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on Confederation of Independent States |
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Issue of 2013‒11‒29
forty-five papers chosen by Alexander Harin Modern University for the Humanities |
| By: | Vladimir Magun (Head of the Unit for Personality Studies at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Head of the Laboratory for Comparative Studies of Mass Consciousness at the National Research University Higher School of Economics); Maksim Rudnev (Senior research fellow at the National Research University Higher School of Economics and at the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The basic values of the Russian population and the population of 31 European countries were compared with data obtained by the Schwartz Questionnaire, embedded into the fourth round of the European Social Survey. Conclusions about similarities and differences of basic human values between Russia and other European countries confirm the thesis that Russia is a country which shares a general logic of cultural and social development with the rest of the world and which has a lot in common with countries of a similar economic level and recent political history. In most value comparisons, Russia appeared to be closer to Post-Communist and Mediterranean countries than to Western European or Nordic countries.The fact that Russians are less committed than most Europeans to the values of caring, tolerance, equality, and ecology, and, conversely, more committed than most Europeans to the competitive “zero-sum” values of personal success, wealth, and power, confirms the validity of current moral criticisms of mass values and morals in Russia. The other disturbing fact is the relatively low commitment of Russians to the values of Openness to Change and, conversely, a strong focus on Conservation. So basic values of Russians create a cultural barrier to the development of an innovation-based economy and to the societal development as a whole. Thanks to a shift from country-level analysis to individual- and group-level analysis, we challenge the notion of the “average Russian” and demonstrate that the Russian value majority consists of two subtypes. Russia also has a sizable value minority and its members share values non-typical for most Russians. Two value minorities, which embrace 19% of the Russian population, are more committed to values of Openness and Self-Transcendence than the rest of the Russian population. These value groups are typical for European countries with more prosperous and happy populations and we can hypothesize that in Russia they are also resource groups for the country’s advancement. |
| Keywords: | basic values, European Social Survey, cross-country comparisons, within-country heterogeneity, culture barrier. |
| JEL: | Z10 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:23/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Igor Gurkov (D.Sc., National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)); Sergey Filippov (Ph.D., Delft University of Technology (Delft, The Netherlands), Assistant Professor) |
| Abstract: | Subsidiaries of foreign multinational companies are essential part of the modern Russian economy. In many sectors, they enjoy dominant positions. Innovation is an important driver and determinant of this dominance. Yet, little research has been done on innovation strategies and innovation processes in foreign subsidiaries in Russia. The paper aims to fill this gap. On the basis of qualitative evidence, it explores the goals, patterns and challenges of innovation activities in Russian subsidiaries. Our findings suggest that that manufacturing subsidiaries have implemented numerous effective innovation routines that are an integral part of daily ‘routine’ management. This is driven by the two-faceted objective – to achieve global quality standards and low production costs. |
| Keywords: | manufacturing, subsidiaries, multinational corporations, innovation, Russia, surveys. |
| JEL: | F23 L21 L22 L23 L60 M11 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:07man2013&r=cis |
| By: | Apollon Davidson (1Ordinary professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Academician, Russian Academy of Sciences) |
| Abstract: | This article is devoted to relations between Russia and South Africa from the mid-17th to the early 19th century. It covers first attempts at sending Russian expeditions around the Cape of Good Hope by Peter the Great and Catherine II and describes how the first Russians reached the Cape from the other end, from Kamchatka. It goes on to describe the trips to the Cape by Russian naval officers and other Russians, some of whom spent a long time in South Africa and left interesting descriptions of the Cape. A unique testimony to the fact that black South Africans knew about Russia is presented in the letter of a Pondo chief to the Russian tsar. The most significant part of Russia’s relations with South Africa was its preoccupation with South African affairs during the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1900, when Russian volunteers went to fight for the Boers and two medical detachments were sent to treat their wounded. At that time Russia even established diplomatic relations with Transvaal. Mutual interest in the mining sphere is also analysed, and relations between some Russian and South African intellectuals are mentioned. Immigration of Russian Jews to South Africa is also described. |
| Keywords: | South Africa, Transvaal, Anglo–Boer War, Peter the Great, Witsen, Cathrine the Great, Beniovsky, Golovnin, Goncharov, van Riebeeck, Nicholas II, Grand Duke Alexei, Pondo, Olive Schreiner, Leipoldt, Maximov, Russian Jews. |
| JEL: | N97 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:21hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Sergey Solntsev (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Laboratory for Labor Market Studies. Senior Research Fellow) |
| Abstract: | This paper presents an analysis of changes in senior management labor market in Russia during the 2000s. The original data consists of information on the appointments of 5771 senior managers in Russia from late 1999 until 2009. The study focuses on mobility between economic sectors, and managerial positions, human capital, including education and experience and the proportion of women and expats in the senior management market. We found that the Russian labor market of top-level managers can be described as a relatively closed market, where professional executives dominate. During the period of economic growth Russian companies preferred to hire outsiders partly due to the lack of appropriate internal candidates. The typical senior manager in Russia is a 30-40 years old man with a degree in economics, engineering, or science, who moves every 2-3 years to their next executive position. The most significant changes, noted during the crisis, were the increase of the firms’ demand for senior managers’ specific human capital and the decrease of demand for general human capital. |
| Keywords: | senior managers, corporate governance, labor market, career mobility, human capital, economic crisis. |
| JEL: | J24 J62 J63 M51 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:10man2013&r=cis |
| By: | Igor Gurkov (D.Sc., National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)); Sergey Filippov (Ph.D., Delft University of Technology (Delft, The Netherlands), Assistant Professor) |
| Abstract: | The extant literature acknowledges the role of overseas subsidiaries in the growth and development of multinational companies (MNCs). Such subsidiaries are viewed as critical players in the innovation process at MNCs. Although this topic has gained importance, it remains largely under-researched in the Russian context. This study aims to fill this gap by examining the dynamics of the innovation process in Russian-based subsidiaries of global MNCs. It seeks to explore and understand motivation and drivers of innovation, key participants, and impact and outcomes of innovation, with a specific reference to the peculiarities of the Russian institutional environment. We present qualitative findings from several case studies of Russian manufacturing subsidiaries of foreign MNCs, which indicate that Russian subsidiaries are not only recipients of knowledge and technology developed elsewhere in the MNCs, but are active developers of innovative products and solutions that are later applied in other units of the respective MNCs |
| Keywords: | Innovation, Subsidiaries, Russia, Manufacturing, MNCs, Technologies. |
| JEL: | F23 L21 L22 L23 L60 M11 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:11man2013&r=cis |
| By: | Petr Rezvykh (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities) |
| Abstract: | Using a discussion on the significance of Ancient Greek ordinances between F.W.J. Schelling and Count S.S. Uvarov as an example, this article analyses the complex interaction between theological, philosophical, religious, and political factors in the reception of Schelling’s philosophical ideas in Russia in the XIX century. |
| Keywords: | F.W.J. Schelling, S.S. Uvarov, romanticism, mythology, ordinances, Russian philosophy, history of humanities. |
| JEL: | Z12 Z19 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:24hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Irina Starodubrovskaya (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy) |
| Abstract: | This paper is devoted to the strategic perspectives on the North Caucasus region. The author analyses the causes of conflicts in the region, positive and negative features of the federal policy in the North Caucasus Federal District. On the basis of the analysis policy recommendations were formulated aiming at correction of the current policy. Implementation of this policy recommendations, in the author's view, will contribute to a decrease of conflict potential in the region. The field research results are widely used in the paper. |
| Keywords: | Russian economy, North Caucasus, federal policy, causes of conflict in North Caucasus |
| JEL: | R14 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:wpaper:0071&r=cis |
| By: | Ivan Boldyrev (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow/Humboldt University, Berlin.); Martin Kragh (Stockholm School of Economics/Uppsala Centre for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Uppsala University) |
| Abstract: | Research within the history of economic thought has focused only little on the development of economics under dictatorship. This paper attempts to show how a country with a relatively large and internationally established community of social scientists in the 1920s, the Soviet Union, was subjected to repression. We tell this story through the case of Isaak Il’ich Rubin, a prominent Russian economist and historian of economic thought, who in the late 1920s was denounced by rival scholars and repressed by the political system. By focusing not only on his life and work, but also that of his opponents and institutional clashes, we show how the decline of a social science tradition in Russia and the USSR emerged as a process over time. We analyze the complex interplay of ideas, scholars and their institutional context, and conclude that subsequent repression was arbitrary, suggesting that no clear survival or career strategy existed in the Stalinist system due to a situation of fundamental uncertainty. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the Stalinization of Soviet social sciences occurred as a process over time. |
| Keywords: | Marxology, Soviet economic thought, political persecution, Stalinism. |
| JEL: | B24 B31 P26 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:17hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Àlexandra Moskovskaya (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Director of CSE, The head of research group, Ph.D. Economics); Îleg Oberemko (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Leading Research Fellow CSE, Ph.D. Sociology); Victoria Silaeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Research Fellow CSE, Ph.D. Philosophy); Irina Popova (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Ph.D. Sociology, Leading Research Fellow CSE; Institute of Sociology Russian Academy of Sciences, Senior Research Fellow); Inna Nazarova (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Doctor of Economics, Leading Research Fellow CSE); Olga Peshkova (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Ph.D. Economics, Leading Research Fellow CSE); Marina Chernysheva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Research Fellow CSE) |
| Abstract: | Professional associations in Russia are to some extent novices in contemporary professional regulation. Only small part of them can play significant role in enforcement of professional control (representing professional community in front of other stakeholders, adopting professional standards, ensuring market closure, protecting of prevalence of professional ethics etc.). Partially that comes from the lack of experience of self-regulation that professions have in the Russian history and sharp invasion of the global market in the 1990-es, partially that follows tradition of state predominance in economy and society. During the last two decades a mass of organizations arose in Russia calling themselves professional associations, guilds, societies and unions. The task to understand who they are, whether they can and they ought to represent professional community and what are their ways of professional self-regulation became now a pressing practical problem and an interesting research task. The object of this research is mapping the field of variety of non-government organizations that claim institutional control as professional associations in order to clarify the following issues: - What are the main forms of professional associations by their qualitative characteristics - What are their actual means and feasible opportunities to achieve professional control in their field of expertise or at least influence it – What are the main limits of professional self-regulation they dispose and whether there are any alternative forms of professional regulation in certain professional areas |
| Keywords: | professional association, professionalization, self-regulation, state, market-oriented professions |
| JEL: | Z13 D71 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:26/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Peter Schmidt (University of Giessen and National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE) Moscow, Russia.); Alexander Tatarko (National Research University Higher School of Economics(HSE) Moscow, Russia.); Natalia Amerkhanova (National Research University Higher School of Economics(HSE) Moscow, Russia.) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the relationship between value orientations and entrepreneurial intention according to the reasoned action approach. The empirical base of this study are the results of a representative survey conducted in 2 regions of Russia (Central Federal District and the North Caucasian Federal District). The effective total sample size was 2,058 and a subsample of 269 was selected. The subsample was composed of the respondents intending to open a business in the next 2 years. The results of research, carried out in the framework of reasoned action approach, allowed us to confirm the validity of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in the Russian sample. It was also found that the values included in the block of self-direction autonomy of action are positively associated with the components of model of entrepreneurial planned behavior (attitudes, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control) |
| Keywords: | theory of planed behavior, theory of basic individual values, entrepreneurial behavior. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:12psy2013&r=cis |
| By: | Elena Vishlenkova (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). Poletaev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities (IGITI). Deputy Director) |
| Abstract: | This article is a reconstruction of archival policies pursued by Russian universities in the nineteenth century and their effects. By comparing ‘old’ and ‘new’ archive inventories, archivists’ records and ministerial instructions, Elena Vishlenkova detects sets of documents that were destroyed in the ministerial and university archives. Furthermore, the author explains the logic of keeping certain types of documents and assigning them specific addresses within the archives. The study explains the contradictions that exist in the source evidence as well as in researchers’ conclusions, and presents hitherto unknown aspects of the university culture in the Russian Empire |
| Keywords: | Russian Universities, the Russian Empire, paperwork, cultural practice, autonomy, identity, corporation, solidarity, profession |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:29hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Elena Panteleeva (Associate Professor, Marketing of Firm Department, National Research University Higher School of Economics.); Olga Oyner (Full Professor, Marketing of Firm Department, National Research University Higher School of Economics.) |
| Abstract: | One of the major problems facing Russian companies is the problem of differences between brand promises and the experience of actual consumer interaction with that brand, resulting in image destruction and the customers’ refusal from repeat purchases. Having taken as the basis the idea of gap analysis in perception of corporate brand values by different stakeholder groups (owners/top managers, personnel and customers), we have developed and tested a methodology of internal marketing management system assessment, assuming that a significant gap between declared, shared, and perceived brand values is a consequence of absence or inefficient functioning of this system |
| Keywords: | internal marketing, internal marketing management system, employee engagement, corporate brand values, gap analysis, Russia. |
| JEL: | M12 M31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:03man2013&r=cis |
| By: | Nadezhda Lebedeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia (Moscow)); Peter Schmidt (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural research, The Co-Head; Giessen University, Germany) |
| Abstract: | This study investigated relations of basic personal values to attitudes towards innovation among students in Russia, Canada, and Ñhina. Participants completed a questionnaire that included the SVS measure of values (Schwartz, 1992) and a new measure of attitudes towards innovation (Lebedeva, Tatarko, 2009). There are significant cultural and gender-related differences in value priorities and innovative attitudes among the Canadian, Russian, and Chinese college students. As hypothesized, across the full set of participants, higher priority given to Opennes to change values (self-direction, stimulation) related to positive attitudes toward innovation whereas higher priority given to Conservation values (conformity, security) related negatively. This is compatible with the results reported by other researchers (Shane, 1992, 1995; Dollinger, Burke & Gump, 2007). There were, however, culture-specific variations in some of these associations, which may be explained by cultural differences in value priorities or meanings and in implicit theories of creativity and innovation. Applying the Multiple-Group Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes Model (MGMIMIC) (Muthen 1989) has shown that the type of Values-Innovation mediation is different in the three countries. Whereas in Russia and Canada the effects of gender and age are fully mediated by the values, this is not true for China, where a direct effect of gender on innovation was found. The cultural differences in values, implicit theories of innovation, and their consequences for attitudes to innovation and personal well-being is finally discussed |
| Keywords: | culture, values, innovation, attitudes, cross-cultural comparison, Multiple Group MIMIC Model. |
| JEL: | A13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:04/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Irina Shilnikova (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia); Faculty of Economics; Associate Professor) |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the main measures taken to stimulate textile workers during the years of “War Communism” and the New Economic Policy and identifies the dynamics of the roles of the main elements of the labour stimulation system (compensation, coercion, and commitment). We discover what stimuli proved to be the most efficient during “War Communism” and the New Economic Policy. We analyse whether there was succession in the industrial labour stimulation system in pre-revolutionary (1880-1914) and Soviet (1918-1929) Russia and how actively Soviet managers employed the best practices of the pre-revolutionary factory administration. This paper also analyses the question of new practices introduced in the changing political and socio-economic circumstances. This paper is mainly based on archival sources. |
| Keywords: | Soviet Russia, “War Communism”, New Economic Policy, labor motivation, textile industry. |
| JEL: | N34 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:23hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Andrei Vernikov (1National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow; Institute of Economics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow) |
| Abstract: | This paper aims to add to the literature on the connection between corporate governance and company valuation. Conventional wisdom predicts a positive effect of good governance on stock price, and empirical papers claim to have proven this effect for a number of large emerging markets including Russia. We refer to the case of Russian banks to suggest that this connection cannot be established in a convincing way due to data scarcity. A cross-industry panel fails to regard the specificity of financial firms, and a single-industry panel of banks might be unfeasible due to the sheer number of eligible firms. A selection of banks would be biased in favor of publicly listed entities and has little chance of being a wholly representative for the entire industry. Russia’s stock market can supply sufficient statistical material for a study involving just two large state-controlled banks. While 20 or so banks maintain some presence in the organized segment of the stock market, over 90 percent of all trading in bank shares and their market capitalization involves the stock of Sberbank and VTB. For them, however, the appropriateness of the market price as the sole comprehensive indicator of performance can be challenged on principle because they have stakeholders who pursue a combination of financial and non-financial goals and assess bank performance differently. The case of Russian banks reveals a critical scarcity of stock market data, so the results of some empirical studies might be attributable to their contributors’ opinion. This discussion is potentially relevant for other economies that share institutional characteristics such as high ownership concentration, shallowness of the stock market, and substantial role of state-controlled firms. |
| Keywords: | Russia; banks; corporate governance; valuation; emerging market; stock market |
| JEL: | G21 G34 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:12man2013&r=cis |
| By: | Nadezhda Lebedeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia (Moscow)); Alexander Tatarko (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia (Moscow)) |
| Abstract: | This study has reviewed theoretical and empirical studies of values and behavior. The results of the research of the dynamics of basic personal values of Russians from the Central Federal district from 1999 until 2010 and the relations of basic personal values to economic attitudes are presented. Dynamics of values are presented on the basis of the 5 waves of measures (1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2010), each wave includes around 300 respondents. The sample from 2010 includes Russians and the respondents from the North Caucasus (N= 278). We have found that from 1999 until 2011, the value priorities and value structures of the Russians of Central Russia have remained stable. The data for 2008 demonstrates a small number of statistically significant differences with the data of the neighboring measures, which, probably, reflects the impact of the economic crisis of 2008. Statistically significant differences were found when comparing the value priorities of different groups of the Russian population: ethnic and religious groups. The relations between values and attitudes to different types of economic behavior were examined. The patterns of these relationships are similar as well as different among the representatives of Christianity (the Central Federal District and the North Caucasus Federal District) and Islam (the North Caucasus Federal District) in Russia. Thus, our study showed that values remain fairly stable within a single culture; however, they are different for people of different cultures and may have a different impact on attitudes to different types of economic behavior. |
| Keywords: | culture, values, economic behavior, economic attitudes, cross-cultural comparison. |
| JEL: | A13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:03/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Yana Roshchina (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Department of economic sociology: Associate Professor; Laboratory for studies in economic sociology: Senior Research Fellow; Center for longitudinal studies: Senior Research Fellow;) |
| Abstract: | The goal of this project is to investigate the influence of economic and social factors on the demand for alcohol in modern Russia. The regression models are estimated on the base of "The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS-HSE)" 1994-2011. There are three classic models of demand for alcohol (Becker & Murphy, 1988): the static, myopic and rational addiction models. We use a two-step estimation method because of the two-step consumer decision ("to drink or not to drink" and “how much to drink”). This allows us to distinguish between the factors influencing each decision separately. The contribution of this paper is to use as independent variables not only economic parameters (as prices and incomes of respondent and his\her family members) but also social characteristics such as educational level, gender, age, nationality, optimism level, alcohol use by other family members. The first results have demonstrated that some social factors (education, marital status, alcohol use by other family members) are more important than economic ones such as the price of alcohol |
| Keywords: | alcohol consumption, addictive behavior, demand for alcoholic beverages. |
| JEL: | Z13 I12 D11 D12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:20/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Antonina Sharova (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia); Department of History; associate professor) |
| Abstract: | This article examines the biography of the historian Alexander Nikolaevich Savin (1873-1923), a specialist in English agrarian history of the 16th and 17th centuries. Based on archival sources, the published and unpublished writings of the historian, reminiscences about him, his diaries and his correspondence, this article focuses on the significance of two countries–Great Britain and Russia—for his personal and intellectual life |
| Keywords: | A. N. Savin, historian, agrarian history, Unwin, Maitland, Moscow University |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:20hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Pavel Trunin (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy); Andrey Zubarev (RANEPA) |
| Abstract: | The primary purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis of capital mobility reduction in the wake of the global financial crisis of 2008-2009. Through the constructed models we tested hypotheses about the long- and short-term mobility of global capital by estimating the correlation between savings and investment rates. The paper also deals with the question of capital mobility in Russia. Recommendations on monetary policy in Russia in the coming years based on the obtained findings were made. |
| Keywords: | Feldstein-Harioka puzzle, capital mobility, monetary policy |
| JEL: | E52 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:wpaper:0070&r=cis |
| By: | Kirill Maslinsky (Researcher at the Laboratory for Internet Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.); Sergey Koltsov (Senior researcher at the Laboratory for Internet Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, Russia); Olessia Koltsova (Head of the Laboratory for Internet Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Saint-Petersburg, Russia) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates the topical structure of the Russian-language blog-publishing service LiveJournal and the change in it that occurred in the course of the public activity after the State Duma elections in December 2011 as compared to a previous “control” period (November 27 – December 27 and August 15 – September 15 respectively). The data for both periods have been automatically obtained from 2000 top-rated blogs on the basis of ratings published by LiveJournal. Unsupervised topic modelling of the sampled posts was done using Latent Dirichlet Allocation algorithm. In December 2011 we found considerable growth in weights of all the topics closely associated with the discussion of voting results and protests, accompanied by a more moderate decrease in the majority of other social topics. the number of users who started posting texts that may be conventionally qualified as political according to LDA in December 2011, considerably outnumbers the number of those who ceased posting political items , which may indicate the existence of a blogger mobilization process in political topics. |
| Keywords: | Internet media, blogs, political mobilization, Russia, topic modeling, LDA. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:14/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | World Bank |
| Keywords: | Private Sector Development - Competitiveness and Competition Policy Private Sector Development - E-Business Private Sector Development - Business Environment Finance and Financial Sector Development - Microfinance Private Sector Development - Business in Development |
| Date: | 2013–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wbk:wboper:16300&r=cis |
| By: | Peter Havlik (The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies, wiiw) |
| Abstract: | Summary The Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit on 28-29th November represents a milestone in EU relations not just with respect to the six Eastern Partnership countries (EaP Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and particularly Ukraine), but also with the EU’s ‘strategic partner’ Russia. The turbulence and numerous speculations regarding expectations about the signature of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (comprising a Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement – AA/DCFTA), as well as progress in initialling similar future agreements with Georgia and Moldova, have been escalating before the summit. The association agreements would bring EaP signatory countries closer to the EU not really closer to EU membership, but closer to the application of various EU norms and standards (takeover of the ‘acquis communautaire’) and – significantly – out of the Russian orbit, for the beginning at least symbolically. The last minute postponement of the EU-Ukraine AA/DCFTA signature announced by Ukraine’s government just one week before the summit represents a serious setback for the EU. Though the EU has no ‘Plan B’ and was stunned after Ukraine’s announcement, life will continue after the summit and new initiatives will have to be started. What are the relevant issues and challenges and what is at stake? This note attempts to evaluate the consequences (economic and otherwise) of alternate decisions following the Vilnius Eastern Partnership Summit, reviews some of the disputed arguments and discusses selected relevant economic issues. |
| Date: | 2013–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wii:pnotes:pn:11&r=cis |
| By: | Igor Gurkov (D.Sc., National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia)); Vladimir Kossov (D.Sc., National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia), Professor); Sergey Filippov (Ph.D., Delft University of Technology (Delft, The Netherlands), Assistant Professor) |
| Abstract: | This paper analyzes the growth and evolution of Knauf CIS Group from 1992 to 2012. The study defines the features and characteristics of the firm’s corporate policies including production and operations, marketing, HR management, and societal engagement. These policies have enabled Russian industrial enterprises, Knauf’s subsidiaries, to achieve global standards of efficiency and quality with a high level of profitability. This study focuses on the measures that can be employed to increase production efficiency and have the potential to be replicated by other Russian companies |
| Keywords: | Industry, Advanced practices, Multinational corporations, Subsidiaries, Innovations |
| JEL: | F23 L21 L22 L23 L60 M11 O31 O32 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:13man2013&r=cis |
| By: | Nina Dobrushina (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). Faculty of Philology. Associate Professor.) |
| Abstract: | The Russian subjunctive particle by can be used in constructions that lack any finite verb form, including constructions involving infinitives, predicative adverbs or adjectives, and nouns. The properties of these constructions are compared, and a conclusion is made that verbless subjunctives share a common semantic component, namely a wish or necessity. A survey of the development of subjunctive verbless constructions with predicative adverbs and adjectives shows that the evolution of the optative meaning took place during the last two centuries |
| Keywords: | Russian, morphology, verb, mood, subjunctive, optative |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:32hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Zoya Kotelnikova (National Research University – Higher School of Economics. Department of Sociology. Senior Lecturer; Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology. Senior Researcher; Candidate of Sociological Sciences) |
| Abstract: | The core idea of the paper is to put the social embeddedness of economic phenomena as a key concept in economic sociology at the heart of empirical research. The author stresses the importance of taking into account the temporal dimension of market exchange. It is shown that the continuation of exchange relationships can be considered as a proxy for social embeddedness. The paper focuses on the contractual relationships of retail chains and their suppliers, which have been dramatically changed since the emergence of modern chain stores in Russia. The aim is to reveal to what extent contractual relationships between retailers and suppliers are structurally embedded and which factors are conducive to a greater degree of structural embeddedness of retailer-supplier relationships in emerging Russian markets. Based on Baker, Faulkner, and Fisher’s theory of the continuation of markets ties, the presented paper focuses on the influence of power, institutional forces, and competition. The paper is based on a survey of retailers and their suppliers in five Russian cities: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, and Tyumen. In 2010 questionnaires were collected from 257 managers of supplying companies and 255 retail managers from the above cities. Quantitative data was enriched with 30 in-depth interviews with suppliers and retailers in 2008. It is shown that both retailers and suppliers tend to maintain long-lasting relationships with a majority of partners. However, retailers and suppliers are prone to follow different models. Power turns out to be meaningful for retailers, while institutional forces appear to be of much more special importance for suppliers. Retailers exercise organizational power to destabilize market ties with counterparts. Suppliers use relational selection criteria and specific investments to attach relationships with exchange partners. The significant factors conducive to the prevalence of the embedded ties in the market are organizational power, relational criteria of business partner selection, specific investments, length of service in retailing, and the tenure length of managers in a given company, sector, and geographic location |
| Keywords: | market exchange, structural embeddedness, contractual relationship, networks, duration of a relationship, power, institutions, competition, trade revolution, emerging markets. |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:22/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Anna Zudina (Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). Centre for Labour Market Studies. Junior Research Fellow) |
| Abstract: | This article addresses the elaboration of a new approach to informal employment research based on analyzing subjective social status. In spite of numerous studies conducted over the past 40 years many questions still exist in the field of informal employment research. The heterogeneous nature of activities incorporated into the concept of “informality” defines the ambiguity of its impact on the economy and society. Thus, little is actually known about the socioeconomic position of informal workers and the nature of informal employment. Is informality a kind of stratifying mechanism embedded in the social structure that changes the position of the informally employed, or not? The so-called “direct” approach based on analyzing levels of income was considered to be an inappropriate framework and thus indicated that the consequences of informal employment need to be further analyzed together with indirect – subjective – measures. The present paper discusses methodological issues and presents results concerning the subjective social position of informally employed workers in contrast to formal workers, the unemployed, and the economically inactive population. The study was carried out on the basis of a large nationally representative panel: the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of the Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2000-2010. The existence of three-tier informal employment in Russia is revealed with self-employment being better off than formal employment and informal wage and salary work. No significant difference between informal wage and salary work and formal employment in terms of subjective social status is found. Thereby, one can suppose that the difference between types of employment is not embedded in the social structure at all. Taken as an indirect indicator of the quality formal employment in Russia, this could point to the great weakness of labor market institutions and the idle channels of social mobility of formal employment in Russia. |
| Keywords: | subjective social status, informal employment, self employment, segmented labor markets, panel data analysis, RLMS-HSE. |
| JEL: | J23 J32 J42 J62 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:24/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Vadim Radaev (Professor, Head of Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology at the National Research University “Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | From the beginning of economic reform in 1992, the retail trade sector was one of the most liberalized market segments in the Russian economy. However, the state was suddenly brought back in during the late 2000s. A restrictive Federal trade law passed after continuous and furious debates in December 2009. It created a new precedent of administrative regulation imposed on a highly competitive industry. Where did the demand for state regulation come from? What interest groups stood behind this new helping hand policy? Which arguments in a course of political and expert debate were used to justify the state intervention? Who has benefited from the new formal institutional arrangements? The author addresses these issues by revealing the para-political practices of formal institutional building in the trade sector, which has been largely neglected by scholarly research. This paper uses data collected from two series of in-depth interviews with key market actors and political experts in 2008-2009 together with records from the expert meetings arranged by several Federal Ministries in which the author took part. Survey data of 512 retailers and suppliers collected in five Russian urban areas in 2010 are also employed to reveal interest groups that have benefited from the new regulatory policy. In conclusion, this paper argues that public officials used a liberal rhetoric of the competition protection to develop new instruments of political and administrative control over large and medium-sized businesses, and finds that the actual results of state intervention deviate remarkably from the declared goals. |
| Keywords: | state regulation, retail trade, contractual relations |
| JEL: | A12 P31 Z13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:02/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Dilyara Ibragimova (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Department of Economic Sociology. Associate Professor;) |
| Abstract: | This paper reports the findings of an all-Russian cross-sectional representative survey (N=1600) that was carried out by HSE in 2011. It investigates money management in Russian families. Pooling is the most common money management style, however, the choice of budget management system does not fully account for financial control and power in the household. The regression results show that main determinants for choosing a budget management system are per capita household income, respondents’ gender, wives’ education, marital age, and the budget management system in the parental family. Moreover, the interaction between the parental budget management system and current practice of budgeting in the respondent's family varies between men and women. Among those respondents who repeat the budget management system in their parents family men are more likely to choose the male dominated system, while women are more likely to choose the female dominated system, or pooling system. |
| Keywords: | budget management, sociology of consumer finance, gender norms, gender identity, family, households. |
| JEL: | A14 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:11/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Yulia Kuvshinskaya (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). Faculty of Philology. Associate Professor. Candidate of science in philology) |
| Abstract: | This study deals with predicate agreement with quantifier phrases that contain mentioning of an indefinite or an approximate quantity. The author analyzes the frequency of occurrence for singular and plural predicates based on data from the Russian National Corpus during the period of 2000-2010 and investigates factors that influence the predicate choice. The author concludes that the singular agreement is typical in the concerned expressions and is determined mainly by the meaning of indefiniteness. There are several factors that favor plural predicates. Also, some restrictions of predicate variation are revealed |
| Keywords: | Russian morphosyntax, predicate agreement, quantifier expressions, approximate meaning phrases. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:22hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Roberto Foa (Department of Government, Harvard University. 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138.); Anna Nemirovskaya (Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Vasilievsky Ostrov 3, Line 10, room 308, St Petersburg, Russia); Elena Mostovova (Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics. Vasilievsky Ostrov 3, Line 10, room 308, St Petersburg, Russia.) |
| Abstract: | One of the attributes most consistently highlighted in the literature on frontier society is the tendency to spontaneous social organisation. However, despite the resilience of the ‘frontier thesis’ within sociology and political science, it has not been subject to a rigorous empirical examination. Does it constitute a description of the social norms and institution of the western United States, or is it one manifestation of a more general ‘frontier phenomenon’, found in other times and places? In order to answer these questions, this article examines data on the nature of social relations in frontier zones in four countries: Brazil, Russia, Canada and the United States. Taking a wide range of survey items, we find that higher levels of voluntary activity, social trust, tolerance of outgroups, and civic protest are distinctive features of frontier life, and not simply a feature of the American historical experience. |
| Keywords: | Social institutions, social capital, settlement patterns, historical institutionalism, frontier thesis |
| JEL: | Z13 N90 R23 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:09/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | John Nye (George Mason University and National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow, academic advisor of International Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms.); Ekaterina Orel (National Research University-Higher School of Economics, Moscow, research fellow in International Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms.); Ekaterina Kochergina (National Research University – Higher School of Economics, Moscow, research assistant in International Laboratory for Institutional Analysis of Economic Reforms.) |
| Abstract: | We study which Big Five personality traits are associated with academic performance among a sample of Russian university students using results from the Unified State Examination (for university admissions) and their current grade point averages as measures of academic performance. We find that Introversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, and Openness to experience have observable ties to academic performance. Those results partially confirm existing international studies, but our findings are notable for the relative unimportance of conscientiousness for success in our Russian sample. We suggest that cross-cultural differences in educational environment may explain why this trait seems less obviously important in the analysis |
| Keywords: | personality traits, academic success, psychology of education, Big Five, academic performance measurement. |
| JEL: | Z I23 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:10psy2013&r=cis |
| By: | Tatiana Klyachko (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy); Sergey Sinelnikov-Murylev (Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy) |
| Abstract: | The paper analyzes the implications of the financial regulations implementing a state order (standards of budget financing based on one student) in the higher education system and the use of them to regulate fees in the universities. It is demonstrated that the establishment of standards in the field of budgetary financing (field of study) does not allow to pay attention to differences in historical property complexes, schools, differences in socio-economic position of the Russian Federation where universities are located affecting the wages of faculty in relation to the average for the economy of the region, raises the question of the adequacy of the state accreditation of higher education institutions. Purely economic approach in the allocation of budget funds obscures difficult political decisions on restructuring the higher education network: the elimination of schools that do not meet the requirements for licensing and accreditation of universities, uniting weak with strong ones, opening of new schools on the basis of material liquidation, the implementation of programs to support the weak, but necessary institutions, replacing weak management in universities, etc. Accordingly, the regulation of fees would have a negative economic and social consequences. |
| Keywords: | higher education, standard budget funding, faculty, restructuring universities network |
| JEL: | I21 I22 I23 I24 I25 I28 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:gai:wpaper:0072&r=cis |
| By: | Olga Lyashevskaya (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow / University of Helsinki) |
| Abstract: | A new kind of frequency dictionary is a valuable reference for researchers and students of Russian. It shows the grammatical profiles of nouns, adjectives, and verbs, namely the distribution of grammatical forms in the inflectional paradigm. The dictionary is based on data from the Russian National Corpus (RNC) and covers a core vocabulary (5,000 most frequently used lexemes). Russian is a morphologically rich language: its noun paradigms harbor two dozen case and number forms, while verb paradigms include up to 160 grammatical forms. The dictionary departs from traditional frequency lexicography in several ways: 1) word forms are arranged in paradigms, so their frequencies can be compared and ranked; 2) the dictionary is focused on the grammatical profiles of individual lexemes, rather than on the overall distribution of grammatical features (e.g., the fact that Future forms are used less frequently than Past forms); 3) the grammatical profiles of lexical units can be compared against the mean scores of their lexico-semantic class; 4) in each part of speech or semantic class, lexemes with certain biases in the grammatical profile can be easily detected (e.g. verbs used mostly in the Imperative, Past neutral, or nouns often used in the plural); and, 5) the distribution of homonymous word forms and grammatical variants can be followed over time and within certain genres and registers. The dictionary will be a source for research in the field of Russian grammar, paradigm structure, form acquisition, grammatical semantics, as well as variation of grammatical forms. The main challenge for this initiative is the intra-paradigm and inter-paradigm homonymy of word forms in the corpus data. Manual disambiguation is accurate but covers approximately five million words in the RNC, so the data may be sparse and possibly unreliable. Automatic disambiguation yields slightly worse results. However, a larger corpus shows more reliable data for rare word forms. A user can switch between a ?basic? version, which is based on a smaller collection of manually disambiguated texts, and an ?expanded? version, which is based on the main corpus, a newspaper corpus, a corpus of poetry, and the spoken corpus (320 million words in total). The article addresses some general issues, such as establishing the common basis of comparison, a level of granularity for the grammatical profile, and units of measurement. We suggest certain solutions related to the selection of data, corpus data processing, and maintaining the online version of the frequency dictionary |
| Keywords: | frequency dictionary, grammatical profile, inflection, grammatical homonymy, grammatical variation, Russian, Russian National Corpus |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:35hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Ivan Boldyrev (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow/Humboldt University, Berlin.); Olessia Kirtchik (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Poletayev Institute for Theoretical and Historical Studies in the Humanities) |
| Abstract: | In this paper we address the story of developments in general equilibrium theory (GET) in the USSR during the 1970s through the lens of a single biography. The Soviet advances in mathematical economics, only fragmentarily known in the West, give an occasion to reflect on the extension of the Walrasian paradigm to non-market societies, as well as on the ideological effects of GET and its interpretations in a Soviet context. Our contribution is focused on the development of general equilibrium theorizing in the work of Victor Meerovich Polterovich (b. 1937) who has been one of the leading figures in mathematical economics and general equilibrium theory in the USSR and post-Soviet Russia. His papers on the abstract models of exchange, dynamic general equilibrium and optimal growth theory, excess demand correspondences, monotonicity of demand functions, and disequilibrium theory were for the large part published in English and gained considerable attention within the field. We reconstruct the political and ideological basis of the general equilibrium concept and show how abstract mathematical models reflected the discursive shift from optimal centralized planning to various forms of decentralization. We argue that the Soviet work on general equilibrium was a part of the global development of mathematical economics but was not integrated into it institutionally |
| Keywords: | general equilibrium theory, mathematical economics, history of recent economics, Soviet economics, decentralization, planning |
| JEL: | B16 B21 B23 B31 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:14hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Tatiana Butenko (PhD, National Research University Higher School of Economics. International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research. Junior researcher.); Shalom Schwartz (PhD, National Research University Higher School of Economics. International Scientific-Educational Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research. Scientific supervisor.) |
| Abstract: | The revised theory of basic individual values (Schwartz, et al. 2012) is intended to provide more powerful prediction and explanation of behavior than the original theory of ten basic values. It distinguishes 19 more narrowly defined values. These values express motivations that can be linked conceptually in a more precise manner to the motivations that presumably underlie behaviors. There is evidence that each of these newly distinguished values improves our understanding of the value bases of attitudes (Schwartz, et al. 2012). Thus far, no studies have been conducted to assess relations between the 19 values and a set of relevant behaviors. It is critical for the theory to demonstrate (or reject) that those values not present in the original theory that the revised theory distinguishes add predictive power. The paper presents results of a study of relations between 19 values and everyday behaviors conducted in Russia in 2012 to answer these issues. |
| Keywords: | theory of basic individual values, everyday behavior, predictive power of values. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:08psy2013&r=cis |
| By: | Yegor Lazarev (Junior Research Fellow at the Laboratory for Comparative Social Studies, Higher School of Economics and Carnegie Visiting Scholar at the Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan;) |
| Abstract: | How do insecure property rights over land affect electoral competition and the level of violence? To answer this question, I explore original empirical evidence from Dagestan, Russia’s most turbulent North Caucasian republic. The exploration is based on a statistical analysis of district-level data with special emphasis on chronological validity. Studying the relationship between land titles of the Soviet period and post-Soviet amounts of tenured land, the research demonstrates that the amount of unregistered land in each district has a profound effect on local electoral competition and indices of violence. A higher percentage of untenured land at the district level leads to less electoral competition and more intense violence. Consequently, the study finds that the insecurity of property rights creates an opportunity structure for electoral patronage and violent expression of conflicts and grievances. In theoretical perspective this study sheds light upon a relatively unexplored institutional factor that drives electoral process and violence in predominantly agrarian societies |
| Keywords: | Dagestan, insecure property rights, electoral competition, level of violence. |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:01/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Nadezhda Lebedeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural Research.); Ekaterina Osipova (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural Research); Liubov Cherkasova (National Research University Higher School of Economics (Moscow, Russia). International Laboratory of Socio-Cultural Research:) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the relationship of values and social capital with attitudes towards innovations. The respondents (N = 1238) were asked to fill in a questionnaire, which included the Schwartz value survey SVS-57, a selfassessment scale of innovative personality traits [Lebedeva, Tatarko, 2009], and a method of assessing social capital [Tatarko, 2011]. The results of the correlation analysis revealed a positive correlation between values of Openness to Change and a positive attitude to innovation. It was also found that the components of social capital (trust, tolerance, perceived social capital) positively correlated with attitudes to innovation. The empirical model obtained by means of a structural equation modeling generally confirmed the hypothesis of the study and demonstrated the positive impact of the values of Openness to Change and social capital on attitudes towards innovations in Russia |
| Keywords: | creativity, innovation, attitude to innovation, social capital, perceived social capital, individual values |
| JEL: | A13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:10/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Daria Polivanova (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Faculty of Philology.) |
| Abstract: | This paper discusses the use of the dactylic ending in the poetry by Nikolay Nekrasov and Boris Pasternak. It describes in succession the parts of speech dactylic endings utilize, the grammatical forms they take, and the derivational affixes they consist of. Comparison of the current results with the accent characteristics of Russian words illustrates the extent to which the choice of a particular word is determined by the inflectional and derivational language possibilities. Finally, an internal comparison of Pasternak’s and Nekrasov’s grammatical features demonstrates the distinctive features of each author’s poetic language |
| Keywords: | the dactylic ending, the dactylic rhyme, linguistic poetics, Nikolay Nekrasov, Boris Pasternak |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:33hum2013&r=cis |
| By: | Duscha, Vicki; Schumacher, Katja; Schleich, Joachim; Buisson, Pierre |
| Abstract: | This paper assesses the impact of a global phase-out of nuclear energy on the costs of meeting international climate policy targets for 2020. The analyses are based on simulations with a global energy systems model. The phase-out of nuclear power increases greenhouse gas emissions by 2% globally, and 7% for Annex I countries. The price of certificates increases by 24% and total compli-ance costs of Annex I countries rise by 28%. Compliance costs increase the most for Japan (+58%) and the USA (+28%). China, India and Russia benefit from a global nuclear phase-out because revenues from higher trading volumes of certificates outweigh the costs of losing nuclear power as a mitigation option. Even for countries that face a relatively large increase in compliance costs, such as Japan, the nuclear phase-out implies a relatively small overall economic burden. When trading of certificates is available only to countries that committed to a second Kyoto period, the nuclear phase-out results in a larger increase in the compliance costs for the group of Annex I countries (but not for the EU and Australia). Results from sensitivity analyses suggest that our findings are fairly robust to alternative burden-sharing schemes and emission target levels. -- |
| Keywords: | nuclear power,phase out,climate policy,Post-Kyoto,Copenhagen pledges |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:zbw:fisisi:s72013&r=cis |
| By: | Andrey Shevchuk (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology. Senior Researcher;); Denis Strebkov (National Research University Higher School of Economics. Laboratory for Studies in Economic Sociology. Senior Researcher;) |
| Abstract: | Based on a sample of 5,784 Russian-speaking respondents, this study provides the first quantitative evidence on freelance contracting via the Internet. We explore the extent to which these virtual business relations are formal or informal, and the role of social capital and networking. Our data suggest freelancers act under constant threat of malfeasance from clients. We address a number of questions associated with freelancers’ business risks and how freelancers might mitigate them. The logistic regression models reveal that the virtualization of relationships with clients is associated with greater moral hazard risks and fewer opportunities for dispute resolution. Formal written contracts do not prevent opportunistic behaviors by clients, though such contracts help resolve conflicts. Dealing with available social contacts and referrals decreases both the probability of extreme opportunism, causing financial losses, and the probability that disputes remain unresolved. Nevertheless, established social relations could be exploited by clients who can delay payments or insist on altering deadlines, work scope and specifications. Thus, our findings contribute to existing literatures on social capital in freelance contracting and on the structure of occupational labor markets. |
| Keywords: | freelancers, independent contractors, self-employment, Internet, opportunism, social capital |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:12/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Ksenia Tenisheva (National Research University Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Sociology Edu-cation and Science Laboratory, Researcher); Daniel Alexandrov (National Research University Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg, Sociology Edu-cation and Science Laboratory, Director) |
| Abstract: | Our study contributes to the debate on the interaction between academic context, individual achievement, and mathematics self-concept in schools. It is known that high-achieving peers positively influence the individual achievements of all group members. At the same time, it has been shown that the self-concept of students tends to decrease in the presence of high-achieving peers, as individuals make relative judgments of their abilities vis-a-vis their peer group. Stu-dents with mediocre performance feel more confident about their abilities in a group of poor achievers (the Big-Fish-Little-Pond Effect – BFLPE – introduced by H.Marsh). On the other hand, perceived prestige of a school enhances the self-confidence of students as people tend to “bask in the glory” of others (the “reflected glory” effect). We test the two effects mentioned above – BFLPE and the “reflected glory” effect. We hypothesize that both effects are stronger in highly stratified education systems where there is a stronger explicit difference between high- and poor-achieving students, and schools are ranked by their prestige. We compare the interac-tion of academic context, achievement, and mathematics self-concept in stratified (Russia and Czech Republic) and non-stratified (Norway and Sweden) educational systems on the TIMSS’07 database using HLM7. Our study shows: 1) an absence of BFLPE for all four countries, i.e. the achievement of others is positively related to an individual’s math self-concept; 2) strong support for the “reflected glory” effect is found only in stratified educational systems; and 3) greater pos-itive effect on self-concept for students with poor achievement who study in the best schools. |
| Keywords: | BFLPE, “reflected glory” effect, stratification, multilevel modeling, environmental effects. |
| JEL: | I21 C12 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:19/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Yana Akhapkina (Higher School of Economics, Faculty of Philology, Fundamental and Applied Linguistics) |
| Abstract: | Children, while acquiring their native language, move from linking all their utterances to the “here and now” to more abstract speech structures. The categorical situation reflected in children’s speech develops as they gain more speech experience and as their language system and communicative competencies become established. The transition from the semantics of temporal localization to the semantics of temporal non-localization is gradual. The acquisition of the category of personal attribution and the gradual evolution of understanding of its deictic nature, which happens in parallel with the formation of the meaning of iterativeness, contributes to the detailization of the types of the latter. The individual strategies of acquiring a language demonstrated by different children has an influence on the specific timing of the learning and internalizing of tense-aspect category and on the level of a child’s progress in acquiring new levels of semantics of a language |
| Keywords: | language acquisition, native language, temporal non-localization, tense, aspect, grammar, semantics |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:01/lng/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Oleg Poldin (Associate professor, National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE), 25/12 Bolshaja Pecherskaja Ulitsa, Nizhny Novgorod 603155, Russia, researcher at Center for Institutional Studies, HSE.); Dilyara Valeeva (Junior researcher, Center for Institutional Studies, HSE.); Maria Yudkevich ((Corresponding Author) Director, Center for Institutional Studies, HSE, Russia, 101000 Moscow, Myasnitskaya street, 20.) |
| Abstract: | Among the key issues of peer effects estimation is the correct identification of relevant peers. In this study, we explore how the individual performance of university students is influenced by characteristics and achievements of peers from individual’s social network. The analysis uses data from two directed networks: a network of friends and a network of study partners for thirdyear students at a top-tier Russian university. Data on network ties in randomly formed student groups enables us to address the endogeneity problem and disentangle the influence of peers’ performance from the effect that a peer’s background has on students. We show that both the GPA of peers and their ability measures are significant in the estimated regression model. A onepoint increase in the average GPA of peers is associated with an increase in an individual student’s own GPA of approximately one fourth. The regression on the data from the network of study partners has slightly greater explanatory power than the analys is based on data from the network of friends. No effect from a student’s classmates is found in the model that assumes group interactions occur between group mates |
| Keywords: | peer effects, higher education, student achievement, social networks. |
| JEL: | I23 I24 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:15/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Olga Gryaznova (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, Senior Research Fellow, Laboratory for Comparative Researches of Mass Consciousness, Research Fellow.) |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effect of personal interests and basic human values on the degree of support for a welfare state. Data from the European Social Survey, round 4 (2008) for 29 European countries (total n = 56,752) was used for the study. Results show that values such as collectivism and altruism promote demand for state intervention in welfare, while values like individualism and egoism negatively affect it. Income has the strongest negative effect on support for a welfare state among all the factors tested, even more so than gender and employment status in all types of welfare states. Compared to other countries (familialistic, social-democratic, conservative, and liberal), former USSR and ex-communist countries seem to be more influenced by collectivistic and individualistic values, and education. In addition, in ex-communist countries, altruistic and egoistic values have a crucial impact on the demand for a welfare state. In liberal, conservative, and social-democratic countries, values and education do not have much impact. |
| Keywords: | Welfare state, welfare attitudes, welfare regimes, basic human values, self-interest, cross-cultural comparative researches. |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:18/soc/2013&r=cis |
| By: | Nadezhda Lebedeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics. International Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research.); Lusine Grigoryan (National Research University Higher School of Economics. International Laboratory for Socio-Cultural Research. Junior research fellow;) |
| Abstract: | This study reveals and examines cultural differences in values, implicit theories of innovativeness, and attitudes toward innovation across three ethnocultural groups: Russians, representatives of the peoples of North Caucasus (Ingush and Chechens), and Tuvins (N = 801). Individual theories of innovativeness appeared to be more pronounced in Russians, whereas social theories of innovativeness are more discernible in respondents from the North Caucasus and Tuva. Using structural equation modeling, we identified a culturally universal model of value effects (direct and mediated by implicit theories of innovativeness) on attitudes toward innovation. The study demonstrates how the direct negative impact of Conservation values on positive attitudes toward innovation is transformed into a positive impact that promotes the acceptance of innovation through the mediating role of implicit theories of innovativeness. This study sheds light on the important mediating role of implicit theories of innovativeness on the impact of individual values on attitudes toward innovation in different cultures |
| Keywords: | culture, values, attitudes, creativity, innovation, implicit theories, innovativeness |
| JEL: | Z13 |
| Date: | 2013 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:16/soc/2013&r=cis |