Digitalization has made the role of the population’s ICT skills more important in all areas life, and the labor market is no exception. An important area of influence of digitalization is the growing demand for digital skills in various occupations. Much attention has recently been devoted to developing digital skills among Russia’s workers. The purpose of this article is to determine how the characteristics of those employed contribute to the formation of various groups of digital skills. This information is necessary for the development of public policy. Because workers require different ICT skills, several indicators of digital skills were studied. Merged data from the Russian labor force survey and the sample survey on the use of information technology and information and telecommunication networks by the population for 2022 was analyzed using econometric methods (Poisson regression, ordinal logit regression, probit regression, and Shapley decomposition). It was found that the level of education and age attained along with access to ICT infrastructure in a household are the main factors in the development of all the groups of digital skills considered except for the most advanced ones. More complex digital skills are mostly correlated with occupational characteristics. Possession of advanced digital skills is also affected by gender (men are more likely than women to have them), place of residence (inhabitants of Moscow and the adjacent region are favored), and education (those with higher education tend to have more such skills). These results underline the importance of developing digital skills among students in educational programs at all levels (not only in higher education) as well as among older employees as part of advanced training programs, while also increasing the availability of ICT infrastructure to households.

The article presents the main results of an assessment of the impact of economic well-being on fertility in Russia. Interest in this topic stems from the contrast between the recent decline in the fertility rate of the Russian Federation and the significant increase in fertility during the first decade after the government implemented measures to boost the birth rate and support families. The study is based on available microdata from the Statistical Survey of Income and Participation in Social Programs (SSIPSP) conducted annually by Rosstat. The population studied consisted of young families, and the following factors were selected as determinants of material living conditions: household income, earnings of family members, social benefits, workdays of paid employment, access to plots land, housing conditions, and the population of the communities in which the families permanently reside. The list of factors was limited by the scope of SSIPSP questionnaires and the sample size. Statistical models were used to assess the combined influence of the factors studied on the probability that a young family would have children. Subsets of the most influential and statistically significant factors were identified, and the factors included in the models were ranked by their relative importance. Identifying the most important determinants of the birth rate in Russia may inform potential corrective public policy measures aimed at counteracting the country’s current trend toward depopulation. This study should be useful in adjusting current family and childhood support measures, which have not had the intended effect on fertility for several years.

Spatial disproportion in Russia’s socio-economic development has resulted in significant variations in the economic conditions and wellbeing of the population. This makes the development and assessment of regional policy particularly important. The evolution of Russia’s recent policy toward its regions and options for the future are examined by means of a comprehensive retrospective analysis of the normative legal acts regulating the structure and powers of the Russian Federation’s federal executive authorities from 1990 to the present. The article identifies four stages in the formation of the institutional structure for regional socio-economic policy and shows that considerable experience in its institutional support has been accumulated over the past thirty years. The article argues, however, that the main determinants of change in the structure of the authorities responsible for the development and implementation of regional policy were seldom new goals, tasks, and priorities, but particular events requiring an emergency response or adjustment of public image. The current distribution of regional policy functions across several ministries does not facilitate the strategic development of the constituent regions of the Federation and is aimed instead at accomplishing individual tasks and developing certain preferred territories. The research conducted complements existing studies by substantiating the stages in institutional support for regional policy implemented by the federal ministries of the Russian Federation, establishing the features of each of the stages identified, and describing the current state of this institutional support. Because of deep differentiation in regional development, increased foreign policy pressure, expansion of economic sanctions, and budget deficits, the practical value of this study lies in facilitating the search for a new and effective model of regional policy based on a common understanding of the strategy for regional development, the justifications for allocation of resources, and harmonization of interethnic relations.

In this paper the authors have analyzed the effectiveness of Russian electricity reform from the viewpoint of changes in greenhouse gas emissions. Even though reducing carbon dioxide emissions is one of the most important declared long-term goals of the world community, previous academic works have not examined the results of electricity reforms in this fashion. This paper should be informative in developing the current approach to evaluating any economic reform. Although reducing the industry’s environmental footprint was not one of the main goals of the liberalization of Russia’s energy sector, the paper hypothesizes that it may have made such a contribution. The authors identify two main mechanisms for reducing emissions. The first is by increasing the efficiency of electricity generation through wholesale market forces which favor more efficient producers, and this is reinforced by the desire of new (private) owners in the electricity generation sector to reduce costs. Both of these factors contribute to greater use of efficient power plants, which results in higher utilization rates of their installed capacity and helps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The second mechanism is a program of investment in new, more modern capacities, which was one of the conditions for the privatization of enterprises undertaken during Russian electricity reform. The authors propose using the club convergence method, which has the advantage of simplicity and a minimal required set of necessary data, for identification of the relationship between Russian electricity reform and the dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions. Based on their analysis, the authors conclude that the reform of the electric power industry in Russia could be one of the factors that affected the dynamics of greenhouse gas emissions.