Work in their Field Helps Students Study Better
In many cases combining study and work not only doesn’t undermine a student’s achievements, it actually enhances them. The experience of working in the field you are studying at university helps better master a profession and doesn’t cause a time conflict, says Diana Yanbarisova, Junior Research Fellow at the HSE Institute of Education, in her article, published in the latest issue of the HSE’s journal Voprosy Obrazovania (Issues of Education).
Homeopathy Still a Stepdaughter of Medicine
According to homeopaths, an increasing number of Russian patients trust their methods. Meanwhile, conventional medicine does not take homeopathy seriously, viewing it as 'supplementary therapy' at best and as quackery and an occult practice at worst, according to Radik Sadykov, Lecturer at the Faculty of Sociology of the HSE's Department of General Sociology.
Government Finances Innovative Research
The government in Russia has been the main customer for research and development (R&D) since 2009, while the real sector of the economy finances only a third of the total R&D costs of innovation-focused research companies, according to findings from a monitoring of innovation activity carried out by the HSE's ISSEK.
High Taxes, Low Demand Dampen Growth
Experts from the HSE Center for Business Tendency Studies at the Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge have found that limited demand, high taxes, lack of financial means and a high level of uncertainty in the onward course of economic development all reduce the length of time for which businesspeople can plan, in turn obstructing investment and innovative initiatives.
Financial Crisis Affects Gender Attitudes
The economic crisis in European countries did not pass by unnoticed as concerns the public’s set of values. In some groups, there was a shift from emancipative values to more traditional ones. Above all, this involves the socially vulnerable strata that the crisis hit hardest of all, Natalia Soboleva, a researcher with HSE’s Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSS), concluded in a study.
Non-commodity Exports Can Boost Russia’s GDP Growth
Data from Rosstat and the Federal Customs Service suggest that import substitution – not limited to substituted Ukrainian imports – has played a major role in keeping the Russian economy from recession in the first half of 2014. However, Russia cannot expect to achieve a sustained and dynamic GDP growth without boosting exports, in particular its non-commodity exports, according to expert analysis in Comments on State and Business published by the HSE's Centre for Development.
Poor Health Keeps Pensioners from Working
A satisfactory health condition and a low pension could theoretically be what make pensioners continue working in the first years after beginning their well-deserved relaxation. The main medical factors that keep older individuals from working are disability, the aftermath of strokes and frequent hospital treatment, Ekaterina Maltseva, a Research Assistant at HSE’s Laboratory of Economic Research of the Public Sector, said in the study, 'The Impact of Health on the Labour Supply of Pensioners'.
Safer Sex Ads Shift to the Web
In recent years, all advertising of contraceptives has disappeared from Russian television, replaced by messages denying that sex can be made safer. While television in Russia supports the state's attempts to regulate people's private lives, condom commercials have migrated to the internet, a place that still remains relatively free of government control, according to the report '(Un)safe Sex Ads as a Mirror of Political Change in Russia' by Associate Professor of the Department of Integrated Communications Lyubov Borusiak.
Banks Hinder Industry Development
Despite its thriving banking sector, Russia's industrial production remains stagnant, as financial institutions are failing to support development in the real sector. Vassilisa Makarova, Associate Professor at the HSE's Department of Financial Markets and Financial Management (Faculty of Economics, St. Petersburg), and Andrei Krylov, postgraduate student at St. Petersburg State University of Economics, examined the controversial relationship between Russian banks and industry.
Soviet ‘Science Cities’ Promote Small Business
Naukograds, meaning ‘science cities,’ focused largely on science in the Soviet period, but have since become aimed more at small business and business services in the post-soviet era, Denis Ivanov, a Research Fellow with HSE’s International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development, said in the paper, ‘Transition and Path-dependence in Knowledge-intensive Industry Location: Case of Russian Professional Services,’ which was presented at a joint seminar of HSE’s Laboratory for Labour Market Studies and the Centre for Labour Market Studies.