Article
Recent mortality improvement in Russia: are regions following the same tempo?
After several decades of negative trends and short-term fluctuations, life expectancy has been increasing in Russia since 2004. Between 2003 and 2014, the length of life rose by 6.6 years among males and by 4.6 years among females. While positive trends in life expectancy are observed in all regions of Russia, these trends are unfolding differently in different regions. First, regions entered the phase of life expectancy growth at different points in time. Second, the age- and cause-specific components of the gains in life expectancy and the number of years added vary noticeably. In this paper, we apply decomposition techniques—specifically, the stepwise replacement algorithm—to examine the age- and cause-specific components of the changes in inter-regional disparities during the current period of health improvement. The absolute inter-regional disparities in length of life, measured by the population-weighted standard deviation, decreased slightly between 2003 and 2014, from 3.3 to 3.2 years for males, and from 2.0 to 1.8 years for females. The decomposition of these small changes by ages and causes of death shows that these shifts were the result of diverse effects of mortality convergence at young and middle ages, and of mortality divergence at older ages. With respect to causes of death, the convergence is mainly attributable to external causes, while the inter-regional divergence of trends is largely determined by cardiovascular diseases. The two major cities, Moscow and Saint Petersburg, are currently pioneering mortality improvements in Russia and are making the largest contributions to the inter-regional divergence.
The sector of knowledgeintensive business services (KIBS) not only contributes to its own dynamic and innovative development but also to the development of the external environment through the creation, accumulation, and dissemination of knowledge. Therefore, it is considered one of the key pillars of the knowledgebased economy. This article addresses the problem of its spatial distribution in Russia. The basis of the study is uniquely empirical, obtained through a series of largescale surveys among Russian pro ducers and consumers of KIBS. The collected data provide quantitative evidence for the spatial dimension of the sector. Comparative analysis of the production and consumption of KIBS in Russia’s federal districts makes it possible to classify the latter in terms of the exchange of related services and mapping of the intensity of their interregional supply and demand across federal districts. It is established that companies offering KIBS in Russia are largely concentrated in big cities. The demand for KIBS is more distributed, but not spa tially neutral. This paper may be of interest to researchers focusing on the spatial distribution of elements of the innovationbased economy in Russia. It is also relevant for regional authorities, because it can help them assess the development capacity of their regions.
The authors discuss social and demographic processes in the rural regions of the Russian Near North and, first of all, in the Kostroma region – one of the socially problematic regions in the Russian Federation. In the article, the attention is focused on the analysis of mechanisms and assessment of scales of the depopulation: high mortality, migration of youth and middle aged people to the cities, deformations in age and gender structure with prevalence of the elderly population and a small share of children. The authors state essential distinctions of demographic indicators between municipalities in the Kostroma region and emphasize importance of social and demographic research on a basic municipal level. Indicators of the low life expectancy, high mortality caused by external reasons (alcoholism, murders, suicides, etc.), and high migration of youth are seen as the objective indicators of social problems in the local communities. It demands special attention on the part of the government authorities that plan social programs and take administrative decisions.
This collection of articles contains reports and heads of reports to the Internetional Conference "Modern Models of Cultural Industries Development in Russian Regions", that was held in Saint-Petersburg on 9-10 October 2014 with the support of Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation.
After a long decline, life expectancy in Russia substantially increased in 2004-2010; this is the longest period of health improvement that has been observed in the country since 1965. This study is the first analysis of this positive trend.
We seek to determine the causes and age groups that account for the additional years of life gained in 2004-10 and the remaining gap between Russia and Western countries, to assess to what extent these recent trends represent a new development relative to previous mortality fluctuations, and to identify possible explanations for the improvement.
We present an analysis of trends in life expectancy, and in age- and cause-specific mortality in Russia and selected countries in Eastern and Western Europe. We use decomposition techniques to examine the life expectancy rise in 2004-2010 and the Russia-UK life expectancy gap in 2010.
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Like the previous mortality fluctuations that have occurred in Russia since the mid-1980s, the increase in life expectancy was driven by deaths at ages 15 to 60 from alcohol-related causes. Uniquely in the recent period, there were also improvements at older ages, especially in cerebrovascular disease mortality among women. In addition, there were reductions in deaths from avoidable causes, such as from tuberculosis and diabetes. The life expectancy gap between Russia and Western countries remains large, and is mostly attributable to deaths from cardiovascular disease, alcohol-related conditions, and violence.
The decrease in alcohol-related mortality may be attributable to measures taken in 2006 to control the production and sale of ethanol. The lower number of cerebrovascular-related deaths may reflect advancements in blood pressure control. The reduction in the number of deaths from tuberculosis and diabetes may be associated with a general improvement in health care. Although the decline in mortality since 2004 has been substantial, the question of whether it can be sustained remains open.
The author applied the decomposition method LMDI to investigate the factors that influences the energy intensity of power generation in Russia. The analysis allows to determine the connection between energy intensity of power generation and both technical and structural changes in electricity and heat production.
The paper examines trends of internal migration in Russia in the last two decades. Particular attention is paid to the areas of migration and its regional features.
Several approaches to the concept of fatherhood present in Western sociological tradition are analyzed and compared: biological determinism, social constructivism and biosocial theory. The problematics of fatherhood and men’s parental practices is marginalized in modern Russian social research devoted to family and this fact makes the traditional inequality in family relations, when the father’s role is considered secondary compared to that of mother, even stronger. However, in Western critical men’s studies several stages can be outlined: the development of “sex roles” paradigm (biological determinism), the emergence of the hegemonic masculinity concept, inter-disciplinary stage (biosocial theory). According to the approach of biological determinism, the role of a father is that of the patriarch, he continues the family line and serves as a model for his ascendants. Social constructivism looks into man’s functions in the family from the point of view of masculine pressure and establishing hegemony over a woman and children. Biosocial theory aims to unite the biological determinacy of fatherhood with social, cultural and personal context. It is shown that these approaches are directly connected with the level of the society development, marriage and family perceptions, the level of egality of gender order.
This article is talking about state management and cultural policy, their nature and content in term of the new tendency - development of postindustrial society. It mentioned here, that at the moment cultural policy is the base of regional political activity and that regions can get strong competitive advantage if they are able to implement cultural policy successfully. All these trends can produce elements of new economic development.