‘Free will,’ as we commonly think of it, does not exist: the brain often makes decisions even before we become aware of the choice. This makes it simple to predict a person’s actions based on previous behavioural patterns. Here, HSE University Professor Vasily Klucharev explains this understanding in his own words.
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.
Nikolai Pavlenko, a shadow entrepreneur and creator of a successful business in Stalin’s USSR, was executed by firing squad in 1955. Running a successful commercial enterprise right under the dictator’s nose in a strictly planned economy was a striking but not so uncommon case in the Soviet Union at the time, according to HSE professor Oleg Khlevniuk who made a number of unexpected findings having studied newly accessible archival documents. Below, IQ.HSE offers a summary of what his study reveals.
On September 23-24, the CCCP19 Symposium ‘Cognition, Computation, Neuroeconomics and Performance’ will be held at HSE University. The goal of the symposium is to exhibit cutting edge research at the CCDM, a leading cognitive neuroscience research centre in Russia, and LNC2, a leading European research centre in neuroeconomics, cognitive neuroscience and neural theory. Ahead of CCCP19, the HSE News Service spoke with the conference organizer and several invited speakers about the plan for this symposium and the importance of their research in the field.
On April 6-10, 2020, HSE University will hold XXI April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development. The Conference programme will include presentations by Russian and international academics, roundtables and plenary sessions with participation of members of the Government of the Russian Federation, government officials, business representatives, and leading Russian and foreign experts. Members of the international academic and expert community are invited to register for the conference.
This year, a slowdown is expected in the Russian economy. According to some forecasts, the country will enter recession in 2021 or possibly even earlier. However, according to the HSE Centre for Business Tendencies Studies (CBTS), there are no noticeable signs of recession at the moment. This article looks at what keeps Russia's economy from picking up pace and why slowdowns are a possibility, according to the HSE CBTS.
proposals for new international laboratories at HSE University have been received from researchers from Belgium, the UK, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Italy, Canada, Norway, the USA, Estonia, and Japan.
When bidding in a competitive market, our brains use a special type of heuristic to adjust the price depending on the success of previous attempts to buy goods. Moreover, this learning mechanism involves not only the cerebral cortex, but the evolutionary ancient brain area of the striatum. This was the conclusion reached by neuroscientists from the HSE Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and the Research Center of Neurology (Moscow, Russia) in a study that was published in the European Journal of Neuroscience.
Mental health disorders are among the leading worldwide causes of disease and long-term disability. This issue has a long and painful history of gradual de-stigmatization of patients, coinciding with humanization of therapeutic approaches. What are the current trends in Russia regarding this issue and in what ways is it similar to and different from Western countries? IQ.HSE provides an overview of this problem based on research carried out by Svetlana Kolpakova.
On September 5, Laurie Manchester, Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University, presented her paper on voluntary repatriation of Russians from China to the Soviet Union between 1935 and 1960. The presentation was part of the research seminar, ‘Boundaries of History’, held regularly by the Department of History at HSE University in St. Petersburg. HSE News Service spoke with Laurie Manchester about her research interests, collaborating with HSE faculty members, and the latest workshop.
