Externalities and rationality of the behavior of economic agents in socio-ecological-economic systems

The article is dedicated to the problem of sustainable functioning of socio-ecological- economic systems in the modern economy. The mutual influence of changes in the natural conditions of human life, development of economic activity and the level of satisfaction of human needs is discussed. The problem of rational behavior of economic agents in the conditions of sustainable development is solved based on applying the concept of external effects as the achievement of the welfare theory and the institutional theory. The choice of theoretical grounds for the study is justified by the substantive aspects of the interpretation of sustainable development. Based on the generalization of the basic approaches to understanding the essence of external effects and their types emerging in socio-ecological-economic systems are discussed. It is shown that a form of manifestation of agglomeration externalities are the effects of urbanization, reflecting the consequences of population concentration and economic activity, and the clustering effects associated with various organizational forms of innovation in the modern economy. We have grouped the external effects of technology parks taking into account the triangle of relations "economy - society - nature". Institutional and sectoral effects, caused by changes in the characteristics of organizational structures of the economy, and spatial and infrastructural effects that consist in obtaining benefits or losses of regions connected by a single infrastructure, primarily transport infrastructure, have been identified as the most important forms of the manifestation of the redistributive externalities in the socio-ecological-economic systems. Institutional and sectoral externalities are traced on the example of the positive effects of investment into small businesses. It is shown that the prerequisites for the external consumption effects in socio-ecological- economic systems are the use of materials that are not optimal from the environmental standpoint, and also excessive demonstrative consumption. Based on the systematization of criteria for grouping various organizational and economic characteristics of external effects, a comparative analysis of the main types of external effects that occur in socio-ecological-economic systems was carried out. The principles of internalization of external agglomeration effects and redistributional external effects, as well as directions of internalization of external consumption effects are determined. It is shown that for rationally taking into account the environmental factor, a valuable reorientation of the rational behavior of economic agents is necessary. The directions for further research related to forming an institutional environment that stimulates economic subjects to achieve sustainability of socio-ecological-economic systems are suggested