Digital transformation of markets and industries is one of the most difficult challenges for the modern competition policy. The transformation is closely connected to the formation of ecosystems and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI). The authors of the article summarize main issues raised in the process of market behavior qualification and market structure assessment for AI inten-sive companies leading digital ecosystems. These issues include enhanced market concentration, risks of price discrimination and algorithmic collusion. One of the specific challenges in that sphere is the dependence of AI efficiency on big-data-based machine learning. This feature causes the in-crease in market concentration, strengthens the positions of market leaders, and potentially weakens the competitive environment. Antitrust bodies should improve their own digital competences and an-alytical capacities to prevent the loss of control over the market, as well as the elimination of AI benefits.

As a result of world globalization, competition in the markets for goods and services is also becoming global. Since national market participants are under pressure from foreign competition, when defining geographic boundaries, consideration should be given not only to agreements and actions in the domestic market, but also to the behavior of foreign competitors. This leads either to the expansion of the geographical boundaries, or to the inclusion in the economic analysis of factors external to the relevant market, explaining the state of world stocks / shortages of goods and the price movement. The article provides a comparative analysis of approaches to geographical market defi-nition, taking into account foreign competition (actual and potential). The theory of industrial organ-ization and the new institutional economic theory are used as a methodological basis for the study. The results of the study indicate the need to use a “broad” approach in defining the relevant market, that is, based on the analysis of commodity flows, potential competition and switching costs.

The aim of the work is to find the factors that caused the differences in the change in the mortality rate in the regions caused by the pandemic. Using the data of official statistics and the results of regionally representative data of sample socio-demographic surveys of Rosstat, the authors attempt to achieve the goal by methods of both demographic and statistical analysis. The analysis showed that a significant part of the variation of regions in terms of mortality growth is explained by the characteristics of the demographic structure of the region (a high proportion of elderly people in the region, a large household size, the proportion of people with cancer in the region), as well as high population density and frequency of social contacts (especially in large cities). It was noteworthy that there was no significant impact on the regional differentiation of mortality from the availability of medical services and the scale of health infrastructure, which apparently indicates that in 2020 the probability of dying from COVID-19 or concomitant complications did not depend much on the actions of doctors and the equipment of hospitals. The paper also highlights the problem of imperfection of the research information base in terms of the selection of objective indicators and methods for analyzing the contribution of the COVID-19 epidemic to the level and dynamics of mortality.

The article provides an overview of the state of the Russian market for new passenger cars and also considers the dynamics of sales volumes in this market for the period from 2017 to August 2021. Special attention is paid to representatives of the Chinese brands Geely, Haval, Chery in Russia, which show positive dynamics in sales growth in the falling Russian market for new passenger cars. The article will be of interest to a representative of the automotive industry.

The analysis showed that in a falling market, you can increase your share due to the right strategic decisions in the field of marketing. Since the companies do not disclose their plans to "conquer the world", we relied on open sources (official sites) and analyzed the already committed actions of representatives of Chinese brands, comparing them with the results achieved. The method of work is a systematic approach to the statistical analysis of the dynamics and structure of the Russian passenger car market.

The work is devoted to a review of the results of the 152nd meeting of the Dispute Club “Eco-nomic Policy Knots” of the Association of Russian Economic Think Tanks (hereinafter referred to as ARETT) on the "The UN Sustainable Development Goals: Prospects for Implementation in Russia." The purpose of the event was to discuss issues related to opportunities and limitations for the imple-mentation of the UN sustainable development goals in Russia. The debaters were Tatyana Aleksan-drovna Lanshina, Senior Researcher at the International Laboratory for Research on Sustainable Development Problems, RANEPA, and Anton Petrovich Tsvetov, Deputy Director of the Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia. The review presents the key ideas of the disputants, and also summarizes the main results of their answers to questions.