Political Science is Learning More, but Studying Less
Andrei Melville, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, reflects on the direction of political science today.
The Brain Values Individuals' Own Information
When people have a choice, they can either rely on their own information or on that received from those around them. The more emotional an individual's relationship with their own data, the higher the likelihood that, when making a decision, they will be led by that rather than by other people's opinions. This also applies to investors' activity on the financial markets – as research by HSE Psychology Faculty Dean Vasily Klyucharev, and researchers from the University of Basel Rafael Huber and Jörg Rieskamp.
38%
of Russian industrial company leaders report that demand for their products is ‘below normal’ levels. This is the worst report since April 2010 when 40% of senior managers were unsatisfied with the level of demand for their products.
Nonresident Graduates More Likely to Move
One third of all graduates from regional colleges and universities plan to move elsewhere. Most would like to relocate to another Russian city, while some 7% of graduates are planning to leave the country, according to the study 'Migration Intentions of Graduates of Russia’s Regional Higher Educational Institutions' by Elena Varshavskaya, Professor at the HSE's Department of Human Resources Management, and Olga Choudinovskikh, Director of the Centre for Migration Policy.
1,7
is the number of births that a woman from the generation born in the latter half of the 1980s can expect in her lifetime. This number is significantly lower than the replacement rate for the population.
Smart Cities – Japanese Style
The HSE Institute of Regional Studies and Urban Planning held a panel discussion entitled ‘Developing Cities and Infrastructure’ as part of the Russian-Japanese forum ‘Points of Intersection: Business, Technology, Culture’ that took place in Moscow. The discussion focused on development opportunities in Moscow and the adoption of solutions to urban problems already applied in Tokyo.
+2%
was the level to which the business confidence index in the service sector fell in the third quarter of 2014. One year ago, it was at the level of +6%.
Inventing in Just 48 Hours
A cardio-undershirt, a cyber piggy bank, a flying advertising platform, and other unexpected inventions were all the result of the second FabLab Weekend hackathon, which was carried out by HSE’s Prototyping Centre. Participants had just 48 hours to create a prototype of a useful technological product ready to enter the market. The final presentation took place on September 22, when the winners were announced.
Childlessness Increasingly Determined by Attitudes
Generally in Russia, being childless is an involuntary situation associated with infertility, age, and being single. However, being childless in Moscow is often a deliberate decision. Aside from a biological inability to bear children, childlessness in Moscow is likely to be associated with higher levels of education, income security, the structure of the family of origin, and certain attitudes, i.e. that having children is not necessary for happiness, according to Svetlana Biryukova, Research Fellow of the HSE's Centre for Studies of Income and Living Standards.
'Russia May Open its Own Econometrics School'
On September 20, the three-day international conference ‘Modern Econometric Tools and Applications’ came to an end at HSE’s Nizhny Novgorod campus. The conference was organized by the Higher School of Economics and the New Economic School (NES). Academics from Canada, France, Great Britain, and other countries discussed cutting-edge research in the field of theoretical and applied econometrics, in particular stochastic economic processes.