Article
Alcohol Consumption and Life Satisfaction: Evidence from Russia
Alcohol consumption is known to have an impact on various aspects of individual’s life. This paper is based on the idea that the alcohol consumption is very likely to influence on subjective well-being. Using data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey of HSE (RLMS-HSE) in this paper the links between alcohol consumption and subjective well-being is examined. RLMS-HSE data shows that a significant number of individuals consumed alcohol in the last month in Russia, the proportion of men drinkers is extremely high, and is around 60-70%. Two sources of endogeneity are discussed in the paper: individual characteristics, such as one’s value system and traits of character; and the existing environment, for example, a negative macroeconomic situation. Empirical estimates are obtained using probit adapted OLS approach. Results suggest that reasonable consumption of alcohol improves the level of life satisfaction. However, alcohol abuse produces negative effects on life satisfaction.
The philosophical and psychological views on the problem of happiness since Aristotle to our days are summarized. Building on both philosophical discussions and recent data of sociological and psychological research, the author reveals two qualitatively distinct phenomena behind the common word “happiness”, that have different attributes and regularities. The firs one is the experience of subjective well-being that is directly associated with the basic needs gratification, while the second one is the experience of enjoyment as the experience of being engaged in some personally meaningful activity or close relationships.
The philosophical and psychological views on the problem of happiness since Aristotle to our days are summarized. Building on both philosophical discussions and recent data of sociological and psychological research, the author reveals two qualitatively distinct phenomena behind the common word “happiness”, that have different attributes and regularities. The firs one is the experience of subjective well-being that is directly associated with the basic needs gratification, while the second one is the experience of enjoyment as the experience of being engaged in some personally meaningful activity or close relationships.
The subject of this article is a research on interregional differences in volume and structure of alcohol consumption based on official statistical data and testing of a hypothesis about various macroeconomic factors influencing alcohol consumption. This testing was carried out with regression analysis method on the basis of data from regions of the Russian Federation. Indicators used in the analysis were received from official state statistics' sources that are free to access on respective web-sites. Due to the lack of data on alcohol consumption by regions, sales rates of alcohol beverages in per capita volume terms (broken down by commodity) were used as proxy variables of alcohol consumption. On account of information on percentage of spirit in all alcohol products under review per capita indices of absolute alcohol consumption were estimated for each region specifically, contribution of each product into its forming was also assessed.
The paper examines the structure, governance, and balance sheets of state-controlled banks in Russia, which accounted for over 55 percent of the total assets in the country's banking system in early 2012. The author offers a credible estimate of the size of the country's state banking sector by including banks that are indirectly owned by public organizations. Contrary to some predictions based on the theoretical literature on economic transition, he explains the relatively high profitability and efficiency of Russian state-controlled banks by pointing to their competitive position in such functions as acquisition and disposal of assets on behalf of the government. Also suggested in the paper is a different way of looking at market concentration in Russia (by consolidating the market shares of core state-controlled banks), which produces a picture of a more concentrated market than officially reported. Lastly, one of the author's interesting conclusions is that China provides a better benchmark than the formerly centrally planned economies of Central and Eastern Europe by which to assess the viability of state ownership of banks in Russia and to evaluate the country's banking sector.
The paper examines the principles for the supervision of financial conglomerates proposed by BCBS in the consultative document published in December 2011. Moreover, the article proposes a number of suggestions worked out by the authors within the HSE research team.