Tag "economics"

Aleksei Smirnov, Assistant Professor, HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences, and Egor Starkov, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen, have constructed a mathematical model that explains why it is advantageous for sellers not to delete negative reviews of their products. A study detailing this conclusion has been accepted for publication in The American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.

In assessing an employee’s performance, employers often listen to his immediate supervisor or colleagues, and these opinions can be highly subjective. Sergey Stepanov, an economist from HSE University, has shown that biased evaluations can actually benefit employers. An article substantiating this finding was published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.

After collapsing in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumer demand has partly recovered in Russia. The lowest point in consumer confidence seems to be behind us, but we should not expect a noticeable recovery any time soon, according to HSE ISSEK Centre for Business Tendency Studies (CBTS). Based on a recent consumer survey in Russia, IQ compares consumer sentiments as we are entering the second wave of the pandemic with those reported at the start of its first wave.

On October 23 – 24, 2020, the IX International Moscow Finance Conference will take place. The event has been organized jointly by ICEF and the London School of Economics. This year, the list of participants includes the editors of the two biggest journals in economics. Alexei Boulatov , Tenured Professor of HSE University, spoke about how the online format influenced the quality of academic events, what has changed in academic life over the last few months, and the topics that interest researchers today.

Experts often blame income inequality for a wide range of social ills. They usually calculate its severity using special statistical indices drawn from official tax data or large-scale surveys of individual households. Such analyses create an objective picture and indicate the degree of inequality and the basic factors behind it.

For years, Russians have failed to develop the ability to adapt to financial vulnerability — that is, to the risk of falling below the poverty line. This is associated with the fact that Russians are less satisfied with life and rate their well-being lower as well. With the prospect of falling poverty an ongoing problem, these indicators have not improved.

The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown have made life difficult for credit institutions and their clients. Citizens’ incomes have decreased, which can lead to an increase in bad debts, and a decrease in the key rate to support the economy makes deposits less and less attractive and deprives banks of an important resource. Banks are compelled to search for new ways to earn money, which carries additional risks, says HSE Banking Institute Director Vasily Solodkov.

On September 21, the VIII International Conference on Applied Research in Economics (iCare) was held online, bringing together more than 100 researchers from 19 countries. Organizers, speakers, teachers, and students shared their impressions of the event and talked about the opportunities that the conference opens up for them.

Companies who have publishing academics integrated within their workforce learn and absorb external information more effectively. Such ability is called absorption capacity. Its dependence on the presence of academics in a company has been shown by the scientists from HSE University using the example of Russian exporters. IQ talked to one of the research authors, Anna Fedunina, about how publishing activity contributes to companies’ export success, and why business needs the absorption skills.

Not much is known about fathers on the Russian labour market. It has often been claimed that they earn more than their childless peers. However, new research states that there is no such ‘premium’ for being a father in Russia. Nevertheless, men with kids still have higher salaries.