Due to timely price and time adjustments on the Russian labour market, the need for worker layoffs was much less than it could have been under other conditions. This is the finding of a study conducted by the Centre for Labour Market Studies and the Office for Expert Analysis at HSE University. At the same time, the study also shows that more than half of Russians surveyed reported that their earnings have decreased significantly.
HSE University’s Centre of Development Institute has conducted its regular quarterly survey of experts’ projections for the Russian economy in the 2020–2021 period. According to the consensus forecast, Russia’s GDP will decrease by 4.3% this year. This seems to be a more optimistic outlook compared, for example, to the IMF’s forecast, which suggests a 5.5% decline.
At the regular seminar of the HSE Institute of Education, Ivan Smirnov, Head of the Laboratory of Computational Social Sciences, presented his ongoing research project that examines the psychological well-being of students using their digital footprints.
The HSE Institute for Social Policy is renewing its monitoring of the population’s socio-economic status and social well-being. The first issue includes a 2019 summary and short analysis of the trends related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts have concluded that many unfavourable trends were not overcome last year and that the current crisis will worsen the situation.
The HSE Centre of Development Institute has begun publishing the Daily Economic Stress Index (DESI), which tracks economic activity in the financial markets and in the real sector. Current stress index indicators do not paint an optimistic picture – they significantly exceed the background retrospective values since 1997, indicating a high probability of a recession.
Russians do not believe they can protect their consumer rights. They also put no faith in the government and distrust both retailers and producers. Such sentiments adversely affect attitudes towards the political system, said sociologist Regina Resheteeva in a study of data from the Higher School of Economics’ Russian Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE) and a survey of more than 500 Muscovites.
