Conference Programme

Discussant: G. Kantorovich (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• Global experience of economic sanctions - lessons for Russia
• Financial sanctions - mechanisms of action and effect
• Consequences of counter-suctions for the Russian economy
• Are sanctions dangerous for the Russian financial system?
• Long-term international and economic consequences of sanctions

Participants: N. Volchkova (NES/ CEFIR), O. Vyugin (HSE), E. Gurvich (EEG), A. Knobel (IEP), I. Korhonen (BOFIT)

Human capital matters for individuals, for economies, and for societies. The presentation will discuss the key contributions in the macro and microeconomic literature on the channels linking human capital and income growth, with the objective of providing a conceptual framework and an update on the recent empirical evidence. It will also discuss some of the evidence on why individuals and government often fail to invest optimally in human capital.

Past experience in many countries shows that standard solutions may be helpful in stabilizing economy and society during the crisis, but they rarely lead to exponential economic growth. Favourable conditions for sustainable growth are more likely to emerge thanks to non-standard approaches and non-standard institutions. Good examples of such non-standard solutions include the subsidies provided by the Korean government in the 1960–80s to enterprises based on their export performance; township and village enterprises in China in the 1980s; public-private partnership mechanisms focused on encouraging export diversification in Chile in the 1980–90s; the development of venture industry in Taiwan in the 1980s and Israel in the 1990s. However, non-standards institutions do not emerge and evolve on their own. As a rule, they are initiated as bottom-up reforms, which are then promoted by representatives of elites with the consent of key elite ruling groups. This presentation will demonstrate the logic underlying the creation of non-standard institutions, which can generate opportunities for further economic development. We will also discuss the role played by rents in the emergence of such institutions in terms of “limited access order” conceptual framework elaborated by Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast.

The notion of independence of irrelevant alternatives pops up in Arrow's works on social welfare functions at the beginning of the 1950s. At about the same time in his bargaining paper introduced a condition which has been called by various people, including Harold Kuhn, independence of irrelevant alternatives. Obviously, the two notions are mathematical objects of a different nature, although there are some links between the two from an intuitive perspective. The purpose of this paper is to describe the history of the notions and to study whether they can be related from a mathematical perspective.

In a general version of Dixit-Stiglitz two-sector economy, we present three variants of the concept of oligopolistic equilibrium in price-quantity pairs (d’Aspremont and Dos Santos Ferreira, Economic Theory 2016) integrating income feedback effects in three different ways. For the first two variants (Ford effects ignored or restricted to profits), a single and simple equilibrium markup formula is derived involving, for each firm, a conduct parameter indicating its degree of competitive toughness. Different specifications of these conduct parameters lead to different oligopolistic equilibria in prices and/or in quantities. In particular in the standard Dixit-Stiglitz economy, we show, that the first order conditions of a symmetric oligopolistic price equilibrium correspond to a unique degree of competitive toughness in the general markup formula, This degree is decreasing (and the markup increasing) as more feedback effects are taken into account by firms. On the contrary, for the third variant, introducing full Ford effects leads to lower markups and higher competitive toughness in the standard Dixit-Stiglitz economy and under conditions ensuring the equilibrium markup to remain in the right interval.

Issues for discussion:
• What is appropriate regulatory pressure for the banking system?
• Banking regulation and economic growth
• Regulation and stability
• Fintech and blockchain. What kind of regulation is needed (if necessary)?
• Fintech’s prospective influence on traditional banking. What is true?

Participants: S. Redel (Representative of Deutsche Bundesbank to the Bank of Russia), G. Di Bella (IMF Representative to Russia), M. Matovnikov (Sberbank), A. Lobanov (Bank of Russia), S. Kurry (FSA)

Discussant: V. Belousova (HSE)

The first edition of Capital Vol.I (1867) was followed by a second, revised, German edition (1872/3) and a French edition (1872/5) which was not a simple translation of the German one but delivered a strongly improved representation. Marx gave, therefore, potential translators the instruction to base their translations on a careful comparison of the two editions. He himself planned in 1881 to make a newly revised German edition. Although his death prevented the compliance of this plan it shows that he saw his opus magnum as a work in progress. My paper will point out some aspects of Marx’s continuous rethinking of allegedly fixed truths.

Issues for discussion:
• Political technology as a vocation
• Candidates at elections in today’s Russia: how political technologist work with them?
• Political technologies at regional elections
• Campaign materials: today’s requirements
• New developments in international experience of electoral technologies: the case of French presidential campaign in 2017
• Teaching “political technologies” at HSE: the experience of Center for Political Technologies

Participants: I. Bunin (CPT, HSE), B. Makarenko (CPT), R. Turovsky (CPT, HSE), A. Makarkin (First Vice-President of CPT), R. Larionov (CPT)

Discussant: E. Yureskul (HSE)

Discussant: E. Petrenko (FOM)

Discussant: D. Malakhov (HSE)

Discussant: L. Nikovskaya (Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS)

Discussant: A. Novikova (HSE)

Discussant: S. Shomova (HSE)

Discussant: A. Arkhangelsky (HSE)

Discussant: O. Yuldasheva (SPbSUE)

Discussant: S. Kazakov (HSE)

Discussant: I. Shafranskaya (HSE)

Discussant: V. Kostenko (HSE St. Petersburg)

Discussant: C. Welzel (Leuphana University, HSE)

Discussant: C. Welzel (Leuphana University, HSE)

This presentation argues that the new cottage industry in cross-national survey research, Multi-group Confirmatory Factor Analysis (MGCFA), frequently discovers measurement non-invariance in multi-item constructs because of a fatal flaw in its design. Indeed, instead of modeling the source of measurement non-invariance, MGCFA actually does the exact opposite and kicks the source out of the analyses. Measurement non-invariance established in MGCFA is almost entirely an artifact of this flaw and vanishes for the most part as soon as the between-country component in item variation is modeled, using two-level confirmatory factor analyses. This finding explains the tendency of MGCFA to invalidate multi-item constructs, even in the face of constructs - such as emancipative values - that exhibit great explanatory power over other phenomena: it is the flaw in the design of MGCFA alone that accounts for this tendency. The key point is that the quality of a within-country factor solution for the items of a given construct is a direct derivative of the respective construct's country mean. Yet, by running the same factor model separately for each country, MGCFA ignores differences in country means and, hence, ignores the source of inconsistent factor solutions, instead of modeling it. I conclude that this practice is misleading and that the current practice of MGCFA should be abandoned for this reason.

Discussants: M. Kravtsova (HSE), D. Ivanov (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• To what extent proposals for the development of Russian education until 2024 which are aimed at enhancing the contribution of education to economic growth, technological modernization and social mobility, are applicable for all regions?
• How does the content of proposed solutions and implementation mechanisms take into account interregional differentiation and the main parameters of the development of education?
• Should the equality issue be in the Strategy of the education 2024?
• What role is assigned to regional and municipal educational authorities in the Strategy of the education 2024?

Participants: Experts of CSR, HSE, RANEPA, Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation, heads of executive and local government bodies

Discussant: V. Charnavoki (NES)

Discussant: S. Pekarski (HSE)

The lecture treats economic and political diversification as two sides of the same coin, presenting them as parallel potential determinants of long-run economic growth. Three different measures of economic diversification are discussed: the Finger-Kreinin index of export diversification, the Herfindahl-Hirschman index of market concentration, and the Theil index of export diversification. Three measures of political diversification are also discussed: indices of political liberties and civil rights as well as the Polity-II index of democracy. All six measures of diversification are shown to vary directly with one another as well as with per capita incomes across a large sample of countries.

Issues for discussion:
• How strong are the displacement effects in the focus of economic research in Russia driven by the incentives to publish research results in international journals?
• What mechanisms can directly connect academic research with solutions to real life problems?
• Why do qualified experts continue to conduct academic research without formal incentives?
• What measures can facilitate the convergence of Russian studies, which can be promoted in the mainstream of world economic science and consider global problems, and studies focused on the problems of Russia’s transformation?
• What should form the basis for independent and main discourse in Russian economic science?

Participants: L. Grigoryev (HSE), E. Gurvich (EEG), A. Zaostrovtsev (Leontief Centre), N. Volchkova (NES/ CEFIR), V. Polterovich (CEMI RAS)

In recent years a number of new scientific journals have appeared in the HSE and previously established journals have adopted new development strategies and have gained some recognition by entering the international citation bases of Scopus and Web of Science (ESSI) in addition to the Russian Science Citation Index. Many journals are moving to the platform for peer-reviewed scientific publications of Open Journal Systems.

Issues for discussion:
• What are the hopes of the further journal’s development?
• What materials and what authors do they expect?
• How do the requirements for journal publications change?

Participants: L. Jakobson (“Public Administration Issues”), D. Kodzokova ("Urban Studies and Practices"), A. Vishnevsky ("Demographic Review"), A. Sharikov ("Communications. Media. Design"), I. Ivashkovskaya (Journal of Corporate Finance Research), S. Barsukova ("Universe of Russia. Sociology. Ethnology"), V. Petrovsky ("Psychology. Journal of the Higher School of Economics"), M. K. Glazatova ("Trade Policy"), V. Radaev ("Economic Sociology"), E. Gavrilenkov ("HSE Economic Journal")

Honorary lecture by Ina Ganguli (University of Massachusetts Amherst) “Science and Migration After the End of the Soviet Union”
In the lecture, the author discusses findings of research on the scientific labor market after the end of the Soviet Union. First, evidence about the impacts of a historic grant program, funded by George Soros, is provided. Exploiting a discontinuity in the grant eligibility formula, it is shown that the grants more than doubled publications on the margin, significantly induced scientists to remain in the science sector, and had long-lasting impacts. Second, the migration of scientists westward after the end of the USSR is examined, and new evidence about the selection of emigrants and the contribution of immigration to knowledge diffusion is provided. Using a data set of Russian scientists and US citations to Soviet-era scientific publications, it is shown that citations to Soviet-era work increased significantly with the arrival of immigrants in the US, suggesting that immigration is an important channel for facilitating cross-border knowledge flows.

Russian editions of two books will be presented within this session. The book of Ronald Inglehart «Cultural Evolution. How People’s Motivations are Changing and How this is Changing the World» («Misl» Publishing House with the support of «Liberal Mission Fundation», 2018) and the book of Christian Welzel «Freedom Rising» (WCIOM publishing House, 2017).

Participants: R. Inglehart (HSE, Michigan University), C. Welzel (HSE, Leuphana University Lueneburg), E. Yasin (HSE), A. Almakaeva (HSE), A. Kuleshova (VCIOM)

Issues for discussion:
• Priorities of socio-economic development in post-election Russia
• The business environment as a key driver of economic growth under conditions of external sanctions
• Strategies for encouraging investment: features and prospects

Participants: P. Aven (Alfa Bank), K. Androsov (Altera Capital), S. Borisov (“SUPPORT OF RUSSIA”), M. Barshchevsky (Plenipotentiary Representative of the Government of the Russian Federation in the Highest Judicial Instances), I. Vdovin (RUIE), I. Lozhevsky (Promsvyazbank), D. Pumpyansky (SRUIE), V. Salamatov (ITI), V. Senin (“Association of Managers”), K. Androsov (Altera Capital), B. Titiov (Representative of the President for the Protection of the Rights of Entrepreneurs), I. Yungers (All-Russian IA, RAMI, NULI, INSOR, HSE)

This talk presents a framework designed to increase market efficiency by adding frictions to transactions involving configurable and made-to-order products and/or services. In particular, it shows that: (1) friction reduction in market transactions through auctions has its hidden costs; (2) transactions are efficient only under the assumptions that are often not realistic in many markets; and (3) efficiency loss can be regained when friction is introduced. Furthermore, the proposed framework shows that friction can create additional value because it fosters learning about the capabilities and interests of the auction participants.

Discussant: M. Shchepeleva (HSE)

Discussant: A. Leonidov (LPI RAS)

Measures are the basis for quantitative methods of decision-making. Quality measures play a crucial role in economic systems management. Ratings are a tool for measuring success and risk in the economy, finance, management, sports, and social spheres of human activities.
This paper systematized the results of more than a decade of research in this field. Particular attention is paid to the modeling of ratings and risk assessment in finance, the formation of unified rating space for comparison of different ratings, as well as the creation of rating designer, and the discussion of ratings in the educational process.
This presentation is based on monographs and papers published in 2015—2017, including “Handbook of ratings” (Springer, 2016), “Credit ratings and their modeling” (NRU HSE, 2015), etc.

Discussant: N. Dyachkova (HSE), O. Khon (HSE – St. Petersburg)

Issues for discussion:
• How has the influence of “new economy” companies on economic policy in different regions changed over the past 10 years?
• Where do active entrepreneurs lose their businesses? In the non-state sector, power industry, etc.?
• Perhaps the impact is exaggerated and, in fact, the crisis has had a positive impact in removing non-competitive companies?

Participants: A. Yakovlev (HSE), A. Shadrin (Economy Ministry of Russia), L. Limonov (Leontief Centre, HSE – St. Petersburg), L. Grigoryev (Analytical Center for the Government of the RF), V. Klimanov (IPFR), V. Kozlov (“Expert Yug Region”)

Discussant: A. Zhelnina (City University of New York)

Discussion of the report of the invited conference guest R. Buckley (The New School) with T. Buckley “The morphology of large Russian cities: patterns and conjectures”

Using satellite photos we examine the morphology of Russia's largest cities in 2000 and 2015 and discuss the pattern of growth. We then compare that pattern to the pattern observed in Europe, European transition economies, and other countries, showing that the strong empirical finding of a negative gradient in most cities does not apply to many Russian cities. We then offer some conjectures as to why what seems to be an unusual pattern in Russian cities occurs. Out main conjecture is that contracting difficulties in repurposing and/or rehabilitating many buildings affects both the ability to substitute structure for land and the amount of land available for housing. Both changes cause the supply elasticity of housing to become less elastic. Then, by reference to recent analyses of the U.S. housing market, we suggest that if house prices rise - with demand related increases in population and income - to the point where the increase exceeds the local increases in productivity that economic growth and welfare are reduced. Estimates for the U.S. indicate that this situation has reduced economic growth by fifty percent.

Marx was very well read in Greek philosophy, especially Aristotle. He related his own theory of value, the centre piece of his analysis of the capitalist mode of production, to insights encountered in Aristotle. The main idea was that of a ‘common third’, that is, the problem of whether qualitatively different commodities could be said to represent equal or different quantities of the same substance, which determined the exchange values of commodities. While Aristotle denied the existence of such a substance, Marx's answer was in the positive. According to him, the common third was abstract human labour. The paper scrutinizes critically Marx's theory of value and the role of tertium comparationis in it and compares it to the theory of value elaborated by the classical economists from Adam Smith to David Ricardo The reasoning put forward draws inter alia on reflections contained in Piero Sraffa's hitherto unpublished papers at Trinity College, Cambridge.

Issues for discussion:
• Attractiveness of Russian investment projects for Chinese investors
• Participation of Chinese investors in the modernization of the Russian transport infrastructure and its connection to the Chinese project "One Belt, One Road"
• Transborder regional economic cooperation
• Issues of humanitarian cooperation (education, culture)
• Mechanisms for political coordination between Russia and China in international organizations

Participants: K. Chang (The Chinese University of Hong Kong), D. Pan (Center for Russian Studies of Shanghai Academy for Social Sciences), S. Li (North-Eastern Normal University), A. Maslov (HSE), A. Muraviev (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• limits of transnational corporations’ autonomy in the development of international economic relations
• the effectiveness of state policy to attract foreign investors
• areas of greatest conflict and areas of productive interaction between the state and large transnational business
• poorly studied issues of interaction between the state and transnational business: new aims for researchers

Participants: S. Afontsev (IMEMO RAS), B. Heifetz (Financial University), O. Kuznetsova (FRS IM RAS), M. Lebedeva (MGIMO), Y. Mirkin (IMEMO RAS), E. Nikitina (IMEMO RAS), A. Efimova (HSE), I. Orlov (HSE), M. Kharkevich (MGIMO), A. Chetverikova (IMEMO RAS) and others (authors of journal “Outlines of global transformations”, 2018, №1)

Discussants: I. Safranchuk (MGIMO), V. Sutyrin (Analytical portal Eurasia. Expert)

Issues for discussion:
• The correlation of multilateral regulation and the formation of the common trade policy of the EAEU
• Assessment of integration processes and the driving forces of redistribution of factors of production in the consolidated market of the EAEU
• The EAEU and the Asian region/ Asian countries: individual agreements or cooperation blocks?

Participants: K. Berden (University of Bern), A. Daniltsev (HSE), N. Kulbatyrov (CTPD), A. Sysoeva (Economy Ministry of Russia), V. Zuev (HSE), A. Kusainova (EEC), E. Kanaev (MGIMO), G. Balin (ЕЕС), A. Voronina (EEC), Asian Development Bank

Issues for discussion:
• Checks and balances of international trade and economic integration: expansion of «club partnership» and strengthening of interdependence of national economies, interaction of region blocks and creation of «trade continents», bilateral cooperation and network effects

Participants: K. Berden (University of Bern), A. Daniltsev (HSE), N. Kulbatyrov (CTPD), A. Sysoeva (Economy Ministry of Russia), V. Zuev (HSE), A. Kusainova (EEC), E. Kanaev (MGIMO), G. Balin (ЕЕС), A. Voronina (EEC), Asian Development Bank

Discussants: L. Ruzhanskaya (UrFU), I. Denisova (NES)

Discussant: T. Mikhaylova (RANEPA)

Discussant: A. Shcherbak (HSE)

Discussants: S. Zolyan (IKBFU), I. Fomin (INION RAS)

Discussant: I. Lokshin (HSE)

Discussant: A. Titkov (RANEPA)

Discussant: V. Yakimets (IITP RAS)

Discussant: A. Sungurov (HSE - St. Petersburg)

The Roundtable will be devoted to the development of philanthropy in Russia and worldwide, including such questions as:
• how to evaluate the contribution of philanthropy to social development and the solution of social problems
• how to measure the effectiveness of philanthropy and what are the trends in the area of philanthropy
• what factors influence the prospects of philanthropy growth
• what are available tools of state influence on philanthropy development in different countries and the potential for the use of such tools in Russia

Participants: A. Levitskaya (Russian Federation Presidential Administration), I. Mersianova (HSE), F. Schneider (Yale University), V. Benevolensky (HSE), G. Ulyanova (Institute of Russian History, Russian Academy of Sciences), S. Kumar Jha (Association of Indians in Russia), Ch. Frank (German-Russian Chamber of Trade and Commerce), M. Bondarev (Sheredar Charitable Foundation), N. Ivanova (HSE), E. Topoleva-Soldunova (ASI, HSE), I. Efremova-Gart (IBM Eastern Europe/Asia/Russia), O. Evdokimova («Evolution and Philanthropy»)

Discussant: E. Lapina-Kratasyuk (HSE)

Discussant: O. Dovbysh (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• Interactive documentaries, trans media series, VR in journalism, theatre, museum, cinema: how immersive media affect the human interaction with the plot?
• How art journalism and media criticism transform in digital media environment?
• Media production in the cultural industries and impact production: about the key competencies of the "new digital"?

Participants: I. Savchenko (Channel One), T. Belova (Bolshoi Theatre), S. Evdokimov (TV channel "Friday"), K. Shainyan (Creative Studio "History of the Future"), A. Utkin (producer, screenwriter), A. Novikova (HSE)

The growing field of bioart and design raises significant questions for artists and designers working with life as raw matter. What is necessary in such practices is that critical discussions centered on ethics and power are integrated into broader cultural dialogues in the creation of objects and products that design or redesign biological parts, devices or systems. This lecture will examine specific examples of wearable art produced by architect and designer Neri Oxman. Using generative software to develop the series titled ‘Wanderers, An Astrobiological Exploration’, computational growth patterns give rise to undeniably biomorphic designs that emerge as external-organs-as-outerwear. Articulated as an imaginative set of prostheses hosting their own synthetic biology, these pieces represent a new frontier worn at the threshold of the skin. In the appraisal of these examples, I register speculative critical design as a methodology that interrogates the underlying assumptions of bioart and design processes as they converge with the life sciences. I ask, what happens when the human body presents as a parasite to the apparatus upon which it depends? And further, what status can a prosthetic organ achieve if it becomes a co-participant in life? Inspired by the Wanderers suite of objects, I will examine whether the symbiotic relationships established between humans and wearable prostheses could enable us to transcend corporeal difference

Discussant: T. Anopchenko (SFU)

Discussant: N. Bukhshtaber (MSU)

Discussant: E. Varshavkaya (HSE)

Discussant: K. Reshetnikova (HSE)

Discussant: V. Roud (HSE)

Discussant: P. Rudnik (HSE)

Discussant: E. Kutsenko (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• Professional choice in school: gender stereotypes and hidden curiculum
• Female motivation in obtaining higher education in technical and engineering disciplines
• Forms of support for talented women in world leading universities
• An estimation of female employment in hi-tech branches of economy
• Policies of encourage in female engineering innovations, science in IT
• Telemedicine: new competencies and new staff in the female branch of economy

Participants: O. Khasbulatova (IvSU), I. Dezhina (Skoltech), E. Kolesnikova (IS RAS), O. Savinskaya (HSE), L. Cheglakova (HSE), I. Smirnova (IvSU), A. Allakhverdyan (IHST RAS)

Discussant: N. Soboleva (HSE)

Discussant: A. Maksimova (HSE)

Discussant: E. Danilova (Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS)

Discussant: A. Nemirovskaya (HSE – St. Petersburg)

Discussants: E. Ponarin (HSE), V. Kostenko (HSE)

Discussants: M. Zavadskaya (HSE), B. Sokolov (HSE)

Discussants: E. Sirotkina (HSE), A. Semenov (PSNRU)

Discussants: A. Shirokanova (HSE), H.W. Kwon (University of Iowa)

Issues for discussion:
• What is the role of prevention and overcoming territorial inequality in education in the agenda of governments and international organizations?
• Are there examples of effective prevention programs and overcoming territorial inequality in education?
• Do the implemented solutions have a universal character or highly dependent on country characteristics? How can Russia take into account the experience of other countries in that case?
• What elements of the policy and projects for prevention and overcoming territorial inequality in education which implemented in Russia are interesting for other countries and international organizations?

Participants: I. Froumin (HSE), T. Linden (World Bank), D. Nikolaev (World Bank), T. Shmis (World Bank)

These days there is no way scientific research can be carried out without the use of digital media for the production or dissemination of knowledge. Undoubtedly, McLuhan is right when stating that the medium is the message. Digital Humanities transparent this process in its name and since it constitutes, for the first time, a scientific field where humanists not only aim at the use of a certain software, but also where research is understood from quantitative semantics. However, neither digital infrastructures are exactly the same globally, nor are all academies prepared to reformulate their curricula to this "digital turn". Consequently, can we still talk about those so-called Global Digital Humanities or should we focus on a regional or local scale? How does the technological development of a country impact on a scientific field in which digital infrastructures are needed when researching and teaching? The object of this presentation is to reflect on Digital Humanities both from a geopolitical and a technocritical perspective, regarding different contexts and conditions of possibility.

Issues for discussion:
• Implementation of digital humanities methods in the Faculty of Humanities’ current programme
• Digital humanities methods and data culture
• Staff development in data culture

Participants: A. Bonch-Osmolovskaya (HSE), E. Rakhilina (HSE), E. Sokolov (Yandex), A. Volodin (MSU)

Issues for discussion:
• Presentation of the DSGE model with consideration of monetary and budgetary policy
• Evaluation of the reaction of the main macroeconomic variables to changes in oil prices and decisions on monetary and budgetary policy
• The impact of the new budget rule on monetary policy decisions
• The volatility of financial variables and inflation

Participants: K. Sosunov (Bank of Russia), D. Shestakov (Bank of Russia), S. Slobodyan (HSE – St. Petersburg), P. Grintser (Sberbank), A. Isakov (VTB Capital), E. Gurvich (EEG), A. Cherny (Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation)

Discussants: D. Rylko (IKAR), N. Volchkova (NES/ CEFIR), V. Sheremet (KPMG)

The report analyzes trends in socio-economic development in the context of the global structural crisis completion. Specific features of the emerging model of economic growth, research agenda topics and economic policy of the forthcoming period are discussed, including the prospects of a non-inflation model of economic growth, new configuration of global currencies and the role of crypto-currencies, independence of central banks and the expansion of their role in providing economic growth, new tasks and models of state regulation, the interaction of inequality and economic growth. The features of the socio-economic dynamics of Russia are being analyzed upon the economic growth restoration: a framework of its macroeconomic stimulation, inflation targeting, the new budget rule, social dynamics, etc. It is noted that the key barriers to economic development relates to the non-economic sphere.

The recent few years brought the increasing attention to income and wealth inequalities in advanced economies, in particular, in the US triggered by both observations that inequalities are on the rise and by concerns on their negative social and political implications. However, this debate is most often limited to the single-country dimension, i.e., it disregards decreasing global income inequalities, i.e., inequalities between individuals in the entire world.
This paper focuses exactly on global dimension of the inequality trends. Furthermore, it tries to update statistics on recent national inequality trends which, contrary to the dominant narrative, seem to go in various directions depending on a concrete country. Finally, we try to analyze the potential interrelation and perhaps trade-off between decreasing global inequalities and increasing national inequalities, and the role of globalization, in its various forms, in such a tradeoff.

Discussant: P. Malyshev (HSE)

Discussant: A. Stolyarov (HSE)

Discussant: M. Chernova (RANEPA)

Issues for discussion:
• What lessons can be learned from the concepts and research models used in top-level journal publications?
• In what way is it necessary to change the approaches to research of various financial decisions and efficiency of innovative type companies?

Participants: J. McCahery (Tilburg University), J. Viettо (IPVC), A. Barajas (HSE – St. Petersburg), A. Loktev (Elsevier Science and Technology), leading specialists of HSE, NES, MSU, Financial University, SPbSEU, UrFU

Discussant: M. Pompella (UNISI)

Discussant: R. Matousek (Kent University)

Issues for discussion:
• Providing for Access to Justice in modern procedural systems
• Judicial Reforms in the Modern World (on the basis of the Venice Commission materials)
• Enlarging the Jury Court competence and its effects

Participants: M. Filatova (HSE), A. Kovler (Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation, HSE), S. Pashin (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• Constitutional Control practice and theoretical basis of judicial reform
• Self-Restraint in constitutional jurisdictions (comparative aspect)
• Reform of the Bar: issues and perspectives
• Institutionalization of "child-friendly" justice and a direction of judicial reform
• Mediation and Fair Justice
• Introduction of Jury Trial in Kyrgyzstan

Participants: T. Sokolov (SPbSU), A. Evseyev (counsellor at the Constitutional Court of Uktaine), L. Bardin (revue "Moscow Advocate", HSE), L. Karnozova (HSE), O. Kiseleva (HSE), S. Kurmanbaev (HSE)

Invited speaker: Nobuo Shimotomai (professor, Hosei University, Japan)

Issues for discussion:
• Specific aspects of Russia-Japan relations: historical survey and present state
• Present-day Russia-Japan political relations: expectations and perspectives
• Perspectives of «pro-Russian» policy of Shinzo Abe
• Socio-economic questions of Russia-Japan cooperation

Participants: N. Shimotomai (Hosei University), V. Kuzminkov (IFE RAS), S. Grishachov (RSHU), G. Misochko (Tsukuba University, MSPU), A. Novikova (HSE), A. Kotlov (MSUIR, HSE)

Discussants: N. Gryazin (HSE), S. Stolyarova (MGIMO)

Issues for discussion:
• Dostoyevsky's texts as the key for Japanese and Russian cultures' mutual understanding
• Specific features of Russo-Japanese business communications
• Russo-Japanese cultural space: language code
• Contemporary Japanese society: philosophical and religious traditions

Participants: T. Gurevich (MSUIR), V. Mazurik (IAAC MSU), А. Oskina (HSE), V. Fedyanina (MCPU), K. Tobe (HSE)

Discussant: C. Sprenger (NES)

Discussants: S. Stepanov (HSE), P. Radichevich (NES)

Discussants: B. Kuznetsov (HSE), O. Lazareva (HSE), I. Iwasaki (Hitotsubashi University)

Discussant: A. Kynev (HSE)

Discussants: E. Gontmakher (IMEMO RAS), D. Slider (USF)

Discussant: A. Akhremenko (HSE)

Discussant: B. Rudnik (HSE)

Discussant: I. Korneeva (HSE), N. Ivanova (HSE)

Discussant: M. Shabanova (HSE), A. Istomina (Evolution and Philanthropy)

Discussant: N. Zubarevich (MSU)

Even though informal employment is wide-spread in transition economies the literature on this phenomenon in the region is rather scarce. In the first part of the lecture we summarize the general theoretical literature on labor market segmentation along the formal-informal divide with an eye on specific features of labor markets in the post-transition region. Since for policy makers it is important to know the incidence and the determinants of informal employment and to understand the heterogeneity of jobs within the informal sector, we then demonstrate that the incidence of informal jobs and to a lesser degree their determinants depend on the definition used. We furthermore highlight the weaknesses of most studies that test for labor market segmentation in post-transition economies along the formal-informal dimension. Last but not least we introduce a new research area that links risk preferences and selection into labor market states. This research using risk preferences can help us disentangle issues regarding segmentation of labor markets in post-transition countries.

Issues for discussion:
• Insecurities, informalities and precariousness of the Russian labour market: evaluating the position of youth
• Women in the Russian labour market: barriers and strategies of employment
• The role of the State in the labour market: the assessment of the social support for youth and women
• Looking for the inclusion: what resources do young people and women possess

Participants: E. Omelchenko (HSE – St. Petersburg), G. Sabirova (HSE – St. Petersburg), C. Walker (University of Southampton), C. Gerry (University of Oxford), D. Omelchenko (HSE – St. Petersburg), Y. Krupets (HSE – St. Petersburg), S. Polyakov (HSE – St. Petersburg)

Issues for discussion:
• Main trends and directions of development of the industry
• Priority channels of digital marketing
• Topical strategies, tools, metrics
• Interactions between customers, agencies and universities

Participants: S. Kozlov (Megaplan), E. Buzulukova (HSE), A. Chekhobakh (OMD Resolution), K. Kuznetsova (Blondinka.ru agency), A. Manin (HSE), N. Sarybaeva (Publicis Media Group), A. Vintenko (Kinian), I. Gorshunov (Etc ventures, Rutech), S. Prokhorov (Mail.ru), M. Sinyagin (IKEA)

Issues for discussion:
The main problems of introducing digital technologies in the processes of work in the hotel business:
• technologies
• instruments
• staff competencies
• consumer behaviour

Participants: K. Arutyunyan (AZIMUT Hotels), D. Bogdanov (Znanie Sanatorium), M. Brodovsky (AZIMUT Hotels Company), M. Bukalina (AZIMUT Hotels Company), M. Voronova (Moscow Country Club), A. Gurko (Moscow Country Club), A. Dorofeev (HSE), E. Druzhinina (Arthur’s Village and Spa hotel), O. Zelenova (HSE), E. Ilyinskaya (Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Russia and CIS), V. Kentsley (Hotel company), P. Lebedeva (Cosmos Group), M. Michurina (Aktitur Russia), O. Nazarova (Hotel company), O. Pimenova (Hilton Garden Inn Moscow New Riga hotel), I. Popovkin (HSE), A. Pugacheva (Marriott Hotels), A. Rozhkov (HSE), A. Saburova (Intercontinental Moscow Tverskaya), S. Shchegolev (Happy Seasons Group)

Issues for discussion:
• Finding solutions to problems regarding the introduction of digital technologies in the hospitality business.

Participants: K. Arutyunyan (AZIMUT Hotels), D. Bogdanov (Znanie Sanatorium), M. Brodovsky (AZIMUT Hotels Company), M. Bukalina (AZIMUT Hotels Company), M. Voronova (Moscow Country Club), A. Gurko (Moscow Country Club), A. Dorofeev (HSE), E. Druzhinina (Arthur’s Village and Spa hotel), O. Zelenova (HSE), E. Ilyinskaya (Interstate Hotels & Resorts, Russia and CIS), V. Kentsley (Hotel company), P. Lebedeva (Cosmos Group), M. Michurina (Aktitur Russia), O. Pimenova (Hilton Garden Inn Moscow New Riga hotel), I. Popovkin (HSE), A. Pugacheva (Marriott Hotels), A. Rozhkov (HSE), A. Saburova (Intercontinental Moscow Tverskaya), S. Shchegolev (Happy Seasons Group), O. Nazarova (Hotel company)

Issues for discussion:
• “Green” urban infrastructure and sustainable development principles in urban and housing policies
• Providing housing affordability in consequence with international standards
• Evaluation of the quality of a comfortable urban environment
• Digitalization of the mortgage and construction market
• Decentralization of governance and development of public-private partnership in housing and urban policy

Participants: M. Goldberg (Agency for Housing Mortgage Lending), E. Y. Gushchina (Government of the Russian Federation), I. Ilina (HSE), E. Kutsenko (HSE), T. Matsumoto (OECD), A. A. Nikiforov (Economy Ministry of Russia), P. Rudnik (HSE), A. Terentyev (HSE), T. Khabarova (UN-Habitat)

Discussant: T. Nestik (IP RAS)

Discussant: T. Nestik (IP RAS)

Discussant: M. Chernysh (Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS)

Discussant: Y. Lezhnina (HSE)

Discussants: O. Zaporozhets (HSE), M. Koroleva (RANEPA), Y. Bagina (HSE)

Discussant: K. Fursov (HSE)

Discussant: T. Nefedova (IGRAS)

Discussants: A. Andreenkova (CESSI), A. Titkov (HSE)

When does culture persist and when does it change? We examine a determinant of cultural persistence that has emerged from a class of cultural models in evolutionary anthropology: the cross-generational variability of the environment faced by one’s ancestors. Within these models, in environments that are more stable across generations, the traits that have evolved up to the previous generation are more likely to be optimal for the current generation. Thus, in equilibrium, a greater value placed on tradition and there is greater cultural persistence. We test this hypothesis by measuring the variability of average temperature across 20-year generations faced by the ancestors of current populations from 500–1900. Looking globally across countries, ethnic groups, and the descendants of immigrants, we find that populations with ancestors who lived in environments with more instability across generations place less importance in maintaining tradition today. These populations also exhibit less persistence in their traditions over time. The final part of our analysis focuses on indigenous populations from the United States and Canada, the two countries that have the highest quality historical climate data available. In this sample, we also show that the findings using the global sample are robust to controlling for high-frequency (year-to-year) variability and that our findings using the cross-generational instability of the mean (first moment) are similar if we use the cross-generational variability of the variance (second moment).

Discussants: E. Uslaner (University of Maryland,College Park), N. Michalsky (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Systems transformation and «unbundling» is an obvious trend of changes. We are witnessing the emergence of new management objects (such as "ecosystems" of education), new actors and business projects for schools, new professional roles in schools, interpretation of cities as an educational systems, digitalization of educational programs and management.
The system of education is unbalanced: there are risks of autonomy of educational organization and risks of centralization of management and financing of educational organization increase.
The "new landscape" of traditional means of managing regional systems needs to be clarified. Perhaps «complex» approach provides improvement of traditional and achievement of new educational results - skills of the 21st century, new literacy. This requires new qualities in the management of education, including through the possibility allocation of responsibility among managements levels and fining effective models.

Issues for discussion:
• Is it possible to build effective models allocation of responsibility for changing General education?
• Are the comprehensive projects of modernization of regional systems can show a new landscape of responsibility?

Participants: A. Adamsky (HSE), T. Sinyugina (HSE), A. Mayorov (HSE), S. Zair-Bek (HSE), representatives of education management bodies, experts

Discussants: J. McCahery (Tilburg University), A. Stepanova (HSE)

Discussants: A. Karminsky (HSE), J. Vieito (Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo)

Discussants: Y. Dranev (HSE), M. Stolbov (MGIMO)

Discussant: V. Solodkov (HSE)

Issues for discussion:
• Measuring the effectiveness of legal regulation
• Legal forecasting: romantic optimization or inevitable mistakes?
• Is there competition between the technical means of regulation and social norms?
• Big Data and new information technologies in legal research and legal regulation

Participants: V. Zhivulin (Economy Ministry of Russia), A. Kashanin (HSE), Y. Tikhomirov (HSE), V. Yuzhakov (RANEPA)

Discussants: A. Ivanov (HSE), V. Isakov (HSE), N. Karpova (Ministry of Industry and Commerce of Russia), O. Rybakov (Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation), E. Borisenko (Gazprombank), Y. Arzamasov (HSE), V. Sinyukov (MSAL)

This discussion will be an attempt to pinpoint whether the current crisis of the liberal order would mean its quick, eventual demise, or a stage in its transformation.
Issues for discussion:
• Is it possible for the liberal order to experience a renaissance or what could it be replaced by?
• Could the appearance of a “left” or “right” wake-up call for liberalism result in a conservative or left-leaning global order?
• Will the political spectrum adequately reflect reality and are there real alternatives for building a global order?
• Or, will the approaching world order be comprised of various regional polarities?

Participants: V. Lukin (HSE), S. Karaganov (HSE), M. Entin (MGIMO), V. Yakunin (MSU), M. Larionova (HSE), A. Krikovich (HSE), A. Kortunov (RIAC)

Discussant: M. Ilyin (HSE)

Discussant: V. Avdonin (INION RAS)

Discussant: O. Malinova (HSE)

Discussant: M. Mironyuk (HSE)

Discussant: Y. Gayvoronsky (HSE)

The escalating tensions between Russia and the West and, first of all, the US, are raising a number of interesting questions related to scale, dynamics, political preferences, and structural characteristics of the Russian and the post Soviet elite, first of all, intellectual diaspora abroad, as well as the intensity and direction of the current elite migration flows from Russia. Answering these questions requires significant methodological clarifications, including those related to the structural aspects of the diaspora concept.
Considering these issues, the author analyzes the degree and the major dimensions of heterogeneity of the elite migrant community and considers the major forms of its social, professional, and political activities. The concluding part of the paper discusses the forms and effectiveness of the RF interaction with the Russian/post Soviet elite diaspora abroad. In particular, the author concludes that Russia’s policy should not be limiting the intellectual migration or promoting the permanent return of the Russian scholars to the RF. Just the opposite, relying on the “soft power” concept, it should promote the establishment of long term international academic and professional contacts and the formation of the Russian elite diasporas abroad, actively engaged in cooperation with the RF academic institutions.

New technologies are changing museums, art galleries and cultural institutions. Even in the most traditional institutions surveillance cameras have replaced museum attendants; VR is used to enhance the experience of visiting a museum; eye tracking devices are employed in order to assess the visitor’s interaction with the artwork. These technologies extend and alter the visitor’s experience of the museum so that nowadays it is more personalised, more informative and more interactive. (There is also been a counter-trend of employing mediators to lead visitors through exhibitions.) In this paper, I wish to consider these developments from the standpoint of the economy of vision. Can we apply categories of labour to the processes of looking at objects and spaces, not only to the processes of mental cognition? How do cultural spaces exploit these economies of vision? How is the eye instrumentalized in the neo-liberal economy? I will address these concerns by re-visiting theories of ‘the visual turn’. I will use British, Danish and Russian museums and cultural institutions as my examples.

Discussants: D. Sivkov (SI RAS - FCTAS RAS, RANEPA), A. Maksimova (SI RAS - FCTAS RAS, HSE)

The presentation examines the impact of the recent crises (the Great Recession, the Euro crisis, the refugee crisis, the Brexit crisis) on the structuration of party competition in six north-western European countries. Embedding the multiple crises in a long-term perspective on the transformation of party systems, their reinforcing role on the structuring capacity of the new ‘integration-demarcation’ divide is emphasized. More specifically, it will be demonstrated that in some countries this divide and its main driving forces have become so powerful in transforming the political space that we observe an emerging bipolar pattern of party configurations. This pattern is characterized by a programmatically unified but internally split political left opposed to the populist radical right, while the moderate right is located somewhere in-between these two poles. Empirically, the paper focuses on election campaigns in Austria, Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. The analysis is based on an original relational content analysis of mass media coverage published before national elections from the 1970s up to 2017.

Discussants: A. Almakaeva (HSE), O. Lavrinenko (Polish Academy of Sciences)

Discussants: N. Soboleva (HSE), A. Hoevermann (University at Albany, SUNY)

Discussants: I. Chirikov (HSE), D. Rogozin (RANEPA)