Ilya Voskoboynikov

Revold Mikhailovich Entov, a prominent Russian economist and Tenured Professor at HSE University, passed away on October 21, 2025, at the age of 94

As we look forward to 2025, FES professors took part in preparing a joyful video message for both students and colleagues. In this sincere address, they convey their warmest wishes and congratulations, while sharing their aspirations for a year filled with hopes for fruitful endeavors and remarkable accomplishments!

Ilya Voskoboinikov (HSE University, Expert Institute, Center for Productivity Research, Department of Applied Economics) presented the paper "Bank Operations During the Revolution and the Civil War. Materials of the Chita branch of the Moscow People's Bank, 1916–1922" on June 28, 2024.

Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center has published a new issue of the research digest. It presents the correlation between balanced long-term economic growth and new technologies as a factor of human capital development.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.