Founding director of the EDB Centre for Integration Studies since 2011 until 2018. Over these years, EDB Centre for Integration Studies has published 50 reports[1] on such issues as Eurasian integration, macroeconomics, investments, trade, cross-border infrastructure, labour migration and remittances, and the public perception of integration. All of the Centre’s reports are publicly available, open-access resources.[2]
Since 2018 Vinokurov served as the Chief Economist of the Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development. The EFSD primarily provides budget and balance of payment support loans as well as large-scale infrastructure investment loans to its member states. The Chief Economist Group[3] provides research in macro- and microeconomic issues with the focus on macroeconomic stability, fiscal sustainability, and debt sustainability of the EFSD member states. It also covers global and regional economic trends and various issues related to the global economic and financial architecture.
Since 2023 he is Chief Economist[4] at the Eurasian Development Bank responsible for macro- and microeconomic analysis, knowledge creation and management, and partnerships with international financial institutions.
He devoted several years to studying enclaves and exclaves. The main research findings are reflected in the books "A Theory of Enclaves",[7] "Kaliningrad: Enclaves and Economic Integration",[8] and "Adapting to European Integration? The Case of the Russian Exclave Kaliningrad".[9] "A Theory of Enclaves" was also published in Russian.[10] The study is built on the analysis of an extensive database that covers over 280 enclaves and exclaves. Enclaves are a fairly frequent phenomenon. The role of the enclaves as a generator of conflicts between motherland and surrounding states (e.g., Britain and Spain in the case of Gibraltar, Russia and the European Union in the case of Kaliningrad, Spain and Morocco in the case of Ceuta and Melilla) is of particular interest. A theory of enclaves provides the answers to two fundamental questions: what factors determine the enclaves' sovereign belonging (ethnic composition of the population) and what economic policies can ensure their successful sustainable economic development (economic openness).
Starting from 2003, Vinokurov has been engaged in studying economic and political integration. His interest in the Russian-European vector led to the publication of the book "The CIS, the EU, and Russia: The Challenges of Integration".[11] Since 2006, while working in the EDB, Vinokurov focused on the issues of economic integration in the post-Soviet space and Eurasia. In 2007 Vinokurov became the Editorial Board member of the International Journal of Economic Policy in Emerging Economies.[12] In 2008 he launched and became the editor of the EDB Eurasian Integration Yearbook (in English) and the quarterly research and analytical Journal of Eurasian Economic Integration (in Russian), published by the EDB until 2013 and 2015, respectively.
In 2009 he headed the international research group and published the EDB System of Indicators for the Eurasian Integration (SIEI),[13] a complex system of comprehensive monitoring of statistics and dynamics of regional integration in the CIS region with the use of a specialized economic toolkit. Together with A. Libman they also developed a theory of holding-together regionalism to explain the patterns of regional re-integration processes (relevant for the explanation of integration patterns not only in the post-Soviet space but also in Africa and some other regions).[14]
His research focused on integration processes on the Eurasian continent, spanning the European Union, the Eurasian Economic Union, Central Asia, Eastern Asia, and South Asia. In a nutshell, it provides a coherent view of Eurasian continental integration. The concept of Eurasian continental integration was the subject of the book "Eurasian Integration: Challenges of Transcontinental Regionalism", written together with A. Libman.[15]
"Re-Evaluating Regional Organizations: Behind the Smokescreen of Official Mandates",[16] was also co-authored with A. Libman and published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2017. It introduces the new database of 62 regional organizations with up to 130 various parameters for each one of them. This monograph pursues two research questions: first, why do regional organizations demonstrate such remarkable resilience even when they do not achieve their declared goals? Second, what factors actually determine the goal-setting and how do they evolve over the life of the regional organization?
“Introduction to the Eurasian Economic Union”,[17] was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2018. It represents a concise survey of various aspects of the functioning of the EAEU – from its history and institutions to the analysis of the common markets and the external economic relations. “One Eurasia or Many? Regional Interconnections and Connectivity Projects on the Eurasian Continent”, a book on the institutional cooperation setting and connectivity across the Eurasian continent, was written together with A. Libman and published by George Washington University in 2021.[18]
