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on Confederation of Independent States |
| By: | Anna Sokolova (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Russia), Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies, senior research fellow) |
| Abstract: | As the impact of strategic decision-making at the corporate, sectoral and national levels increases, there are growing demands for high quality and solid Foresight outputs. In this regard, a timely detection and elimination of problems in Foresight projects is of great importance. A thorough evaluation of criteria and methods used in Foresight analysis would permit the improved effectiveness of Foresight activities. The results could be set against the aims to decide on the feasibility of projects and identify ways to improve them. Despite great interest in Foresight evaluation demonstrated by stakeholders at various levels, the general principles for conducting it have not yet been formulated, which hinders its development and the diffusion of successful expertise. The purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated approach for the evaluation of Foresight projects, including their classification, basic criteria to evaluate project realisation, results and impact and a SWOT analysis. The proposed methodology was tested on Russian National Foresight 2030 and the results are described and analysed. Further ways of developing this approach are suggested |
| Keywords: | foresight, evaluation, Russia |
| JEL: | O22 O32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:20sti2013&r=cis |
| By: | Andrey Zakharov (National Research University Higher School of Economics. International Laboratory for Educational Policy Research. Deputy Head.); Martin Carnoy (Stanford University. Vida Jacks Professor of Education.); Prashant Loyalka (Stanford University. Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Center Research Fellow.) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship between teaching practices aimed at raising student performance on a high stakes college entrance examination—the Russian Unified State Exam (USE) — and student performance on that test. The study uses data from a school/classroom survey of almost 3,000 students conducted in 2010 in three Russian regions. The analysis employs a student fixed effects method that estimates the impact of teaching practices used by students’ mathematics and Russian language teachers on students’ exam results. To test for possible heterogeneous effects of practices in different academic tracks, the study estimates the practices’ effect on USE scores for students in advanced and basic level tracks. The study finds that the only strategy with positive effects on test outcomes is greater amounts of subject-specific homework geared to different types of test items, and that the most effective type of homework differs across tracks |
| Keywords: | teaching practices, curriculum, student achievement, selection bias, student fixed effect, high-stakes examinations |
| JEL: | I21 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:13edu2013&r=cis |
| By: | Alexey Bessudnov (Department of Sociology, Centre for Advanced Studies, National Research University - Higher School of Economics.); Alexey Makarov (Department of Mathematics, National Research University - Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Gender dierences in mathematical performance have been long debated in psychology, economics, and sociology. We contribute to this literature by analyzing a large data set of high school graduates who in 2011 took a standardized mathematical test in Russia (n = 738; 456). We nd no substantial dierence in mean test scores of boys and girls. However, boys have a greater variance of scores and are more numerous at the top of the distribution. We apply quantile regression to model the association between school characteristics and gender dierences in test scores throughout the distribution. Male advantage in test scores, particularly at the top of the distribution, is concentrated in cities and in schools with the advanced curriculum. In ordinary high schools, especially in the countryside, gender dierences in all parts of the distribution are very small. A separate analysis at the regional level conrms that male advantage in mean test scores is higher in more urbanized regions |
| Keywords: | gender inequality, mathematical performance, school context |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:11edu2013&r=cis |
| By: | Valentina Poliakova (Research Fellow, Institute of Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge, National Research University – Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Throughout history the development of medical institution was followed by the extension of medical expertise boundaries. Progress in new medical biotechnologies and the manipulation of human biological material, in particular, raise the conceptual question of how to define the boundaries between human beings and biological material. This paper focuses on the analysis of attitudes towards research on the human body, in scientific, political and cultural discourse. In public discussions about stem cell technology we found that the extension of medical expertise boundaries caused an intervention of ethical expertise in the fields of science and medicine. Nevertheless, the cultural conflict does not become an obstacle to the recognition of stem cell research and its legitimation in the collective consciousness. |
| Keywords: | stem cells, bioethics, public opinion, bans on scientific research, discourse. |
| JEL: | I10 I11 I18 O33 O38 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:21sti2013&r=cis |
| By: | Andrey Ampilogov (Research assistant, Center for Institutional Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.); Ilya Prakhov (Research fellow, Center for Institutional Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.); Maria Yudkevich (Director, Center for Institutional Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.) |
| Abstract: | The introduction of the Unified State Exam (USE) has simplified the process of university entry by decreasing transaction costs associated with the application process. The new system allows applicants to apply to several higher education institutions at the same time. However, many students do not take advantage of this opportunity and apply only to a single university. In this study we analyze the factors that influence application strategies, whether to apply to only one institution or to apply to several. We argue that higher USE scores predict a higher probability of multiple applications. Additionally, graduating from a high school that offers advanced training in a particular discipline positively influences this probability. The variables of family income and social capital, a parent’s level of education, and their age, as well as attending additional programs of pre-entry training are statistically insignificant. |
| Keywords: | higher education; university admission, application strategy |
| JEL: | I21 I24 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:12edu2013&r=cis |
| By: | Grigoriadis, Theocharis |
| Abstract: | In this paper, I argue that religion matters for the emergence of democracies and dictatorships. Religion is defined as a stochastically set demand for public goods. Different types of religious collectives reflect different tradeoffs between centralized resource distribution and market rewards. Religions are defined as collectivist, when their respective collectives facilitate the hierarchical provision of common pool resources toward their members at the expense of market incentives. Religions are defined as individualist, when their respective collectives recruit and preserve their members on the basis of market incentives. Islam, Orthodoxy and Catholicism are treated as collectivist religions, whereas Judaism and Protestantism as individualist ones. I provide a historical overview that designates the Jewish kibbutz as the collective of democracy and the Russian-Orthodox monastery as the collective of dictatorship. Assuming a collectivist economy, I solve the radical government and modernization stochastic games. I find that modernization occurs in a collectivist economy when the threat of a radical government is imminent and when the leader has high extraction rents over the economy. In order to stay in power, the leader credibly commits to provide more public goods in the future, and thus modernization occurs. Underdevelopment occurs at intermediate levels of state enforcement, modernization at low levels and centralization at high levels of state enforcement. The emergence of a radical government is more likely in a collectivist rather than in an individualist economy. -- |
| Keywords: | democracy,dictatorship,collectivism,individualism,modernization,Orthodoxy,Judaism |
| JEL: | D72 D73 D78 P21 P26 P32 P51 Z12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fubsbe:201316&r=cis |
| By: | Kozmenko, Serhiy; Savchenko, Taras |
| Abstract: | The paper explains the expediency of developing an explicit rule of monetary policy for the economy of Ukraine. It studies the stages of its development, proving the expediency of formation of monetary rules for money aggregates, evaluates equilibrium values of the rule’s parameters based on the use of the modified Hodrick-Prescott filter, and determines the possible parameters of the monetary rule and their estimated coefficients by developing multivariate regression models. |
| Keywords: | monetary policy rule, central bank, monetary policy, the Hodrick-Prescott filter, inflation targeting. |
| JEL: | E50 E52 E58 |
| Date: | 2013–03–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:50793&r=cis |