Book
Негосударственное дошкольное образование в России: оценка программ господдержки, правового регулирования и перспектив развития
The article considers assisted reproductive technologies (ART) as modern instruments of demographic policy in European countries with low fertility. A special consideration is given to programmes of 'in vitro fertilization' (IVF), which give childless couples an opportunity to have children and thus contribute to raising fertility rates. The cost of ART is significantly lower than that of other measures for raising fertility. Therefore, these technologies have good prospects as a constituent part of the demographic policy in Russia.
The second volume of the series "Demography. Sociology. Economics" is the result of work of the Centre of Social Demography and Economic Sociology of the Institute for Socio-Political Research with scientists from the Far East. The book consists of three sections. The first section deals with the general features of demographic processes and demographic policy in the Far East. The second section of the tendencies of migration processes and approaches to migration management. The third section presents articles on the problems of labor market and employment in the regions of the Far East. The book is recommended for students, postgraduate students, teachers, scientists and experts in the field of demography, migration and of the labor market, as well as all those interested in the Russian Far East.
Recognizing that social change over recent decades has strengthened the need for early childhood education and care, this book seeks to answer what role this plays in creating and compensating for social inequalities in educational attainment.
Compiling 13 cross-national and multidisciplinary empirical studies on three interrelated topics, this book explores how families from different social backgrounds decide between types of childcare, how important parental care and resources at home are for children’s educational success, and the consequences of early education and care for children’s diverging educational destinies. Analysing a currently neglected area in sociological research, expert contributors employ the most recent country-specific longitudinal datasets in order to provide an up-to-date portrayal of the patterns and mechanisms of early educational inequality.
With its extended analytical window ranging from short- to long-term educational outcomes, this book will undoubtedly appeal to students and scholars in the fields of childcare, education, and social inequality. It also contains important suggestions and evidence for practitioners and policymakers trying to combat inequality in educational opportunities.
"Children and society: social reality and innovation" is a collection of more than 170 papers by Russian sociologists from different regions of the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland, Kazakhstan, Germany at the all-Russian scientific-practical conference with international participation "Children and society: social reality and innovation". The book presents studies of regional offices and the scientific committees of the Russian society of sociologists, research teams, supported by the Russian Foundation for Humanities, groups of educational institutions, which deal with the problems of education, health, family and childhood, ecological and ethnonational problems of childhood, culture and social life in terms of processes of transformation and modernization of the Russian society. The13 parts of the book-lit topical issues of implementation of National strategy of action for children for 2012-2017. That‘s presented actual wide field of contemporary assessment and examination of public policies and civil society efforts to improve the situation of children in the Russian Federation for sociologists, protection of children‘s rights, consideration of the ability of children as independent subjects of social life
The aging of Russian population leads to inefficiency of Pay-As-You-Go system, where the benefits come solely from government taxation of current workers' wages, and seems to be one of the problems of Russian Pension System. This is the overview of Russian demographic settings compared to other countries from US CIA ranking. Long-run instruments of influencing demography in Russia are stated below.
Students' internet usage attracts the attention of many researchers in different countries. Differences in internet penetration in diverse countries lead us to ask about the interaction of medium and culture in this process. In this paper we present an analysis based on a sample of 825 students from 18 Russian universities and discuss findings on particularities of students' ICT usage. On the background of the findings of the study, based on data collected in 2008-2009 year during a project "A сross-cultural study of the new learning culture formation in Germany and Russia", we discuss the problem of plagiarism in Russia, the availability of ICT features in Russian universities and an evaluation of the attractiveness of different categories of ICT usage and gender specifics in the use of ICT.
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 results of cross-cultural research of implicit theories of innovativeness among students and teachers, representatives of three ethnocultural groups: Russians, the people of the North Caucasus (Chechens and Ingushs) and Tuvinians (N=804) are presented. Intergroup differences in implicit theories of innovativeness are revealed: the ‘individual’ theories of innovativeness prevail among Russians and among the students, the ‘social’ theories of innovativeness are more expressed among respondents from the North Caucasus, Tuva and among the teachers. Using the structural equations modeling the universal model of values impact on implicit theories of innovativeness and attitudes towards innovations is constructed. Values of the Openness to changes and individual theories of innovativeness promote the positive relation to innovations. Results of research have shown that implicit theories of innovativeness differ in different cultures, and values make different impact on the attitudes towards innovations and innovative experience in different cultures.
Smoking is a problem, bringing signifi cant social and economic costs to Russiansociety. However, ratifi cation of the World health organization Framework conventionon tobacco control makes it possible to improve Russian legislation accordingto the international standards. So, I describe some measures that should be taken bythe Russian authorities in the nearest future, and I examine their effi ciency. By studyingthe international evidence I analyze the impact of the smoke-free areas, advertisementand sponsorship bans, tax increases, etc. on the prevalence of smoking, cigaretteconsumption and some other indicators. I also investigate the obstacles confrontingthe Russian authorities when they introduce new policy measures and the public attitudetowards these measures. I conclude that there is a number of easy-to-implementanti-smoking activities that need no fi nancial resources but only a political will.
We address the external effects on public sector efficiency measures acquired using Data Envelopment Analysis. We use the health care system in Russian regions in 2011 to evaluate modern approaches to accounting for external effects. We propose a promising method of correcting DEA efficiency measures. Despite the multiple advantages DEA offers, the usage of this approach carries with it a number of methodological difficulties. Accounting for multiple factors of efficiency calls for more complex methods, among which the most promising are DMU clustering and calculating local production possibility frontiers. Using regression models for estimate correction requires further study due to possible systematic errors during estimation. A mixture of data correction and DMU clustering together with multi-stage DEA seems most promising at the moment. Analyzing several stages of transforming society’s resources into social welfare will allow for picking out the weak points in a state agency’s work.