This policy brief summarizes the results of our study, Shershunovich and Tochitskaya (2018),  on the circular economy development in Belarus. The aim of the work was to measure the circularity of the Belarusian economy using European Commission indicators.

In this paper we focus on estimating the gender difference in wages using data from the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) conducted in Belarus in 2017. The results show that the average gender wage differential amounts to 22.6%. We use quantile regressions to look at difference in returns at various earnings deciles and then the Oaxaca-Blinder and Juhn-Murphy-Pierce decomposition techniques to define the components that form the wage gap. We find that the adjusted gender pay gap is mostly formed by the difference in rewards rather than personal characteristics. The gap increases throughout the wage distribution and accelerates at the top deciles indicating presence of a strong glass ceiling effect

In the article the categories of “money” and “monetary funds” are analyzed and the author’s interpretation of these definitions are given. Taking into account the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, the author proposes a structure of interrelations of monetary funds, tokens, electronic and virtual money. With the purpose of giving a clearer understanding of the government positions on the issue of the virtual money market development, the article provides examples of operations’ regulations with cryptocurrencies in a number of countries.

In the article the essence of electronic and digital money is analyzed, comparative analysis of these two categories is carried out, taking into account their distinctive characteristics and common elements. Virtual money, including cryptocurrencies, is distinguished as a subspecies of digital money. Cryptocurrencies are analyzed based on the most famous ones, such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ripple, DASH, etc.

This paper deals with the prospects of Belarus’ economic growth in regional context. Such focus of analysis emphasizes relative level of well-being as the benchmark for assessing economic performance of the country. In this study, I use Czech Republic and Slovakia as benchmarks for Belarus, as they are rather similar to Belarus according to a range of fundamental characteristics, and at the same time, they are among leaders on well-being level in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).