2018 Issue №4

The article investigates the phenomenon of rent-seeking and rent-oriented behavior in the sphere of culture and arts. The author describes the specific features of the cultural production. It is shown that, the supply of cultural goods is characterized by the different level of rarity and consists from creative production, services of the institutions of culture and art, antiques, reproductions of works of art. Given the demand the cultural goods are structured in compliance with inquiries of its dealers, traders, collectors, adherents of prestigious consumption, real connoisseurs of art, consumers of entertainments. The article claims that the sphere of culture is divided into two sectors according to rental factors. In the first sector (primary market) production of the specific rent is possible (rent of talent, rents for rarity, marketing quasirent) that promotes rent-seeking behavior. In the second sector (services of the institutions of culture and art, art-object markets) rent-focused behavior is possible (capital rent, tourist rent, status rent, administrative rent). Political quasirent is the object of rent-seeking and rent-oriented behavior.

The characteristics of the gross regional product (GRP) play a crucial role in assessing the level and pace of regional development. Given the economic and statistical research of analytical material covering 1995 - 2016,the article compares the dynamics and structure of the GRP of the Kaliningrad region to the corresponding indicators of the aggregate GRP of the Russian Federation subjects. Changes in the regional GRP are linked to the specifics of the regional economic development in different years. The achieved level and structure of the Kaliningrad regional GRP is shown to reflect the post-industrial nature of its economy and are comparable with those of other subjects of the Russian Federation being average in development. A special regional feature is fluctuations in volume and branch structure of the GRP of the Kaliningrad Region, which are more significant than the average for Russia, due to its small size and, most importantly, the exclave geographic location.

The region's mechanical engineering contributes most to the rapid and efficient transition from the previous to the subsequent technological level and it was chosen as the object of the current research. The authors identify technological safety within more general scope of national security typology. The article reflects on the empirical data on the scale of mechanical engineering development in industrialized countries. The analysis of import flows of the North-Western subjects of the RF revealed that regional enterprises significantly lack technologically innovative machines and equipment. It brings about the conclusion that the local industry must be more focused on some import replacing productions. The authors propose a method and calculation of the share of imports and the balance of export-import flows in mechanical engineering products of the Kaliningrad region to its consumption. Such methodology makes it possible to determine the optimal import-replacing proportion of mechanical engineering in the region, which corresponds to a value of ≥ 50%. The established import-replacing share of regional engineering industry can be achieved due to a mechanism for ensuring the spatial and economic collaboration between import replacing entities of the regional economic system.