Ilya Voskoboynikov

Social Policy for Sustainable Development and Inclusive Economic Growth is one of HSE University's strategic projects. The project is aimed at translating scientific achievements into practical solutions for social and economic policy. HSE researchers and their partners have been actively involved in this work, and the first results have been obtained. In her interview with the HSE News Service, Vice Rector Lilia Ovcharova, Academic Supervisor of the project, spoke about what has been done so far.

The Human Capital Interdisciplinary Research Centre (HCIRC) is a world-class research centre comprising a consortium of HSE University, RANEPA, MGIMO University, and the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS). Its work was highly rated by the RAS in 2021. Lilia Ovcharova, HSE University Vice Rector and initiator of the centre’s creation, talked to the HSE News Service about integration in international studies on active ageing, creating a database on development trends in human potential, studying the effects of digitalisation, and the centre’s priority activities for the future.

On June 17, in the Finnish city of Jyväskylä, Ilya Voskoboinikov presented his new study "The standard of living and human development in the Soviet Union in the interwar period".

As part of the XXIII Yasin (April) International Academic Conference, HSE University held a meeting between HSE scholars and Anton Kotyakov, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the Russian Federation. The title of the meeting was ‘The Future of Social Security: Trends and Forecasts.’ The experts and the Minister discussed the experience and lessons learned from population support initiatives during the pandemic, social protection efforts to reduce poverty and inequality, measures to counter sanctions, and the situation in the labour market.

The roundtable discussed the issues of growth limitations for the Russian economy, sources of growth in conditions of isolation, import substitution opportunities, reserves for increasing the efficiency in the distribution of resources, and the role of the state in restructuring value chains.

On March 24, 2022, a seminar on applied macroeconomic research was held under the guidance of Yuri Simachev. Ilya Voskoboinikov presented macroeconomic research: "The long-term growth of the Russian economy. The experience of the past for understanding the consequences of the Ukrainian crisis".

The year 2020 was a period of economic hardship and significant change in a wide range of sectors for most countries. A team of authors from HSE University has explored how Russia will recover from this crisis and which industries will be affected by the economic recovery. Their study was published in the journal Voprosy ekonomiki.

Experts believe that increasing productivity, diversifying the economy, as well as developing human capital and expanding non-resource exports will help boost Russia's economic growth. But the state policy has to be smart. This was discussed at a series of round tables and expert discussions on the topic of productivity at the XXII April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, organised by HSE University and Sberbank.

On April 14, at the XXII April Conference, a team under the supervision of Vladimir Gimpelson presented their report, prepared as part of the HCMRC (Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center) program.The labor force quality indicator from the Russia KLEMS data set made it possible to assess the contribution of labor force quality to labor productivity growth in the Russian economy, and to compare this contribution with similar indicators for former Soviet republics.The research concludes that Russian human capital is not as productive as it could be. The quality of the labor force does not make a tangible contribution to the growth of labor productivity and an acceleration of growth due to the role of human capital will not occur in the next two to three decades.

At the HSE’s XXII April International Academic Conference, Bart van Ark, Professor of Productivity Studies at the Alliance Manchester Business School and the Managing Director of the Productivity Institute (the University of Manchester), will deliver an honorary lecture ‘Perspectives on Productivity: Benefits to Economy, Business, Workers and Society’ on April 14. He will also be participating in the roundtable on Productivity, Diversification and Sustainable Economic Growth. The roundtable will be held on April 15 and will be chaired by Professor Jakobson.

The World KLEMS initiative brings together representatives from different countries and organizations who develop indicators of cross-country economic performance comparisons at the level of individual industries and conduct research based on these. On March 9 to 17, 2021, the 6th World KLEMS Conference was held in a virtual format for the first time.The conference addressed issues of the global productivity slowdown, the post-pandemic growth outlook, and the measurement of growth and productivity in the context of new economic activities and globalization. Projects from countries and groups of countries included in the World KLEMS Initiative—Asia KLEMS, EU KLEMS, and LA KLEMS—were widely presented. A separate section was devoted to the EU KLEMS project, including Russia and Eastern Europe.

Researchers trying to compare economic data of the USSR and capitalist countries face questions of the comprehensiveness, accessibility, and reliability of data on Soviet economic production and growth. At an online seminar hosted by the HSE University International Centre for the History and Sociology of World War II and its Consequences, Assistant Professor Ilya Voskoboynikov (Faculty of Economic Sciences, HSE University) presented an overview of available approaches to studying the absolute size of the Soviet economy and its growth rates.

On November 5, the Laboratory for Systems Analysis of Industrial Markets of the Center for Industrial Markets Research of the Institute for Applied Economic Research, RANEPA held an open, general-academic online seminar “Decomposition of Russia's GDP growth rates - methodological features and results”.

The Russian economy is, modifying Winston Churchill (1939), “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”; Russian economic performance is volatile. In the last three decades its institutional environment changed from a command to a market economy. Its industrial structure shifted from overinvestment in manufacturing and agriculture in the late 1980s to market services and mining. Trade conditions seem to be unpredictable. This is a sensitive issue for the economy, which depends on oil and gas exports. How can one understand the Russian development pattern over its centuries-old history and, possibly, outline Russia’s prospects for the future?

On November 3, the Russia KLEMS group held a regular seminar about double deflation (DD) and its impact on ideas about Russian economic growth, 2003–2016, taking into account the experience of Russia KLEMS.

On September 18, Ilya Voskoboynikov presented his report “Recovery experiences of the Russian economy Implications to the Indian Economy” at a seminar organized by the Research Institute of the State Bank of India, "Experience of the post-crisis recovery of the Russian economy".

The work was published in the WP3 series "Labor market issues" and studies the global recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates suggest Russian GDP in 2020 will fall by 2–8%, meaning the current crisis may be more severe than the crises of 1998 and 2008. In the coming years, the Russian economy will have to recover and enter a new long-term growth trajectory. What sources and sectors can make this happen?

The 7th issue of “Voprosy Ekonomiki”  (Questions of Economics) contains the speeches of the participants of “Long-term economic growth in Russia: prospects for recovery” round table, which took place on April 12 as part of the “April XXI” conference. The publication includes materials by Natalia Akindinova, Marek. Dabrovski, Alexandr Shirov, Dmitry Belousov, Ilya Voskoboynikov and Evsey Gurvich.

The presentation was held on May 29, featuring IlyaVoskoboynikov, Eduard Baranov, Ksenia Bobyleva, Rostislav Kapelyushnikov, Dmitri Piontkovski, Anton Tolokonnikov, Alexander Roskin.
The report was presented by Ilya Voskoboynikov (HSE University), the discussion was led by Alexandr Shirov (IEF RAS), and the presentation was moderated by Evsey Gurvich (EEG)

On May 12 the roundtable was held, chaired by Evsey Gurvich, head of the Economic Expert Group. Topical issues of economic growth were discussed, including prospects after the coronavirus pandemic and forecasts for the short-term and long-term growth rates of the Russian economy. The current budget policy, the experience of recovery after the crises of 1998 and 2008, and sectoral growth drivers, in particular, were considered.

This seminar by the Russia KLEMS group was held on April 30. Ilya Voskoboynikov presented an analysis of the sources of labor productivity growth in the Russian economy after the crises of 1998 and 2008, highlighting measures to restore the economy after the shock associated with the coronavirus epidemic. The seminar examined which sources of growth in which sectors could drive such a recovery. How the Russian economy recovered: sources of labor productivity growth after the crises of 1998 and 2008.

The event, which took place on January 21, 2020, presented the methodology for calculating the number of hours worked for Russia KLEMS 1995-2016 for 34 types of activities of the Russian classification of economic activities (OKVED) and their accuracy.

At the seminar of the Russia KLEMS group, which took place on December 17, 2019, Ilya Voskoboynikov presented the directions of work in 2020.

Ilya Voskoboynikov presented the report, on December 4, 2019, at a meeting of the Center for Economic History of the Lomonosov Moscow State University Faculty of History. The work was part of two projects of HSE University—Russia KLEMS and “Long-term economic growth and structural changes in the USSR and the CIS since 1960”.

Ilya Voskoboynikov and Ksenia Bobyleva presented their reports at the Asian KLEMS 2019 conference, which was held at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

At the international conference “Experience and Challenges in Studying Incomes and Welfare in the Countries of Eastern Europe and the CIS” that went to NRU HSE, a report was presented entitled “Dynamics of productivity in sectors requiring high and low qualifications, before and after the global crisis, in the economies of Europe, Japan, Russia and the USA "sponsored by Vokoboinikov I. B., Kirsten Jager and Robert Stehrer

On September 17-18, HSE University hosted a special conference with the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW) on the topic of Experiences and Challenges in Measuring Income and Wealth in Eastern Europe and CIS Countries. This was the first IARIW conference to be held in a CIS country. HSE News Service spoke with American economist Barbara Fraumeni about her work with economic accounting and human capital and her experience attending the conference in Moscow.

09.13.2019 on the scientific and educational portal IQ.HSE.RU published an article by I. Voskoboinikov “Why is Eastern Europe poorer than Western?” (Https://iq.hse.ru/news/306245968.html)

At the seminar of the Faculty of Economics and Allied Disciplines of the University of York, which was held on December 6, Ilya Voskoboinikov presented the report "Accounting for Growth in the Soviet Union and the Union Republics in 1950-1990"

A new release of Russia KLEMS data covering the period from 1995 to 2014 has been published.

The XVI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development is scheduled to take place from April 7-10, 2015, but plans are already underway among the organizers and participants alike. Recently, Dale Jorgenson, Samuel W. Morris University Professor of Economics at Harvard University, spoke with the HSE news service about his long history of cooperation with HSE. Professor Jorgenson, an internationally recognized expert on information technology and economic growth, among other subjects, shared his expectations for this year’s conference.

The Social Science Research Network has published its university rankings for June.

On 19 and 20 June 2008, the final conference of the EU KLEMS project on “Productivity in the European Union: A Comparative Industry Approach” was held at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). The conference marked the completion of a 4 year research project by a consortium of 16 research institutions across Europe, having led to the creation of a large database on growth and productivity accounts at industry level for individual EU member states, various EU aggregates, Japan and the United States.