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  • First Sino-Russian Economic Cooperation Workshop—Economic Performance from Regional Aspects

First Sino-Russian Economic Cooperation Workshop—Economic Performance from Regional Aspects

First Sino-Russian Economic Cooperation Workshop—Economic Performance from Regional Aspects

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The HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and the School of Economics at Shanghai University have co-organised the First Sino-Russian Workshop on ‘Economic Performance from Regional Aspects’. The researchers discussed how they detected and assessed the effects of different economic policies in Russia and China at a regional level.

The opening remarks were delivered by Dmitry Veselov, HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences Deputy Dean for Research, and Nie Yongyou, Deputy Dean of the SHU School of Economics. Dmitry Veselov emphasized how important it is to reinforce bilateral relations between Russian and Chinese institutions, and to ‘cooperate and exchange knowledge’, particularly in macroeconomics.

The Centre for Spatial Econometrics in Applied Macroeconomic Research at HSE University headed by Olga Demidova participated in the workshop. This Centre analyses macroeconomic shocks at regional levels in Russia.

For China, regional analysis is also relevant: the country’s regions are heterogeneous and may experience different shocks. China’s experience might prove to be extremely useful, particularly in terms of meeting new challenges posed by COVID-19. ‘Since these viruses arrived in China earlier, we can use its experience of imposing strict limitations to forecast the possible impact on Russia’, said Olga Demidova.

Shanghai University (SHU) was founded in 1922. In 1994, it merged with Shanghai University of Technology, Shanghai University of Science & Technology, and Shanghai Science & Technology College. There are over 50,000 students at the university, and the School of Economics is one of 29 independent university departments.

The partnership between the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences and the SHU School of Economics began in 2021 with a student exchange agreement.

Dmitry Veselov said that the Faculty of Economic Sciences hosts many laboratories, research centres and research teams interested in exchanging their research outcomes with peers in the field. ‘Any academic knowledge requires live discussion: within the laboratory, at conferences or in workshops. Since research areas are shared, cooperation initiatives are often suggested by research teams, who form professional links in their respective fields’, he said.

From Healthcare Costs to Coronacrisis

Artem Demyanenko, lecturer and PhD student at the HSE Department of Applied Economics, spoke on ‘The impact of public health spending on economic growth in Russia: a regional aspect’. He found that, along with increased life expectancy and human capital development, an increase in the share of government spending on healthcare in GRP can stimulate economic growth in a region and alleviate the negative economic effects of pandemics.

Olga Demidova, analysed the changes in the consumption structure of Russian households during and after COVID epidemic from a regional perspective. The study found that those regions with medium and strict quarantine measures did not differ in the structure of consumption of goods and services, while in regions with less strict quarantine measures, the share of spending on food was lower, and on non-food products higher.

China: Subjective Health and Common Prosperity

Xu Lingli from SHU spoke on long-term care insurance, and the physical and mental health of the elderly in China. China has the world’s largest elderly population over 65, accounting for 23.34% of the world’s elderly, according to data from the country's 7th census. As part of its policy on aging, China launched the ‘Healthy China’ campaign and implemented long-term care insurance (LTCI). The study found that LTCI had a considerable favourable impact on the subjective health of the elderly. LTCI is more effective for males and those and with low income, although it can have a negative impact on their families' welfare.

Common prosperity is the number one public goal in China. But it is achievable only if the regional developmental gap is closed, believes Zou Weiyong, PhD Student of SHU, who analysed regional differences and common prosperity in China.

Inequality and Monetary Policy

Valeria Zvereva, Visiting Lecturer at the HSE Department of Theoretical Economics, analysed the effect of inequality on the effectiveness of the interest rate channel of the transmission mechanism of the monetary policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. She found that regions with a higher level of inequality demonstrate a stronger response to monetary policy measures.

Bai Ruisi, a postgraduate Student at SHU, looked at how regional trade agreements (RTAs) affect exports. She found that a reduction in import costs brought about by RTAs encourages an improvement in the quality of the contracting parties' exports through technology spillover channels.

The workshop participants decided to continue their cooperation and carry out more academic workshops. ‘At the end of the workshop, I suggested that our Chinese peers carry out a comparative analysis of the changes in the structure of household consumption in different regions of China and Russia’, said Olga Demidova.

‘I would like to emphasise the interesting format of this workshop. Here, master’s students, PhD students and leading researchers from partner universities have all been able to have their say. This means it has given early-career researchers valuable experience of public speaking at an international event’, Dmitry Veselov concluded.

See the detailed coverage of the workshop on the FES website.