Laura Solanko: ‘An Academic Today Cannot Help but Want to Create and Work’
As part of the XV April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, a ceremony took place to award the National Prize for Applied Economics, which this year went to William Pyle and Laura Solanko for their convincing validation of Mancur Olson’s hypothesis using unique data on Russian business associations.
As part of the XV April International Academic Conference on Economic and Social Development, a ceremony took place to award the National Prize for Applied Economics, which this year went to William Pyle and Laura Solanko for their convincing validation of Mancur Olson’s hypothesis using unique data on Russian business associations.
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| Laura Solanko |
It will be recalled that the National Prize in Applied Economics is being awarded for the third time (the competition has been held every two years since 2010) for outstanding published research devoted to the analysis of the Russian economy. The founders of the prize are the Higher School of Economics, New Economic School (NES), Ural Federal University (UrFU), Association of Russian Economic Think Tanks (ARETT), Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), and the magazine Expert.
Victor Polterovich, member of the Academic Prize Council; Head of Laboratory, Central Economics and Mathematics Institute (CEMI) (Russian Academy of Sciences); and professor emeritus at the NES spoke at the ceremony on the essence of prize: ‘This prize is awarded for outstanding research work devoted to analysis of the Russian economy, which is of great importance both for the development of Russian economic research and for improving the effectiveness of economic policy in our country.’
Evaluating the work was a jury of six academics (two Americans, including Richard Erikson, two Brits and two Russians) who were chosen by the Prize’s academic committee, which itself consists of more than 30 individuals. Work was considered without consideration of researchers’ nationality or place of work, so a significant portion of the works submitted came from international groups, including this year’s winning publication, which was co-authored by the American scholar William Pyle and the Finnish researcher Laura Solanko.
Laura Solanko noted that for her it was an ‘immense honour to receive the prestigious recognition in the study of applied economics in Russia.’ She thanked Andrei Yakovlev, chair of the prize organizing committee and Director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Studies at HSE, for his work that had inspired her own research, adding: ‘This prize will serve as an additional source of inspiration for us. It must be said that we live in such a wonderful time for research when the entire academic community is open to cooperation and when receiving information is much faster and easier than ever before. In such circumstances, an academic cannot help but want to create and work.’
Andrei Yakovlev, chair of the prize committee, spoke about the jury’s work in 2013-2014. Originally 20 works were nominated for the prize. These works then underwent a multistage review procedure after which 12 were selected for final examination and selection of a single winner. Five works received special recognition from the jury, covering the following topics: structural changes to the Russian economy during the pre-war five-year plans, measurement of the effect of observers’ presence on election results, the value of human capital, payroll and non-wage costs of job losses during the economic boom, and the rejection of privatization:
- Anton Cheremukhin, Mikhail Golosov, Sergei Guriev and Aleh Tsyvinski ‘Was Stalin Necessary for Russia's Economic Development’ // NBER Working Paper No. 19425, 2013.
- Ruben Enikolopov, Vasily Korovkin, Maria Petrova, Konstantin Sonin and Alexei Zakharov ‘Field experiment estimate of electoral fraud in Russian parliamentary elections’ // Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(2):448-52, 2013.
- R. Kapekyushnikov ‘What is human capital worth in Russia?’ // Voprosy Economiki journal (2013), part. 1, #1, с. 27-47; part. 2, #2, pg. 24-46.
- Hartmut Lehmann, Alexander Muravyev, Tiziano Razzolini and Anzelika Zaiceva ‘The Wage and Non-wage Costs of Displacement in Boom Times: Evidence from Russia’ // Journal of Comparative Economics (41 (2013) 1184-1201).
- Irina Denisova, Markus Eller, Timothy Frye and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya ‘Everyone hates privatization, but why? Survey evidence from 28 post-communist countries’ // Journal of Comparative Economics (40 (2012) 44–61).
Work by researchers at the Higher School of Economics were among those receiving honourable mention - Rostislav Kapelyushnikov, deputy director of the Centre for Labour Market Studies, Timothy Frye, academic supervisor of the HSE’s International Centre for the Study of Institutions and Development, and Alexey Zakharov, senior research fellow at the HSE’s Centre for Advanced Studies. Alexander Muravyev, winner of the Gaidar Foundation Award for Young Economists, was also among those receiving honourable mention.
Maria Glazyrina, third year student of the Faculty of Law, intern for the HSE News Service
Photo by Nikita Benzoruk