Research & Expertise news at HSE University

On October 20-22, 2016, the Russian Association of Higher Education Researchers will hold its 7^th International Conference in Moscow. This annual event brings together researchers and educators who are interested in higher education development in a forum to discuss challenges and goals facing universities and their stakeholders (students, faculty, administrators, graduates etc.).

On Monday, October 3, two professors of anthropology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – Heather Paxson and Stefan Helmreich – delivered a seminar for students of HSE St. Petersburg Master's programme in Applied and Interdisciplinary History. A presentation by Professor Paxson focused on how the microbiopolitics of cheese making in the U.S. presupposed and promoted industrial methods and standards and how in recent decades interest in producing and consuming artisanally made, raw-milk cheese has risen dramatically.

Despite the economic crisis, Western multinational corporations have been expanding their manufacturing facilities in Russia. Last year, foreign companies launched 63 new subsidiaries in Russia (twice as many as in 2013), and closed no more than ten. This year, they expect to put into operation a few dozen new subsidiaries, according to HSE researchers' study 'Russian Manufacturing Subsidiaries of Western Multinational Corporations: Preliminary Results and Future Prospects.'

On October 10, the HSE School of Public Administration hosted its monthly discussion series. This month’s event is entitled ‘Stress Test for Public Finances – Policy-Responses to the Financial and Economic Crisis in the OECD’ and was led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Wagschal of the University of Freiburg (Germany). Professor Wagschal's talk focused on the consequences of massive monetary and fiscal stimulus for the public purse and will compare the fiscal packages in 28 OECD-countries aimed at combating an economic downturn following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

The human factor, a reluctance to scare investors and the absence of tangible rewards for predicting recessions are some of the reasons why professional forecasters sometimes fail to signal economic downturns. In their study, Sergey Smirnov and Daria Avdeeva found evidence indicating that professional forecasters tend to hold on to optimistic scenarios for too long.

Mothers of three or more children are four times as likely to be unemployed compared to mothers of one or two children, according to Alina Pishnyak's study 'Employment opportunities and constraints for women in Moscow.'

According to participants in the recent BRICS Water Forum, out of all of the global challenges in regards to water resource management through the use of technological breakthroughs, only keeping water clean can be guaranteed at the moment.

At the most recent Andrey Poletayev Memorial Readings held by the Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (IGITI), participants discussed the relationship between the natural sciences and the social sciences. HSE Professor Elena Vishlenkova tells us why scholars in the humanities are interested in the natural sciences and what contribution they can make to this field.