The article focuses on issues related to improvement of statistical monitoring of organizations of housing and municipal complex during the reform, which affected all types and forms of ownership of residential and non-residential units. In a market economy, organizations, rendering all kinds of housing and community services to customers, are responsible for the quality and quantity of those very same services. In a rapidly changing legislative framework economic entities face the task of ensuring constant needs of consumers for housing and communal services. As for the provision of information or reports on the consumption of housing services by owners of residential and non-residential units to territorial bodies of state statistics and budget institutions, for that is responsible a wide range of organizations from resource-saving organizations to homeowners' associations, management companies, and other organizations that have relevant information. In recent years the list of respondents expanded to include housing maintenance companies, and those responsible for management of municipal solid waste. In accordance with the changes in the procedure for conducting statistical observations, the composition of statistical indicators on the consumption of housing and communal services was revised to separately cover major maintenance costs of residential and non-residential units, costs for managing municipal solid wastes; the title of the repot form now contains new respondents. The article discusses experience of the Division of construction, investment and housing and utilities sector statistics in improving the form of statistical reporting № 22 - Utilities (summary).

Ratification of the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities denoted transition to a new understanding that disability results from the interaction between persons with impairments and attitudinal and environmental barriers that hinders their full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others. The objective of this research is to suggest improvements to Russian disability employment statistics in compliance with modern model of disability on the basis of the international experience.
Based on the lessons learned from the experience of countries of the European Union, Australia, Canada the authors formulated recommendations on designating groups of people with disabilities and recognizing barriers in the labor market that are be applicable to the existing Rosstat surveys and observations. Firstly, to avoid measurement errors in the number of persons officially recognized as disabled, it is recommended to use a separate question about the degree of disability. Secondly, it is proposed to use questions about longstanding health conditions and basic activities limitations. Thirdly, an additional module to Labor force survey may be included in accordance with experience of the EU countries. This module is aimed at identifying barriers in the labor market for the disabled people. It is reasonable to include in it questions on the work limitations due to health conditions and basic activities limitations, requirements in special assistance, employer awareness of the disability status, health conditions and basic activities limitations of the individual; other reasons of work limitations (not including health reasons). The questions on the barriers in the labor market have never been considered before in the Russian statistics.

The article presents results of the author's own research on an experimental constructing of the satellite accounts of water resources for the Republic of Belarus within the framework of the System of Environmental-Economic Accounting for Water (SEEA-Water). The author establishes the relevance of the implementing the SEEA-Water, that creates a conceptual framework for consistent and coherent arranging hydrological and economic information for the analysis of water sector contribution to the economy of the country, as well as the impact of the economy on water resources. The article includes approaches to constructing water accounts, structured information base, experimental calculations of individual indicators reflecting water resources.
The paper substantiates research directions in water resources, which, together with the author's information and methodological proposals served as the basis for constructing a pilot water accounts in physical terms, based on the methodology of SEEA-Water adapted to the national context. The article analyzes the system of indicators for water resources, considers the directions for analysis of water resources in the Republic of Belarus. The conditions for the introduction of the SEEA-Water into statistical practice are outlined.

Historically, there have been significant differences between the various parts of Russia as regards socio-economic parameters. Clearly, the use of a single set of measures to address demographic problems in different parts of Russia cannot be effective. This situation requires a differentiated approach based on the allocation of groups of regions that are similar in features of the current demographic situation.
The purpose of the study was to identify the regional differentiation of the processes of young generation reproduction. The authors performed an agglomerative hierarchical clustering algorithm to identify groups of regions characterised by similar features in the sphere of reproduction. The analysis enabled to reveal five groups of regions where the situation with young population has characteristic features.
The study has allowed drawing a number of theoretical and practical conclusions aimed at improving the country’s state youth policy. In addition, this research has shown that statistical cluster analysis can be considered as an effective tool of development of practical recommendations for prompt solving problems among youth. Therefore, this type of analysis can be integrated as an analytical tool in the research component of the state youth policy.

The article examines financial and investment potential of works of art in the international art market.
The objective of this study was to get a definite answer to the question of whether it is possible to trust such non-traditional objects
for the investment as artworks, art objects and artifacts. The author on the basis of statistical methods identified specific characteristics, which are used to analyze investments in art. The quantitative results are based strictly on the outcome of the empirical calculations, the implementation of which was carried on the most extensive to date array about financial transactions in the art market.
For the first time the variation of four interrelated features - the price of the first sale of an art work, the period of its stay in a collection, the price of the subsequent sale and, finally, the profitability of such investment - was subjected to the detailed statistical analysis. The main conclusion of the work becomes the evidence of a principally new quality of the prices achieved in the art resale.

The article explores a different, supplementary way to assess and manage a particular type of banking crises, those arising from a rise of nonperforming loans to the corporate sector. It relies on a “national wealth approach”, focusing on the distribution of net wealth among economic sectors and its interaction with developments in the banking system. It identifies avenues for policy response optimization, based on an integrated macrofinancial analytical framework, both for the prevention and the resolution of these types of economic events.