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on Confederation of Independent States |
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Issue of 2015‒12‒08
thirteen papers chosen by |
| By: | Ilya A. Dolmatov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Vladimir V. Dvorkin (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The activities of the water companies in Russia are regulated in order to overcome market failures caused by regional monopolization, information asymmetries and the need to find a balance between the interests of consumers and company objectives for its normal functioning and development. In the Russian Federation, the regulator uses the outdated and inefficient cost method, which deprives the company an incentive to reduce their own costs. However, Russian regulator is in active discussion about the transition to modern long-term management regulation practices in order to increase companies’ efficiency, which in the framework of the regulation defines the future of the company's profits. Russian regulator should take more active steps to encourage regulated companies to increase efficiency and productivity. Solution is to move to using benchmarking, which allows to identify sources of companies’ inefficiency to assess the validity of the established tariffs. This study presents the first attempt to implement benchmarking methods used by the world's leading regulators to determine the cost efficiency of companies and improve their potential. The authors tested a parametric (COLS) and non-parametric (DEA) methods to assess the performance of companies with different technical and economic characteristics more accurately. The study makes a number of recommendations for the specification of the model, assessing its sensitivity to the changes in samples. The authors concluded that the model based on COLS is of high quality and resistance to changing of sample while assessing the technical efficiency. However, a similar statement for DEA models is unfair, since the inclusion in the analysis of either too large or too small companies does not lead to plausible results. On the other hand, DEA allowed to assess not only the technical efficiency of companies but also the allocative one. In general, the authors have shown that the potential for increasing the efficiency of Russian water supply companies is large enough, and the regulator is necessary to accelerate the transition to incentive regulation in order to increase efficiency in the sector. |
| Keywords: | Benchmarking; Efficiency; Incentive regulation, Water Utilities, DEA, COLS |
| JEL: | L95 D42 C60 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:42man2015&r=cis |
| By: | Marek Dabrowski |
| Abstract: | Highlights - The Russian economy grew rapidly between 2000 and 2007, but growth decelerated after the 2008-09 global financial crisis, and since mid-2014 Russia has moved into recession. A number of short-term factors have caused recession - lower oil prices, the conflict with Ukraine, European Union and United States sanctions against Russia and Russian counter-sanctions. However Russia's negative output trends have deeper structural and institutional roots. They can be tracked back about a decade to when previous market-reform policies started to be reversed in favour of dirigisme, leading to further deterioration of the business and investment climate. Russia must address its short-term problems, but in the medium-to-long term it must deal with its fundamental structural and institutional disadvantages - oil and commodity dependence and an unfriendly business and investment climate underpinned by poor governance. Compared to many other commodity producers, Russia is better placed to diversify its economy, mostly due to its excellent human capital. Ruble depreciation makes this task easier. 1. From growth slowdown to GDP decline Recession in Russia has become a fact. Seasonally adjusted quarterly GDP peaked in the second quarter of 2014 and then started declining. In the third and fourth quarters of 2014, the pace of decline was very slow (Figure 1) and therefore growth for 2014 overall remained positive (+0.6 percent, Figure 2). However, the first half of 2015 brought an acceleration of the negative trend. Real GDP declined by 2.2 percent in Q1 2015 and by 4.6 percent in Q2 2015, compared to the respective quarters of 2014. Recession was no surprise. Figure 2 shows that after the global financial crisis of 2008-09 Russian growth did not resume its pre-crisis pattern. From 2010-12 growth was muted but reasonable, with annual GDP growth of 5.4 percent, 4.3 percent and 3.4 percent respectively (although from a low level in 2009). However, already in 2013 – well before the conflict with Ukraine and resulting international sanctions, and the oil-price decline – there was economic stagnation. To understand the causes of the trend of declining growth, we must look at the history of the Russian transition and its partial reversal. Figure 1 - Russian quarterly GDP in 2008 prices, billion rubles, seasonally adjusted, 2007-15 Source - Bruegel based on Rosstat, http -//bru.gl/1LdvMRu Figure 2 - Annual dynamics of real GDP in Russia, in percent, 1991-2014 Source - Bruegel based on Gaidar Institute for Economic Policy, Moscow, http -//bru.gl/1VWqIsK. 2. The first turning point - the Yukos crackdown Russia was never a star reformer. Its economic transition in the 1990s was long and painful (see Figure 2) because of the complicated legacy of the Soviet system (structural distortions, macroeconomic imbalances and the absence of market institutions) and because of insufficient political support for radical, market-oriented reforms (Dabrowski et al, 2004). Nevertheless, at the beginning of the new millennium, those reforms started to bear fruit. In 1999, the Russian economy entered a phase of post-transition growth recovery, which accelerated in the subsequent years on the back of increasing oil prices. Furthermore, the first years of Vladimir Putin’s presidency (2000-03) brought completion of many overdue reforms, such as land reform, simplification of the tax system (the flat 13 percent personal income tax rate), elimination of fiscal imbalances, continuing privatisation, limited opening to foreign investors, deregulation and adoption of several pieces of market-oriented legislation. At that time, Russia could be considered a country that completed its basic transition agenda and managed to build a market economy based on private ownership, even if several distortions and imperfections continued to exist. The turning point came in 2003 with politically motivated crackdown on the largest Russian private company, Yukos (its assets were subsequently taken over by the state-owned Rosneft). As result, the private sector share of GDP decreased from 70 to 65 percent between 2004 and 2005[1]. In the following years, this trend of state takeover continued, especially in the oil and gas industry. For example, in 2005 Gazprom acquired the private oil company Sibneft, which was transformed into Gazprom’s daughter company Gazprom Neft. The activities of foreign oil and gas firms were marginalised. The best-known case was the downsizing of the shares held by Shell, Mitsubishi and Mitsui in the Sakhalin-2 project in favour of Gazprom (Sprenger, 2010). Figure 3 - Russia - Freedom House Nations in Transit selected scores, 1999-2015 Source - Bruegel based on http -//bru.gl/1LdvQ3v and http -//bru.gl/1LdvQ3y. Note - Each indicator is ranked 1 to 7, with 1 meaning freedom and democracy and 7 meaning consolidated authoritarian regime. The Democracy Score summarises sectoral scores. While the Yukos takeover did not stop investment and growth immediately, it initiated Russia's gradual departure from market-oriented reforms towards the building of a sort of hybrid system that is heavily controlled and dominated by the state bureaucracy and the ruling elite. |
| Date: | 2015–10 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bre:polcon:10234&r=cis |
| By: | Dmitrii Timofeev (National Research University Higher School) |
| Abstract: | The Russian recession of 2014-2015 began with a run on the ruble and a rise in the rate of inflation, the precise opposite of a Western-type deflationary slump combined with money hoarding. Does this mean that Russians need different micro-model to describe savings and consumption behavior? This study shows that the workhorse log-linearized rational SDF formula with the CRRA utility function still provides a good explanation for the behavior of Russian consumers. It explains dollarization, domestic equity market avoidance, preference for real estate, and, most importantly, a wary attitude towards the ruble. Expectations derived from past and interactive preferences lock the Russian economy in a state of steadfast distrust in the ruble as prone to inflation. At present, one should not expect a Keynesian-type deflationary cycle in Russia. The next recession is likely to be inflationary, requiring monetary tightening. This reasoning is generalized for other emerging countries. A free-floating currency and inflation targeting do not ensure an easy path for countries with recent experiences of high inflation |
| Keywords: | savings, monetary policy, business cycle, recession, Russia, Euler equation, CCAPM, stochastic discount factor |
| JEL: | G11 G18 P24 E31 D91 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:49/fe/2015&r=cis |
| By: | Alexander Chepurenko (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Olga Obraztsova (Russian State Social University); Vladimir Elakhovsky (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper deals with the difference in the share of opportunity-based early entrepreneurs among regions in Russia, which is an important indicator of the ‘quality’ of the entrepreneurial activity. We invent an index called the share of opportunity-based early entrepreneurs (SOBE) which is defined as the number of nascent entrepreneurs and new business owners who are driven by the search for new opportunities and towards the realization of their own values when starting-up and developing their businesses. It is shown that the differences in SOBE levels among Russian regions are statistically significant; cross-regional differences in the SOBE level reflect a certain set of regional social and economic factors right away or with an one-year or two-year lag; they may depend on the tempo of changes in a certain set of factors related to social and economic development in given regions. Among the confirmed hypotheses are the following: a successive growth of private investment in the regional economy as well as a stable increase of real wages of employed population are factors that decrease a region’s SOBE level; moreover, the higher the population’s access to PC and Internet at home, the higher is the related region’s SOBE level. The empirical part is based on the survey designed by the Higher School of Economics which was conducted in 2011 in 79 regions of Russia with a sample of 56 900 respondents. The survey is representative for the structure of the adult population in each of the surveyed regions |
| Keywords: | entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurial motivation, regional economy, entrepreneurship in Russia |
| JEL: | L26 R11 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:45man2015&r=cis |
| By: | Alena I. Nefedova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This article presents an overview of different approaches to the definition of social entrepreneurship and contains the findings of a survey on the process of its development in Russia. Whereas this type of business is institutionalized in the economy of the U.S. and certain European nations, where special laws are developed for it and significant tax benefits are afforded in certain cases, it is in its initial state in Russian society. Its development in the Russian economy will largely depend on the actions taken by the key players in the emerging organizational field and not solely on socio-economic and historical conditions. A series of expert interviews at the first study stage resulted in identification of the key players, in particular, ‘Our Future’ – the foundation for regional social programs that served as the monopolistic source of financial support for social entrepreneurship during the study. To find out what social entrepreneurship model is taking shape in Russia, 186 applications completed by different organizations seeking social entrepreneurship financing support were reviewed. The applications were made during a three year period of the Foundation’s business. The review suggested that the Foundation mostly backs up those social programs capable of becoming independent from external financial sources |
| Keywords: | social entrepreneurship, organizational field, non-profit entities, new institutionalism |
| JEL: | L26 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:51sti2015&r=cis |
| By: | Sergey P. Kazakov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Marina D. Predvoditeleva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Over the last decades, the global hospitality and tourism (or H&T) industry has undergone dramatic changes. Among the factors stimulating the growth of the H&T industry, the spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and social media should be emphasized. The same trends characterize the Russian H&T industry as well. However, despite the significant role of social media in the Russian H&T industry, there is still a lack of understanding of Russian H&T customers’ behavior. The current study aims to fill this gap and demonstrates how Russian travelers use social media to make hotel choice decisions and share their experiences on social media after their travel is completed. In order to deliver a more thorough revealing of Russian travel consumers’ peculiarities and to discover if there is Russian uniqueness, the online behavior of American and Russian travelers is compared in this paper. |
| Keywords: | hospitality industry, social media, ICT, customers’ behavior, Russia. |
| JEL: | M16 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:44man2015&r=cis |
| By: | Koen Decancq |
| Abstract: | The Better Life Index was introduced by the OECD as a tool to chart the multidimensional well-being of its member countries. However, the Better Life Index relies only on aggregate country-level indicators, and hence is insensitive to how multidimensional well-being is distributed within countries. This paper discusses how a distribution-sensitive Better Life Index could be designed. A broad family of distribution-sensitive Better Life Indices is discussed and decomposed in interpretable building blocks. While a rich and comprehensive micro-level data set is necessary to implement the distribution-sensitive Better Life Index, no such data set is currently available for all OECD member countries. The paper constructs therefore a 'synthetic' data set that relies on information about macro-level indicators and micro-level data from the Gallup World Poll. The implementation of the distribution-sensitive Better Life Index is illustrated with this synthetic data set. The illustration indicates that, when taking the distribution of well-being into account, Nordic countries are top-ranked whereas Greece, the Russian Federation and Turkey occupy the bottom positions. The results indicate considerable losses due to multidimensional inequality for OECD member countries. In addition, sizeable differences are found in the level and composition of multidimensional inequality. |
| Keywords: | Better Life Index, Multidimensional well-being, Multidimensional inequality |
| JEL: | I31 C43 O1 |
| Date: | 2015–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hdl:wpaper:1505&r=cis |
| By: | Tatiana Ryabichenko (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Nadezhda Lebedeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper presents the results of empirical research on the relationship of motivation for ethno-cultural continuity and strategies of acculturation of the Russian minority in Latvia. We sampled 112 Russian families (parents: N=112, age 35-59, Me=42; adolescents: N=112, age 16-24, Me=17). A questionnaire included measures of motivation for ethno-cultural continuity, acculturation strategies, sociocultural adaptation and self-esteem. Using structural equation modeling we revealed that motivation for ethno-cultural continuity, assimilation strategy, self-esteem and sociocultural adaptation of parents are significantly related to those of their children. We found positive relationships of motivation for ethno-cultural continuity with a strategy of integration and self-esteem among parents, and of motivation for ethno-cultural continuity and self-esteem among children. Motivation for ethno-cultural continuity of adolescents associates with their preference for separation. Integration positively relates to self-esteem and sociocultural adaptation, while assimilation, marginalization and separation strategies relate negatively to self-esteem in both generations |
| Keywords: | motivation for ethno-cultural continuity, acculturation, adaptation, ethnic minorities, integration, well-being |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:47psy2015&r=cis |
| By: | Tatiana V. Abankina (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Pavel V. Derkachev (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Liudmila M. Filatova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Irina V. Scherbakova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | Accessibility is a key priority of public policy in the social sphere, a necessary condition to ensure equal opportunities and cultural participation. Analysis of the international practice reveals that the issue of accessibility has two aspects - objective and subjective. Regression models were used to conduct empirical analysis of the impact of economic factors on the museum attendance. The factor analysis of the data for the period of 2010-2012 conducted with the principle component method allowed to identify five factors. As a result, we estimated the impact of each factor on the museum attendance |
| Keywords: | museum accessibility; increasing museum accessibility; international and Russian practice; social model to increase museum accessibility; evaluation of museum attendance. |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:43man2015&r=cis |
| By: | Michael Daniel (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper describes the morphology of the verbal inflection in Mehweb, a Dargwa lect of central Daghestan, Russia. The description is partly based on previous research and partly on the field data the author collected in 2009 to the present. Only formal morphology of synthetic verb forms is discussed |
| Keywords: | East Caucasian, Dargwa, verb, morphology |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:28/lng/2015&r=cis |
| By: | Egor Kashkin (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Olga Vinogradova (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This paper deals with the typology of surface texture expressions, such as a slippery road, a smooth wooden board, rough hands, coarse or rough fabric. We discuss both their direct uses and metaphors formed with them, such as a slippery person, a smooth speech, a rugged captain. Our language sample includes 10 Uralic languages (Finnish, Estonian, Mari, Erzya, Moksha, Udmurt, Komi-Zyrjan, Hungarian, Khanty, Nenets), as well as 5 languages from other families (Russian, English, Spanish, Chinese, and Korean). The categorisation of these attributes includes primarily the division into visually perceived surfaces and surfaces perceived through physical contact. We discuss how much and in what ways the antonymic areas under observation are asymmetrical in their semantic features and combinability. One more focus in this research is to evaluate texture lexicon variation in an intragenetic study of a group of related languages in comparison with its variation across a broader sample of languages |
| Keywords: | Lexical Typology; Semantic Typology; Corpus Research; Attributive Use; Metaphoric Shift |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:30/lng/2015&r=cis |
| By: | Àlexandra Kozhukhar (National Research University Higher School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | This study analyses the difference between logophoric pronoun and long-distance reflexive in Mehweb Dargwa of East Caucasian language family. Following paper cites the examples that provide evidence for the difference existing between logophoric pronouns and long-distance reflexives in Mehweb and explains the cases of the reference ambiguity by introducing the idea of the zero pronoun with non-subject reference. |
| Keywords: | Daghestan, East Caucasian, Mehweb, reflexive, logophor |
| JEL: | Z19 |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:27/lng/2015&r=cis |
| By: | Kennon M. Sheldon (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Evgeny N. Osin (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Tamara O. Gordeeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Dmitry D. Suchkov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Vlaidslav V. Bobrov (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Elena I. Rasskazova (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Oleg A. Sychev (Altai State Academy of Education) |
| Abstract: | We conducted a psychometric evaluation of the "relative autonomy continuum" postulated by Self-determination theory (SDT), a continuum whose validity has recently been questioned. We started by a) examining all of the RAI items we could find, across multiple published and unpublished scales; b) extracting the core repeating words and concepts via paired-item paraphrase analysis; and c) expressing all of the resulting concepts in 38 simple, clear new items. We administered the 38 items to multiple Russian and American samples, asking participants to rate their academic motivations. Initial psychometric analyses eliminated several items, leaving 35 items for analysis. The traditional RAI dimensions of amotivated, external, introjected, identified, and intrinsic were confirmed via confirmatory factor analyses, simplex congruency analyses, and multidimensional scaling (MDS) analyses. We also tested a sixth dimension first proposed by Assor, Vansteenkiste et al. (2009), positive introjection, and confirmed its location between negative introjection and identification on the relative autonomy continuum. In addition to confirming the predicted sequence of the items and the six subscales along a primary dimension, MDS analyses also identified a second dimension corresponding to the distance of the item from the center of the continuum, suggesting that using weighting procedures when constructing aggregate motivation scores may be justified. In an attempt to provide the field with a standardized relative autonomy index (SRAI) with known properties, that can be flexibly applied to assess motivation in any and every behavioral domain, we empirically compared several methods of scoring and analyzing the data, focusing on maximizing the associations between academic motivation and subjective well-being. These scoring methods included computing and analyzing each of the six subscales separately; computing and analyzing autonomous and controlled motivation separately; computing a relative autonomy score (autonomous minus controlled motivation); and computing relative autonomy scores in which greater weight is given to subscales nearer to the two extremes of the continuum. Weighted and Unweighted RAI scores predicted SWB equally, indicating that unweighted scoring, which minimizes the number of assumptions made, should be preferred. The positive effect of autonomous motivation was stronger than the negative effect of controlled motivation; intrinsic and introjected motivation were the strongest stand-alone predictors among the 6 sub-scales. |
| Keywords: | self-determination theory, autonomy continuum, motivation; questionnaires; validation; intrinsic motivation; extrinsic motivation; amotivation (cross-cultural, scale validation). |
| JEL: | Z |
| Date: | 2015 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:48psy2015&r=cis |