and their transformation in favour of the groups of leaders formed due to it in the respective industry markets. The analysis allows us to evaluate this example as a weak institutional impact, with a noticeable sectoral and macroeconomic effect. We noted that a change in the architecture of markets after the described impact leads not only to a change in the strategies of their participants but also to a restructuring of mechanisms of state regulation.

Based on the analysis of the current situation in the domestic food market and the assessment of the current regulatory framework, the article substantiates the need for a transition to a new model of planning and managing the country’s food security, which can be conventionally called the «big challenges» model. Ensuring food security is an ongoing process characterized by a periodic change in tactical tasks and guidelines, mechanisms for their solution against the background of a growing lack of information and a constantly changing external environment. We formulated the main principles of the new model: a combination of strategic planning and operational-tactical management of the development of the domestic food market, the integration of long-term structural measures to increase the income of the Russian population with the mechanisms of domestic food aid, the formation of a risk management system, including price risks and risks arising from export products of the agro-industrial complex, scenario forecasting. The existing regulatory framework in the field of strategic planning and management does not imply the implementation of such a model, and the methods and instruments of state policy used do not make it possible to implement its basic principles in practice. The paper formulates the main directions and mechanisms for adjusting the new model in relation to the tasks of ensuring the food security of the Russian population.

The article analyses institutional changes in monetary and financial policy mechanisms, including the temporary «freezing» of the Stability and Growth Pact as an extraordinary anti-crisis policy measure under the influence of the COVID‑19 pandemic. We considered the anti-crisis instruments of the operational mechanism of the unified monetary policy and their impact on the «inflation» of the ECB balance sheet. Trends and directions of strengthening the regulatory role of the ECB and the general budget of the EU in the integration processes in the European Union are analyzed. We based our research on dialectical, systemic and institutional approaches. Also, we used methods of comparative and statistical analysis. Based on our study, we revealed the features of the new approaches of the European Central Bank to the broad interpretation of the monetary policy strategy. Further, we identified transformations in the operating mechanism and tools of the unified monetary policy under the influence of the COVID‑19 pandemic. Finally, we determined and assessed the priority orientation of the EU general budget expenditures for 2021–2027 and new collective funds to tackle the crisis to promote innovation and improve the competitiveness of the European economy.

Explanation of the role high-tech industries play in ensuring sustainable economic growth is significant in the contemporary environment. Also, it is relevant in theoretical discourses of modernization, neo-industrialization, and industrial policy that are similar in their structure. The purpose of the study is to assess the factors of dynamics of the most high-tech industries and the entire Soviet industry when having faced economic growth slowdown, with emphasis on institutional and technological components. The key hypothesis is that in the high-tech industries in the 1960s and 1980s, the institutional environment appeared to be a more significant factor than the technological level. The variety of the sources utilized includes calculations and estimates from the research literature and selected indicators from the official statistics. The econometric analysis of the data is based on an exogenous growth model in the form of the Cobb- Douglas production function, augmented with human capital in Mankiw, Romer, Weil (1992), modified in Didenko, Grineva (2020) by introducing variables that proxy for institutional and general technological dynamics. In this paper, we test it using lagged variables in per capita and rate-of-change terms. The marginal rate of technical substitution of physical by human capital, measured in such a way and indicating the flexibility of management of factors of production, exposed a stable level both in the entire industry of the USSR and its high-tech branches. At the same time, our key hypothesis found weak support.

The inequality of world development as a global «challenge» creates instability of the world economy, leads to an increase in social tension, and along with the threat of climate change, is a priority problem for humankind. The study aims to reveal the parameters and dynamics of global inequality, show its direction, tendencies, and assess the Western and Chinese models («responses») to this challenge, which is a highly urgent scientific and practical task. The research methods are based on developing the concept of inequality in world development using quantitative and qualitative analysis following the «challenge-response» law. For quantitative analysis, we used modern methods of statistical analysis, in particular, quantile regressions. Based on the received results, we concluded and substantiated that the main challenge of our time is the inequality of world development, which has increased under the influence of the pandemic. We have shown that despite the decrease in the share of high-income countries (notably the G7 countries) in world GDP, the trend towards an increase in the gap in per capita income between high and middle-income countries has continued. We also revealed the indicator of labour share in GDP for high and middle-income countries, confirms the hypothesis of increasing inequality between capital owners and workers in several countries over the past 20 years, particularly the United States. We have shown that the Western model of the world order is not focused on solving inequality. The results obtained can be used to develop concepts and models for reducing global inequality.

In the Russian Federation, restoring the financial solvency of defence industry companies (DIC) only through systematic debt coverage without a pool of the state institutional efforts and business entities is unlikely. It is indicated by the continuing instability of the global economic system and uncertainty about the prospects for its development, combined with a reduction in the resources available to the state, low profitability of defence industries, and a high level of debt load. In these conditions, the reform of the asset management system in state-owned corporations (SC) of the defence industry, the search for new development models in their clusters and holdings become uncontested. The article shows the directions of transformation of the management system using the example of the state corporation «Rostech»: gradual further consolidation of disparate assets by industry within several years and changes in their management

structure (formation of unified control centres and design bureaus, specialization centres, competence centres, the introduction of a divisional structure for managing production assets, etc.). The study contains an analysis of the key components of the business strategy of The State Corporation «Rostech» formation of «national champions»; the transition from «point» import substitution to export-oriented; the development of effective cooperation and the creation of national production chains; the servitization of high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries.

The article aims to systematize the characteristics of new industrial models that have developed in the divisions of «Rostec» Group of Companies. The transition to new control systems and industrial models are illustrated by the ongoing changes in the aviation cluster of «Rostec» Group (Russian Helicopters Holding, United Propulsion Corporation) and the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC). The author considered the measures of massive institutional and investment support from the state for defence companies implementing new industrial models. When working on the material of the article, the author used methods of comparison and systematization. Also, the methodological apparatus of factor, structurallogical and institutional analysis was applied, proving the consistency of state policy and the activities of defence companies transforming their industrial models.