Objective: to study the conceptual characteristics of non-monetary inequality in the modern Russian and foreign literature.Methods: analysis and synthesis, comparative analysis, generalization.Results: the article presents the results of a review of the modern Russian and foreign works on the study of non-monetary aspects of inequality. The paper substantiates the limitations of monetary and metric approaches in assessing the society stratification. The main approaches to the study of non-monetary differentiation are identified: deprivation, discrimination, self-identification and resource approaches. The author’s interpretation of the “non-monetary inequality” category is presented. It is shown that non-monetary inequality is a societal phenomenon. The conclusion is made that it is necessary to supplement income differentiation with evaluation of the characteristics of non-monetary inequality. In the future, it would be possible to develop and test a methodology for assessing non-monetary inequality of a region’s population.Scientific novelty: the author’s interpretation of non-monetary inequality is presented; the features of this socio-economic category are defined.Practical significance: the main provisions of the article can be used for further theoretical and methodological research and practical recommendations for reducing non-monetary differentiation.

Objective: to demonstrate alternative solutions to the problem of ensuring the quality of goods and services, taking into account the interests of all participants in the process of commodity and money exchange, to outline the main directions for building a quality management system based on the use of the existing scientific developments in the field of economic theory and the theory of quality management as an integral element of economics.Methods: the research is based on a systematic approach, as well as the basic provisions of the theory of new institutional economics (neoinstitutionalism), which expands the microeconomic analysis, involving factors that are not taken into account by theclassical microeconomic theory, in particular, transaction costs.Results: the study established a direct connection between the target function of the main economic agents interacting during the commodity-money exchange and the characteristic of the exchange object quality, expressed in the form of total costs (transformational and transactional); the role of unilateral account of transformation costs in the formation of opportunistic behavior of the manufacturer is determined and, as a consequence, the need for mandatory accounting of transaction costs in the formation of analytical concepts of the theory of quality management. The possibility is shown of applying an isomorphic, adequate model of the balance of interests of participants in commodity-money exchange, based on the theory of energy dynamics.Scientific novelty: for the first time, the work substantiates the existence of a direct connection between the target function of the main economic agents functioning and the commodity-monetary exchange with the characteristics of the exchange object quality.Practical significance: using the results obtained in the course of research, a manager may design a quality management system focused on meeting the needs of all participants in the commodity exchange.

Objective: to identify trends in the use of property by entrepreneurs after the introduction of A. Harberger’s system and the complete digitalization of property relations.Methods: the article uses the methodology of the theory of inventive problem solving, which is used to assess the consequences of digitalization of property relations and the introduction of A. Harberger’s system.Results: having analyzed A. Harberger’s system, the author states that it is applicable only for the digitalization of property relations, since it provides maximum transparency of property rights, income generated by it, and the qualitative features of this property. A. Harberger’s system encourages the continuous transfer of property from one person to another, which can lead to a “no-property” regime. As a result, the entrepreneur’s property and profit-making techniques become publicly available, which undermines the foundations of entrepreneurship in the digital economy. Entrepreneurs find themselves in a property trap.Scientific novelty: in accordance with the methodology of the theory of inventive problem solving, the article identifies property objects classified by their functions: “engine”, “working body”, “transmission”, “computer”, and “energy source”. It is stated that the trends of technological improvement and digitalization turn the “computer” into the dominant factor of production, around which all production processes are built. This will increase its complexity, as well as the cost of purchasing and maintaining it. The production versatility of the “computer” will bring to the fore entrepreneurs who reduce the cost of the “computer” by providing its capacity for rent to the widest possible range of persons. As a result, today’s entrepreneurs will be transformed into administrators of access to the computer and into entrepreneurs of the non-digital, utility sector of the economy.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used to develop measures to maintain business activity in the new conditions.

Objective: to consider the evolution of types and forms of money, to classify the varieties of cryptocurrency and its functions, to explain the mechanisms for issuing and circulation of cryptocurrencies, as well as to identify problems in the field of legal regulation of digital virtual currencies in the Russian Federation.Methods: the work used a dialectical combination of the principles of a systematic approach and various ontological knowledge through a range of methods of historical, empirical, comparative, logical, statistical and predictive cognition.Results: it is shown that the modern global monetary system is evolving towards decentralization; it is based on cryptocurrencies issued as part of a functional combination of public and private blockchains; cryptocurrencies require full legalization, not prohibition at the legislative level; cryptocurrencies are types of digital virtual assets accounted for on accounts (crypto wallets) identified within.Scientific novelty: for the first time, the article shows that it is erroneous to consider cryptocurrency to be just a property and to limit its operations just to cross obligations for transferred goods and rendered works (services). Cryptocurrencies are decentralized virtual money based on mathematical algorithms using open-source asymmetric cryptography techniques and consensus-based platforms. Users need both external (cryptocurrency) and internal (tokens) currencies to increase the efficiency of using traditional assets (property, goods and services) in the economy.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used to develop a glossary, terms and definitions of cryptocurrency, mechanisms for regulating its issue and circulation in Russia, as well as making amendments to the draft law “On digital currency and amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation” that are adequate to the economic nature of cryptocurrency.

Objective: to formulate the main problems in the field of organization and functioning of the infrastructure of the Russian e-government mechanism and to propose the possible ways to solve them.Methods: system-structural approach; dialectical method aimed at identifying the patterns of the dynamics of processes or phenomena; reporting method, helping to obtain data from official sources; general scientific methods: analysis, generalization, abstraction, classification.Results: the analysis of scientific approaches to the understanding of e-government is carried out. The main models of interaction between the state, citizens, business, and non-profit organizations are considered, as well as optimization of document circulation and information exchange. The study of the state of the national e-government infrastructure has shown that implementation of this concept has been generally completed in Russia. At the same time, the current e-government mechanism has a number of organizational, financial and legal problems. The author offers some recommendations to solve them, for example, a simpler process of service rendering.Scientific novelty: based on the analysis of foreign and Russian literature, legal acts and practices of their implementation, the current state of e-government infrastructure in Russia is assessed, and promising ways of e-government further development are formulated based on the elimination of shortcomings in its infrastructure.Practical significance: the provisions of the article can be used in the practical activities of public authorities to modernize the e-government system.

Objective: to assess the relationship between the digital infrastructure of households and the average rate of economic growth in the regions, taking into account short- and long-term spatial dependencies.Methods: global Moran and Geary spatial correlation indices, local Moran spatial correlation index, econometric model with spatial autoregression lag, econometric model with spatial interaction in errors, maximum likelihood method.Results: a positive spatial relationship for the gross regional product per capita and the share of the population using the Internet was shown; the positive influence of neighboring regions on economic growth in the given region was confirmed; local spatial clusters of regions by the share of the population using the Internet were found; conditional β-convergence of the average growth rates of the gross regional product both short- and long-term was revealed; Solow’s conclusion about the decreasing return of the excess factor of production was confirmed; a positive impact was found of the number of active subscribers of mobile broadband access to the Internet per 100 inhabitants on the average growth rate of gross regional product, on the share of households having personal computer, on the proportion of households having access to the Internet, and on the average growth rate of gross regional product.Scientific novelty: for the first time, the article uses Russian regional panel data for the period from 2014 to 2017 to measure the relationship between the digital infrastructure of households and the average rate of economic growth, taking into account spatial dependencies.Practical significance: the main conclusions of the article can be used in scientific and practical activities to develop measures to increase the rate of regional economic growth by stimulating investment and consumer demand of households.

Objective: to research a new financial tool, namely, digital currencies of central banks, to analyze the essence of stablecoins as a new financial tool, and to assess the risks of non-compliance with the AML (“anti-money laundering”) and KYC (“know your customer”) requirements when stablecoins are distributed.Methods: the research used methods of system analysis, dialectical method and its derivatives, methods and principles of determinism, induction, deduction and hypothesis. Functional and statistical methods were used to systematize the obtained data.Results: digital currencies, though rejected by many states, are becoming more and more widely spread. In this regard, the concept of creating state-owned digital currencies is the most discussed one in the global financial community. In some countries, central banks are already testing them. However, their global spread has been impeded by concerns about the possibility of their use for criminal purposes. In the Russian Federation, where the state has currently no established position on the nature of digital financial assets, discussions are also underway on the possibility of creating an interstate digital currency. The article discusses the features and types of stablecoins and their advantages relative to other types of cryptocurrencies. The main advantages of the Central Bank’s digital currency and its application in accounting are considered. According to the study results, the main risks associated with the spread of state digital currencies were clarified.Scientific novelty: for the first time in the Russian legal science, the study evaluates the concept of digital currencies of central banks from the position of key risks that prevent their widespread distribution and implementation. The main risks in the field of countering money laundering and compliance with the KYC principle, which assumes the final beneficiary identification, are shown.Practical significance: the research results presented in the paper can be used to improve the state policy on the legalization of digital financial assets, including state digital currencies.

Objective: legal analysis of the activities of contractual system subjects engaged in state (municipal) procurement, including the study of sources of the contract system legal regulation, the main violations in procurement and the legal responsibility of contractual system subjects.Methods: dialectical method, which contributed to revealing the issue in its relationship with other phenomena, processes and subjects; general (synthesis, analysis, deduction) and specific scientific legal methods, such as comparative legal and formal legal methods.Results: based on the analysis of legislation, judicial practice and doctrinal provisions, the paper concludes that the problematic aspects emerging in the implementation of contract activities require the use of methodologically verifi d approaches, expressed in the signs of efficiency, quality and consistency in their resolution, taking into account the undoubtedly paramount national-wide importance of the procurement system. The elimination of legal conflicts arising in contract activities regulation, as well as the prerequisites for their formation, and the implementation of measures in the field of positive (also called prospective) legal liability (legal literacy, competence, professionalism, high legal awareness and increased self-responsibility of business entities) allow concluding that the further development of the contract system of the Russian Federation will take place against the background of consistent legislative regulation, with a decrease in the number of claims of regulatory authorities to business entities (resulting in the reduction of legal liability cases), with a cost-effective component of this process.Scientific novelty: the article for the first time presents a legal analysis of activity of the contract system subjects in terms of types of legal liability to which the subjects of these relationships are brought.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the research can be used as a basis for further study of the legal regulation of contract system subjects’ activities, as well as in pedagogical activities when training specialists (contract managers) in the field of contract relations.

Objective: to analyze the formation and development of the UK anti-bribery legislation for possible use of foreign regulations when reforming the Russian anti-corruption legislation.Methods: as the methodological basis of the research, the author used various general scientific techniques and methods of cognition: modeling, analysis, synthesis, formal-logical approach, and specific scientific methods.Results: the author highlights in detail the program approaches and regulatory legal acts of the United Kingdom regulating its anti-corruption policy in the field of bribery, that ensure a productive combination of legal and social measures to counter the phenomenon under consideration. In the course of the research, the author comes to the conclusion that, in modern conditions, it is relevant to study law enforcement and legislative experience in combating bribery in the UK as one of the leading states that are most actively engaged in legislative activities in the field of anti-corruption. Until recently, the legal framework for struggling against corruption in the UK was built around a number of regulatory legal acts that had equal legal force and were sources of statutory law. The United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010 entered into force on 1 July 2011 and replaced a group of previous anti-bribery laws in the United Kingdom. In many aspects, the law goes beyond the scope of theU.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 in many ways, as it also criminalizes intermediary payments and corruption in the private sector. This law is distinguished from previous regulatory legal acts by clear structural characteristics of bribery and innovative solutions to minimize and eliminate this phenomenon.Scientific novelty: this paper is the first to substantiate the positive foreign legislative experience in countering bribery in the UK, which can be used not only to improve national legislation, but also to change international legal norms in this area. In the context of globalization, the developed world community is becoming increasingly aware of the scale ofconsequences caused by the activities of corrupt government structures. The modern legislative frameworks in the field of fighting corruption in the UK, which have identified a number of new types of offenses, help to optimize the activities of the British law enforcement agencies and minimize corruption.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the work can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the improvement of the Russian anti-corruption legislation.

Objective: theoretical and legal analysis of the application of the legal categories of good faith and reasonableness in judicial practice on corporate disputes related to bringing directors of companies to civil liability.Methods: the work used general (system approach, analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction) and special legal (formal legal, comparative legal) methods.Results: based on the study of the Russian legislation and law enforcement practice, the article analyzes the theoretical and practical issues of bringing to civil liability the heads of enterprises for losses caused to the company as a result of unfair or unreasonable actions committed by them. The paper focuses on the foreign experience in the field under study and reveals the relationship of the Russian terms “good faith” and “reasonableness” with the fiduciary duty of a manager to be loyal to the corporation and to take due care of the owner’s interests.Scientific novelty: the author reveals the theoretical and legal meaning of the concepts of “good faith” and “reasonableness” in corporate relations, which does not coincide with the general civil understanding of these legal categories. The paper substantiates the fundamental importance of determining the legal meaning of the term “interests of a legal entity” forjudicial practice in cases of bringing to justice persons who perform the functions of executive bodies of business entities. The article proposes to set out Part 3 of Article 53 of the Russian Civil Code as follows: “a person, by virtue of the law or any other legal act or constitutive documents of the legal entity, authorized to act on its behalf must act in accordance with the objectives and interests of the legal entity they represent, reasonably and in good faith”. This clarification assumedly will reduce the uncertainty in conflict situations that arise regarding the assessment of the director’s actions compliance with the legal entity interests. This wording clearly shows that, regardless of the current interests of the business entity expressed, for example, by the general meeting of participants, the director should first of all be guided by the goals of the legal entity when making any decision.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the work can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the civil liability of directors in cases where their actions require correlation with the legal entity interests.

Objective: to analyze the oral contractual legal technique and its component tools, to identify the features of technical and legal tools used at the stage of negotiating a contract.Methods: the dialectical approach to cognition of the legal phenomenon, allowing to analyze it from the point of view of the general theory of law, knowledge of individual branches of law and humanities; formal legal method (analysis of doctrinal provisions and practice of contractual law application), analysis, synthesis, comparison, classification, and other general scientific methods of cognition.Results: based on the analysis of theoretical and legal structures, legislation and practice of its application, conclusions are drawn about the existence of oral contractual legal technology and the criteria for distinguishing its legal tools from those of a non-legal nature. The legal tools of oral contractual legal techniques are expressed in the presence of specific rules for performing certain legally significant actions. These rules are characterized by: a) relative stability; b) direct focus on generating the main legal result: the emergence of rights and obligations in order to meet certain needs of the parties; c) dependence of the tools on the content of the contractual process stage. By the example of negotiating a contract as an important stage of the contractual process, one may regard good faith as the most significant rule in negotiations. The general model of signing a contract is also stable (sending a proposal to sign a contract, agreeing/disagreeing with the offer/agreeing to change the terms of the offer, sending a response to the offer, and signing the contract as a result). Negotiations can be organized in two ways: a) directly (based on the general provisions of Chapter 28 of the Russian Civil Code) and b) step-by-step (by signing an agreement on the procedure for conducting negotiations).Scientific novelty: oral contractual legal techniques rarely become the subject of scientific research. The proposed approach to the analysis of its tools is new for the Russian theory of legal technique.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article contribute to the development of the legal technique theory aimed at improving the methods of professional legal activity, including in the field of contract signing.

Objective: to examine the court processing of shoplifting offenses before and after the 2014 passage of Mississippi House Bill 585 in a rural jurisdiction.Methods: dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena using the general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction) and specific scientific (formal-legal, systemic, comparative-legal, sociological) methods of cognition.Results: the research revealed several important policy implications. The first revolves around the importance of reducing the number of individuals charged with shoplifting that miss their court appearance. Previous research has revealed that, in many jurisdictions, individuals fail to appear in court not because they consciously refuse to appear but often because they are unaware or unable to appear. This may be a particular problem in the study city because they lack reliable public transportation of any form (making individuals heavily reliant on friends and relatives to help them get to their court appearance) and the court does not have a court appearance reminder notification system in place. This jurisdiction, and others who share these problems, would likely be well-served in considering a notification system whereby the individual who is to appear at court is notified 48-72 hours prior to their court appearance and required to respond to that notification. If no response is received, a follow-up inquiry should be submitted. If no response is received after the second notification, additional steps could be implemented prior to charging the individual with failure to appear or adjudicating them as guilty in absentia. A second important implication from this study has to do with the role of Walmart in the local community and criminal justice system. Walmart often has the largest loss prevention presence of any business in small, rural communities like this one. Thus, these security personnel have a vested interest in reducing shoplifting at Walmart . Local criminal justice officials should thus make special efforts to incorporate Walmart into crime prevention and reduction strategies in the community. Regular meetings between Walmart security personnel, the police chief and sheriff, and judges and corrections personnel would likely result in strategies that would both reduce shoplifting at Walmart and reduce the burden of shoplifting.Scientific novelty: the work showed that House Bill 585 increased the threshold required to move shoplifting from a misdemeanor to a felony (from $500 to $1,000) and took away the requirement that the third and subsequent arrests for shoplifting (for less than $500) were automatically enhanced as felonies. The findings reveal that the gender and racial gap in shoplifting arrests in the jurisdiction under study were reduced after House Bill 585. On the other hand, overall numbers of shoplifting arrests, failures to appear, and guilty dispositions increased after House Bill 585.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the crime prevention and suppression.

Objective: to study the notion of self-control as the main factor of criminogenic needs and criminal behavior.Methods: dialectical approach to cognition of social phenomena using the general scientific (analysis, synthesis, induction) and specific scientific (formal-legal, systemic, comparative-legal, sociological) research methods.Results: the study addresses the theoretical debate between psychogenic and sociogenic arguments of anti-social behavior. The psychogenic arguments defining self-control found in the general theory of crime get compared to the sociogenic assumptions of social control theory. This paper frames self- and social control as two sides of the same social psychological coin, suggesting that key value-identities represent the core of selfcontrol. A year of panel data were gathered from 173 children participating in a community-based mentoring program. Of key interest, this study provides an analysis of children facing acute risk for anti-social outcomes, including a group of children impacted by parental incarceration.Scientific novelty: the work substantiates that self-control varies along different trajectories for different children across a year of social intervention, questioning the relative stability assumption in self-control theory. Children unimpacted by parental incarceration experience increases in self-control across a year of mentoring while children impacted by parental incarceration experience declines in self-control. Results suggest that social intervention programs serving children at-risk for intergenerational crime need to take a cue from clinical treatment models targeting criminogenic needs.Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used in scientific, pedagogical and law enforcement activities when considering issues related to the crime prevention and suppression.

Objective: to identify the problems of tourism functioning that limit its contribution to the socio-economic development of a region.Methods: the research uses a set of scientific methods: monographic (when studying tourism as a factor determining regional development); economic-statistical and comparative analysis (when studying the trends and patterns and determining the key limitations of the tourism industry development in the region), as well as the general scientific research methods such as synthesis, analysis, induction, deduction, etc.Results: tourism is one of the most important catalysts for the development of the Russian economy. This paper examines the development of tourism in the Russian Federation, and identifies the main factors and constraints for the internal tourism development, including the impact of the 2020 pandemic. Based on the analysis of tourism development in Vologda region, the main tendencies and problems of its functioning are defined. The conclusion is made about the insufficient development of transport infrastructure, a shortage of rooms for collective accommodation of high level, the reduction in the number of tour operators that hampers the industry’s contribution to the regional economy.Scientific novelty: it is found that the solution of infrastructure problems, as well as the diversification of the tourist supply, promoting the tourist demand, will help to increase the impact of tourism on the development of the region in the nearest future. Practical significance: the main provisions and conclusions of the article can be used for the study of regional tourism problems, as well as by the regional authorities when elaborating the programs for the domestic tourism development.

Objective: to determine the problems of settling the overdue debts of banks in arbitration proceedings and ways to solve them. Methods: methods of vertical and horizontal time series analysis, correlation analysis, grouping methods, and abstract-logical method were used in the research.Results: the problem of collecting bad debts of banks within bankruptcy procedures has actually not been studied in the scientific literature. The paper considers the main aspects of modern research in the field of bankruptcy of physical and juridical persons, and emphasizes the need to systematize the practice of settling bank receivables in arbitration courts. The article presents the results of the analysis of the Bank of Russia statistics on the structure of overdue debts of the banking system, as well as the main results of bankruptcy procedures according to the Federal Register.The analysis of operations of one of the largest regional banks allowed identifying and systematizing the main problems of regulation and control of overdue debts, provision for impairment on loans and interest on loans, and stipulated a low efficiency of the bank’s participation in bankruptcy cases.Scientific novelty: the paper systematizes and analyzes the data on the practice of bankruptcy creditors’ participation in bankruptcy proceedings, and formulates the main directions for solving the problems of low efficiency and high costs of participation in such procedures.Practical significance: the research results can be used in the practical activities of banks for managing and settling accounts receivable, including on the basis of judicial recovery, as well as for developing the main directions of the monetary regulation of banking activity.