Russian society has a generally low level of trust. Colleagues and neighbours are the only exception – Russians regard them as trustworthy. A trusting attitude towards one's inner circle of acquaintances has a greater effect on life satisfaction than trust in public institutions and people in general, according to Anna Mironova, Research Intern of the HSE’s International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural Research.
HSE’s Institute of Education hosted a visit by University of Arizona Professor Emeritus David Berliner. In an interview with the Institute, Professor Berliner discussed problems of schooling in the U.S. and Russia, possible ways of evaluating the work of instructors, and also how the results of international educational research should be factored into decision-making.
Dr. Spring H. Han, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Management, has been at the Higher School of Economics since 2012. Her current research interests focus on the hotel industry. She recently spoke with the HSE news service about her teaching and research, as well as the students she advises in a new programme called ‘Experience Economy: Hospitality and Tourism Management.’
Not all consumers want to buy things at a discount. Many people prefer expensive stores to discounters since the purchase price of a good can demonstrate that the buyer belongs to a particular social group or to a particular community of buyers, Elena Berdysheva, a Senior Research Fellow in HSE’s Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology, said in the paper ‘What Do We Know about Consumers’ Price Perception? Research Findings of Studies in Sociology and Marketing Science’.
Young Russians took the Sochi Olympics as a family holiday rather than a state one. Their parents’ nostalgic memories about the 1980 Olympic Games played their role, which were a personal and at the same time a national event for many Russians. Sochi 2014’s promotion as a national holiday worked worse, though. For young people, the excitement in official media was drowned by criticism of the Olympics on the internet, Anna Sanina, Associate Professor at the HSE St. Petersburg Department of State and Municipal Administration, and research assistants Anastasia Kozlova and Olesya Trigolos, found out.
Russia will face a budget deficit in 2015-2017; the country’s expenditure on defense and public administration will grow, while the spending on education, health care, and social services will be cut, according to expert analysis published in the recent issue of the HSE’s New Comments on the State and Business.
At Columbia University in New York, a seminar on ‘The Political Economy of Russia’ was held jointly by the International Centre for the Study of Institutions and Development at the Higher School of Economics and the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.
Implementing a sales tax will not help the regional budgets. The excessive tax burden will drive business into the ‘shadows’ and raise the price of goods and services. In addition, retailers will see turnover fall, reducing profits and investment activity. This forecast was included in ‘Macroeconomic Analysis of the Impact of Changes in the Tax Rate on the State Budget and Market Participants’ by the Director of HSE’s Centre of Development Institute Natalia Akindinova.
Federal and regional maternity benefits such as 'maternal capital', larger child allowances, and other measures introduced since 2007 to improve the country's demography have led to more births, but have not yet contributed to effective fertility rates in Russia. A paper bySergey Zakharov and Thomas Freyka in the HSE's new Demographic Review journal examines Russia's reproductive trends over the past half-century in an attempt to make projections concerning the future effects of the country's demographic policies.
After the Russian Unified State Exam (USE) was introduced, additional exam preparation did not lose its popularity. While there was previously a preference for tutors from the university a student had selected, now students are finding instructors ‘off the street’ to prepare them for the USE, Ilya Prakhov, Research Fellow in HSE’s International Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms (LIA), uncovered in his study, ‘The Dynamics of Investment and the Return on Additional Pre-entry Coaching’.
