The article considers modern aspects of human capital theory which was launched by the “Chicago School”. Macroeconomically human capital is the main factor of economic growth, but its potential is realized only under certain economic, social and political conditions. The authors describe Russia’s current position in the world’s HDI rankings and suggest some measures that can improve the situation, concentrating mainly on income of population and wage policy. The situation in present-day Russia is unsatisfactory concerning the level of human capital development. It pushes towards the analysis of the so-called “vicious circle of poverty” concepts.

The article considers the institutional basis and stages of tourism development in sovereign Kyrgyzstan (up to 2000, up to 2010, till nowadays). The author carries out an overall analysis of the development of tourist branch of the country and gives an assessment of the legal base and state regulation measures which either promoted or hindered it. It is stated that the privatization of tourist infrastructure did not boost the branch. The bulk of the tasks set in earlier state documents have not been fulfilled so far in spite of visa-free entrance for tourists and favourable internationally accepted evidence for tourist objects. It is concluded that nowadays tourism is potentially the most dynamic sector of Kyrgyzstan’s economy and its only barriers are rooted in state decisions.

The article surveys the problems of modernization which is to give impulse to the Russian economy. It considers the role of human capital in common models of economic growth and variability in its defining, measuring and evaluating by different authors. The study reveals the features of both narrow (quantitative techniques and indicators) and broad (qualitative techniques and indicators) approaches to human capital. The attention is drawn to the need of activating and improving human capital as a crucial factor in modernization processes. A connection is observed between the mitigation of difference in population’s incomes and property status and qualitative growth of human capital, the latter being dependent on socio-economic conditions and economic needs-state institutions correlation.

The article analyses the main stages in the evolution of the theories of state economic growth and development, the scientific views and contribution of outstanding economists (notably A. Smith, D. Ricardo, K. Marx, J. Keynes and others) to settling these problems. The authors came to the conclusion that theories of economic growth evolved in close connection with the economic situation. Valid theoretic approaches which define economic growth as a basic element of national economic development were introduced as early as in the works of the representatives of the classical school of political economy.

The article argues systemic approach to the study of customs administration and proves its viewing as a hierarchical structure. The nature of customs administration as a rational process is revealed through the characteristics of its constitutive elements. The author considers the modern stage of customs administration development as a transitive one, judging by documents which determine its development, and presents the results of the analysis of the system of customs administration taking into account the levels of study and the features of each level: conceptual, methodological, legal, organizational and technological.

The article is concerned with the development of the Institute of customs administration adaption caused by Russia’s membership in the World Trade Organization and integration processes within the Customs Union. A system of customs service formed in course of implementing the programs of trade facilitation in order to reduce non-tariff barriers, operations and procedures of state control lies at the basis of a new foreign trade regulation. The article provides a description of some features of customs administration transformations peculiar to different foreign trader-state body interactions.

The article aims at describing varies conceptual approaches to the analysis of attributive features immanent to knowledge-intensive service companies and the role of such companies in present-day economy. The typology of foreign knowledge intensive companies is studied. The article proves the broadening of the range of contemporary research in the field of service innovations by evidence of application of methodological approaches to their evaluation. The author analyses the problems of stable development, “success” factors and concentration of high tech companies in the services sector in metropolitan areas and regions of the leading countries.

The article considers different approaches to defining the concept of controlling systems by Russian and foreign theorists and presents the authors’ own definition of the term under study. It states that controlling is a two-focused system which governs the goal-achieving process of an enterprise on the one hand and prompts the enterprise itself to innovations on the other. The article studies positive and negative sides of enterprise controlling system and suggests ways of overcoming the resistance to introduce it at an enterprise, the economic proofs for creating such a service system being presented. The use of controlling principles is illustrated by examples of enterprises from various sectors of economy.

The article argues methodical recommendations on the development of product policy the introduction of which at the enterprises of mechanical engineering will provide an integrated approach to the analysis of increase of competitiveness, prospects of commodity range and efficiency of the whole activity of an enterprise. The theoretical importance of the results of the study consists in developing theoretical bases of food marketing and staging the use of the suggested tools if life cycle and branch specifics of goods taken into account. The study considers single directions of product policy development and their connection with the strategy of searching for prospect goods and markets. The conditions necessary for producer’s product policy development are stated.

The main modern instrument of economic science is time series. The article deals with computer simulation technology of time series with strong oscillations using the tools of Excel. The trend model, the model of auto-regression and moving average are used for the simulation. As an example we consider the time series of the euro on the MICEX from 07 to 09.2014. All necessary statistical procedures are used in the simulation to identify and estimate the parameters of the model and verify its adequacy and accuracy. Formal criteria are used to select the best model in order to get the most accurate assessment of prognosis.

The article considers capital repairs of apartment buildings as a part of the system of management and exploitation of housing. The author critically reviews the consequences of free privatization and state control of capital repairs of apartment buildings in the Russian Federation. The standards and innovations of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation (2004) are analysed regarding capital repair fund and local operator of capital repairs, the fees that apartments’ owners are charged and the choice provided for them as far as the model of funding is concerned. In order to ensure the consumer qualities of housing it is proposed to legislatively fix the mandatory setting of economically justified costs for repairs and application of resource-saving technologies and materials as well as crediting for timely financing of works