Urban population is growing worldwide. Our societies are facing grand challenges like climate change and growing inequalities between people. There is an increasing need to develop cities that are environmentally and socially sustainable, functional and supporting well-being of their inhabitants. When striving towards these goals, transportation and mobility play a crucial role. Easy and environmentally sustainable mobility options are called for in most cities. For these to attract users, they need to be safe and pleasant, providing positive experiences and well-being in addition to efficiency in time or cost.

NECTAR conference is organized with a title “Towards Human Scale Cities – Open and Happy” to reflect the new requirements of urban transportation. This 15th NECTAR conference, organized in Helsinki 5th - 7th June 2019, provides presentations by world-class keynotes Mikael Colville-Andersen and Professor Tim Schwanen, who approach human scale mobility from the viewpoints of a designer and a researcher. More than 140 scientific presentations explore advancements in the field of transport, communication and mobility, with a particular focus on good quality mobility options for people. The focus of the conference is urban transportation and the new possibilities that open data and digital technologies provide for mobility solutions and their research. Presentations provide food for thought concerning mobility choices and quality, new mobility solutions like MaaS, and policies that are implemented to support them.

Helsinki offers an interesting environment for the 2019 NECTAR conference. It is the home of the busiest passenger harbor in Europe with a twin-city development with Tallinn across the bay, and a major air transportation hub between Europe and Asia. It is one of the fastest growing capital regions in Europe, with large densification developments taking place in old logistic centers: harbor areas of Jätkäsaari and Kalasatama and a train depot in Pasila. Public transportation is valued high by citizens, as well as politicians and planners making investment decisions for the future. First robotized buses are in operation and MaaS solutions are emerging. New bike sharing system is one of the most used in the world and has expanded to cover most of the city region. As everywhere in Europe, new forms of micromobility from electronic scooters to electric longboards are appearing on the streets making planners and police puzzled. The city has profiled itself as an open city: large amounts of open data about the region have been made available and the region of Helsinki is committed to open and transparent decision 

and policy making. This supports also research in the major universities: University of Helsinki and Aalto University, the local organizers of the conference.

We anticipate that the conference days will forward our thinking on how to make cities more sustainable, functional and pleasant for people, and how to study them scientifically in a meaningful and transparent manner.

This book gathers the outcomes of several scientific events that were organized and conducted by the Institute of Scientific Communications (Volgograd, Russia) and the leading universities of the Volgograd region. The contributing authors include more than 700 scholars from various cities and regions of Russia. 124 works were selected out of 3,000 papers on the preconditions of formation, transformation, and legal provision of social institutes, topics that are in high demand in connection with a core aspect of digital modernization – the Internet of Things. The book is intended for a broad target audience, including scholars of various generations and various disciplines. These include young researchers (undergraduates and postgraduates) and recognized scholars (professors and lecturers) who study the socioeconomic and legal consequences of the emergence and dissemination of digital technologies, including the Internet of Things. In addition, the book will benefit all those who are interested in the development of the information society, information and telecommunication, and digital technologies. The content is divided into three logical parts, the first of which is devoted to the essence of the process of institutionalization and legal regulation of the information society.

The pocket data book contains main indicators characterizing S&T and innovation potential of the Russian Federation. There are the information about intellectual property, S&T output, data of international comparisons given.

The data book includes information of the Federal State Statistics Service, Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Eurostat, UNESCO, World Intellectual Property Organisation, national statistical services of foreign countries, and results of own methodological and analytical studies of the HSE Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge.

On 15 March 2019, the first “Connecting Eurasia Dialogue: From the Atlantic to the Pacific” was held in Brussels, at Europe’s political heart. The event was organized by the Roscongress Foundation and the Conoscere Eurasia Association with the support of the Association of European Businesses and the Belgian-Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce. Amid the current political cooldown, this was a unique gathering, enabling a high-level dialogue on trade, economic, and integration issues among stakeholders from the wider Eurasian space, including the European Union (EU), the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and China. The focus of high-level policy makers and top business executives attended the Dialogue was on challenges and opportunities of the EU’s engagement with the EAEU, harmonization of soft infrastructure to enhance trans-Eurasian connectivity, and the EAEU’s single pharmaceutical market. This IIASA discussion paper provides a summary of the deliberations, supported by research from inside and outside the Institute.

The Handbook of Research on International Collaboration, Economic Development, and Sustainability in the Arctic discusses the perspectives and major challenges of the investment collaboration and development and commercial use of trade routes in the Arctic. Featuring research on topics such as agricultural production, environmental resources, and investment collaboration, this book is ideally designed for policymakers, business leaders, and environmental researchers seeking coverage on new practices and solutions in the sphere of achieving sustainability in economic exploration of the Artic region

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the 2018 International Conference on Digital Science (DSIC’18). This Conference had the support of the Institute of Certified Specialists, Russia, AISTI (Iberian Association for Information Systems and Technologies), and Springer. It will take place Convention Centre, Budva, Montenegro, October 19-21, 2018.

DSIC’18 is an international forum for researches and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences, and concerns in the several perspectives of Digital Science. The main idea of this Conference is that the world of science is united allowing all scientists/practitioners to be able to think, analyze, and generalize their thoughts.

DSIC aims efficiently to disseminate original research results in natural, social, art, and humanities sciences. An important characteristic feature of the Conference should be the short publication time and worldwide distribution. This Conference enables fast dissemination, so conference participants can publish their papers in print and electronic format, which is then made available worldwide and accessible by numerous researchers.

The Scientific Committee of DSIC’18 was composed of multidisciplinary group of 26 experts. One hundred and seven invited reviewers who are intimately conceded with Digital Science have had the responsibility for evaluating, in a “double-blind review” process, the papers received for each of the main themes proposed for the Conference: Digital Art and Humanities; Digital Economics; Digital Education; Digital Engineering, Digital Environmental Sciences; Digital Finance; Business and Banking; Digital Media; Digital Medicine; Pharma and Public Health; Digital Public Administration; Digital Technology and Applied Sciences.

DSIC’18 received 88 contributions from 16 countries around the world. The papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the Conference are published by Springer (this book) and will be submitted for indexing by ISI, SCOPUS, among others.

Working Title: From Corporate Social Responsibility to Corporate Social Liability

Subtitle: A Socio-Legal Study of Corporate Liability in Global Value Chains

Series: N/A 

 

The series “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” contains publications on theory, applications, and design methods of Intelligent Systems and Intelligent Computing. Virtually all disciplines such as engineering, natural sciences, computer and information science, ICT, economics, business, e-commerce, environment, healthcare, life science are covered. The list of topics spans all the areas of modern intelligent systems and computing such as: computational intelligence, soft computing including neural networks, fuzzy systems, evolutionary computing and the fusion of these paradigms, social intelligence, ambient intelligence, computational neuroscience, artificial life, virtual worlds and society, cognitive science and systems, Perception and Vision, DNA and immune based systems, self-organizing and adaptive systems, e-Learning and teaching, human-centered and human-centric computing, recommender systems, intelligent control, robotics and mechatronics including human-machine teaming, knowledge-based paradigms, learning paradigms, machine ethics, intelligent data analysis, knowledge management, intelligent agents, intelligent decision making and support, intelligent network security, trust management, interactive entertainment, Web intelligence and multimedia. The publications within “Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing” are primarily proceedings of important conferences, symposia and congresses. They cover significant recent developments in the field, both of a foundational and applicable character. An important characteristic feature of the series is the short publication time and world-wide distribution. This permits a rapid and broad dissemination of research results.

This book contains a selection of papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the 2018 International Conference on Digital Science (DSIC’18). This Conference had the support of the Institute of Certified Specialists, Russia, AISTI (Iberian Association for Information Systems and Technologies), and Springer. It will take place at Convention Centre, Budva, Montenegro, October 19–21, 2018. DSIC’18 is an international forum for researchers and practitioners to present and discuss the most recent innovations, trends, results, experiences, and concerns in the several perspectives of Digital Science. The main idea of this Conference is that the world of science is unified and united allowing all scientists/practitioners to be able to think, analyze, and generalize their thoughts. DSIC aims efficiently to disseminate original research results in natural, social, art, and humanities sciences. An important characteristic feature of the Conference should be the short publication time and worldwide distribution. This Conference enables fast dissemination, so conference participants can publish their papers in print and electronic format, which is then made available worldwide and accessible by numerous researchers. The Scientific Committee of DSIC’18 was composed of a multidisciplinary group of 26 experts. One hundred and seven invited reviewers who are intimately concerned with Digital Science have had the responsibility for evaluating, in a “double-blind review” process, the papers received for each of the main themes proposed for the Conference: Digital Art and Humanities; Digital Economics; Digital Education; Digital Engineering; Digital Environmental Sciences; Digital Finance, Business and Banking; Digital Media; Digital Medicine, Pharma and Public Health; Digital Public Administration; Digital Technology and Applied Sciences. DSIC’18 received 88 contributions from 16 countries around the world. The papers accepted for the presentation and discussion at the Conference are published by Springer (this book) and will be submitted for indexing by ISI, SCOPUS, among others.

This book provides an impressive overview of emerging technologies, especially nanotechnologies and biotechnologies, and their prospective applications. It identifies and describes existing and potential markets for emerging technologiy-based applications, and projects scenarios for macroeconomic development based on these technologies. Integrated roadmaps for the development of a nano- and bioindustry are shown and policy measures and corporate strategies developed to advance these technologies. These measures are illustrated using roadmaps and policy case studies.The book combines a practical, comprehensive overview of the technical side of emerging technologies and their applications in various fields with an analysis of market developments and characteristics.

The student's book is based on the CLIL approach to teaching and teaches case study solving skills via English language learning. Such an approach creates positive environment for students to master new knowledges and skills. 

I argue that the rather unfavorable conclusions of the three papers in the session on "Coordination and Tradeoffs" might not be as bad as they seem. In particular, I dwell on challenges facing the central bank using an interest rate that is different from the risk-free rate in its Taylor rule, and show that proper redefinition of the intercept and the slope of the rule allows avoidance of inflationary bias and preserves the stability of equilibrium.

Due to the need to reindustrialize the domestic industry at the post-industrial stage of development, it has become necessary to implement megaprojects aiming at the qualitative makeover of the national economy. The purpose of this paper is to develop an industrial megaproject risk management model and methodological support based on a comparative analysis of existing approaches and using Russian and international experience. The research has resulted in two megaproject risk management models: a fragmentary model and a comprehensive one. A risk mitigation potential analysis for ongoing megaprojects has been performed confirming the efficiency of use of the comprehensive megaproject risk management model. The suggested comprehensive risk management model allows taking into consideration the main distinctive feature of modern megaprojects, i.e. multiplicity of management entities operating on the basis of the partnership principle.

Whether professional or amateur, sports businesses must develop their brand and image to meet the expectations of a diverse environment, consisting of fans, sponsors, and other stakeholders. The value and instruments of market research can provide the required resources for sports businesses to realize their plans. In Market Research in the Sports Industry, Jasenko Ljubica and Neven Seric provide a comprehensive elaboration of market research methods to be used by sports businesses. The book identifies and explains the most effective uses of market research, drawing upon real-life case studies. The application of the methods presented in this book, ranging from the simplest - monitoring the environment to the most complex sampling methods, can significantly contribute to the development of sports businesses by increasing the number of members, sponsors, followers and fans. The book will be invaluable for researchers, educators and students of Sports Management and Marketing, and it will also prove useful to sporting professionals seeking to gain a competitive edge in the market.

Book of Proceedings

The regulatory policy report is the latest in a series written in cooperation with the Higher School of Economics and expert and business communities during the work on a comprehensive strategy to modernize the public administration system in Russia. For CSR, changing the regulatory policy along with introducing modern managerial approaches to public administration, personnel policy, and large-scale digital transformation, is a priority for successful structural reforms.

The ideas and suggestions on the regulatory policy presented by CSR were of great interest to the Russian business community. CSR received dozens of conceptual proposals from experts, businessmen, and public officials from all over Russia. We worked on promising regulatory policy tools and a comprehensive strategy for two years and a major part of our deliverables can be found in Chapter 3 of this report. Many of these proposals were also included in the Development Strategy for 2018–2024 presented by CSR at the request of the Russian President.

This book provides a critical account of the third sector and its future in Europe. It offers an original conceptualization of the third sector in its European manifestations alongside an overview of its major contours, including its structure, sources of support, and recent trends. It also assesses the impact of this sector in Europe which considers its contributions to European economic development, citizen well-being and human development.

The Third Sector As A Renewable Resource for Europe presents the findings of the Third Sector Impact (TSI) project funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program (FP7). It recognises that in a time of social and economic distress, as well as enormous pressures on governmental budgets, the third sector and volunteering represent a unique ‘renewable resource’ for social and economic problem-solving and civic engagement in Europe.

In the last decade, the role of corporate integration in the system of economic relations has increased significantly. Mergers and acquisitions are largely macroeconomic indicators of the effective functioning of branches of the Russian economy. The economic tools proposed in the article for classifying branches of the Russian economy by the level of integration activity in 2014 and 2016 allowed to quantify the sectoral differences and highlight the class of integration-active sectors of the Russian economy.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the possibilities and barriers of the practical application of internationally recognized diplomas of higher education. Design/methodology/approach: The authors used SWOT analysis for determining preconditions and barriers as well as possibilities and threats that are related to the provision and practical application of internationally recognized diplomas of higher education and the method of modeling of socio-economic processes and systems for compiling a conceptual model of the provision and practical application of internationally recognized diplomas of higher education. Demand for the practical application of internationally recognized diplomas in modern Russia is determined with the method of analysis of statistical data (method of economic statistics). The information and analytical basis of the research consists of materials of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation. Findings: It is shown by the example of modern Russia that the practical application of internationally recognized diplomas is popular, and universities that provide remote education possess wide possibilities in the sphere of their provision, as they are characterized by high flexibility that allows them to adapt to the international standards of university education. The barriers of the practical application of internationally recognized diplomas of higher education are caused by the lack of clear and generally recognized international standards of university education, absence of entrepreneurial culture of application of internationally recognized diplomas and absence of international organization that certifies activities of universities and issues licenses for internationally recognized diplomas. Originality/value: In order to overcome these barriers, the authors created a conceptual model of the provision and practical application of internationally recognized diplomas of higher education. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to substantiate the perspectives of using remote education as a means of restoring Russian recessing regions’ economy and develop framework recommendations for this. Design/methodology/approach: The set goal is achieved by finding the dependence of the values of indicators of socio-economic development on the level of development of education in Russian regions. The methods of regression and correlation analysis are used for that. Findings: The findings showed a moderate direct connection between the development of education and socio-economic position of the region if found. Qualitative analysis allowed substantiating large perspectives of using remote education as a means of restoring Russian recessing regions’ economy, which have two manifestations. The first one is related to the increase of accessibility of educational services in Russian regions. Due to this, the potential of development of region’s human potential is better realized. Being one of the key resources in the conditions of knowledge economy, human resources stimulate the activation of entrepreneurial activities, growth of labor efficiency and innovational activity of region’s companies. The second manifestation envisages the formation of entrepreneurship in the sphere of remote education as a growth vector and source of competitive advantages of recessing region’s economy. This opens possibilities for the formation of knowledge economy in region and supporting its high competitiveness. Low capital intensity of entrepreneurship in the sphere of remote education makes it accessible for development even in recessing regions, stimulating the growth of the volume of tax revenues into the regional state budget and formation of its positive balance. Originality/value: For the practical implementation of the determined large perspectives of using remote education as a means of restoring Russian recessing regions’ economy, authors’ framework recommendations are offered, which are aimed at the improvement of normative and legal conditions for the conduct of entrepreneurial activities in the sphere of remote education, information support for this entrepreneurship and its marketing support and promotion as a basis of region’s economy’s competitiveness. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Purpose: The working hypothesis of this research is that specifics of activities of university that provides remote education does not allow using the same evaluation criteria for assessment of its competitiveness that allow assessing competitiveness of university that provides traditional education. The purpose of this paper is to verify the offered hypothesis, study the modern Russian experience of evaluating the competitiveness of university that provides remote education and develop methodological recommendations for improving this process. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use the existing scientific approaches to determining competitiveness of a company, including university, for complex and comprehensive study of the set problem. The information and analytical basis of this research is formed of methodological materials of the ranking of best universities of Russia for 2017 according to independent analytical agency “RaExpert” and “Announcement of open competition for state support for leading universities of the Russian Federation for the purpose of raising their competitiveness among the leading global scientific and educational centers of the Ministry of Education and Science of the RF.” Findings: The offered hypothesis was proved. It is concluded that modern Russia uses the same (common) criteria for evaluating competitiveness of universities, regardless of the form of provided educational services. This is incorrect from the scientific and methodological point of view, as the work shows that most criteria are characterized by different applicability as to the university that provides traditional education and the university that provides remote education. Originality/value: Methodological provision of evaluating the university’s competitiveness that provides remote education is elaborated by the authors by development of additional criteria. It is recommended to assign weight coefficients to all criteria depending on the level of applicability (importance) as to the university that provides remote education. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited.

We test the performance of myopic and farsighted stability concepts in a network formation experiment with a stream of payoffs and relatively unstructured link formation process. A subtle treatment variation demonstrates clearly the power of myopic stability concepts in precisely identifying the set of the most stable networks. However, we also find support for the predictions of farsighted concepts of stability, especially those that assume players' pessimism about the eventual outcome of a deviation. This is the first study to demonstrate that there exist environments where farsighted stability concepts identify empirically stable networks that are not identified by myopic concepts. Thus, myopic stability concepts are not necessarily sufficient to predict all stable outcomes in empirical applications.

This article discusses the evolution of government-nonprofit relations at the regional level in Russia against the background of national-level restrictions on NGOs. Russia recently also introduced supportive policies and the article aims to trace the regional administrations’ reactions to the dual realities of the federal government’s posture towards nonprofits. Considerable variation was found in regional government-nonprofit relationships as well as deviation from national policy stances. Using a subnational comparative framework, this article addresses a gap in the literature and lays the groundwork for future cross-national comparisons of subnational variations of government-nonprofit relations in other authoritarian and hybrid political regimes.

We analyze whether bank familiarity affects depositor behavior during financial crisis. Familiarity is measured by regional or local cues in the bank’s name. Depositor behavior is measured by the depositor’s sensitivity to observable bank risk (depositor discipline). Using 2001–2010 bank-level and region-level data for Russia, we find that depositors of familiar banks become less sensitive to bank risk during a financial crisis relative to depositors of unfamiliar banks. To validate that our results stem from a flight to familiarity during crisis and not from implicit guarantees from regional governments, we split our sample along the lines of regional affinity and trust in local governments. The flight to familiarity effect is strongly confirmed in the subsample of regions with strong regional affinity, while the effect is absent in the subsample of regions with more trust in regional and local governments, lending support to the thesis that our results are driven by a flight to familiarity rather than by implicit guarantees.

Today the global energy industry is undergoing major changes shifting towards the green growth and circular economy solutions. The paper offers the outcomes of the foresight study of the Russian renewable energy sector and focuses on three areas: converting solar energy into electricity; converting wind energy into electricity; and converting biomass into thermal energy and electricity. The goal of the study was to foresee and agree on the visionary future for the nascent renewable energy sector in the country, as well as to provide the scientifically justified grounds for government and corporate decision-makers. The research is based on a mixture of methods: bibliometric analysis and text mining, literature review, expert surveys and interviews, workshops, STEEPV analysis of trends, scenario analysis, and applied policy analysis. As a result of the study, major trends and uncertainties that may affect the Russian and global renewable energy sector in the next 15-20 years were identified. Other results include the scenarios for Russia’s renewable energy sector that are proposed together with recommendations for the Russian companies and public authorities. The study’s policy and market implications go beyond Russia: the outcomes may be useful for similar studies, early stage renewable energy policy planning and investment decision.

This paper describes the results of research project on optimal pricing for LLC "Perm Local Rail Company". In this study we propose a regression tree based approach for estimation of demand function for local rail tickets considering high degree of demand heterogeneity by various trip directions and the goals of travel. Employing detailed data on ticket sales for 5 years we estimate the parameters of demand function and reveal the significant variation in price elasticity of demand. While in average the demand is elastic by price, near a quarter of trips is characterized by weakly elastic demand. Lower elasticity of demand is correlated with lower degree of competition with other transport and inflexible frequency of travel.

The paper explores the public-private wage gap in the Russian economy over time and along the whole wage distribution. Using the RLMS-HSE panel data set, we examine how gaps at various points of wage distribution changed from 2005 to 2015 and present decompositions of the gaps into components explained by differences in characteristics and differences in returns. The results suggest that the gap persists over time and varies along the wage distribution. During the 2000’s, low-skilled public sector workers had smaller pay gaps than higher-skilled workers had. Multiple governmental policy interventions and the economic crisis of 2008-2009 contributed to the narrowing of the gap and its partial equalization along the distribution. A new set of policy changes associated with the May 2012 Presidential Decrees strengthened these tendencies but failed to eliminate the gaps.

In this study we test how the level of school financial resources and relative teacher wages affect educational outcomes. Russia provides a good opportunity for testing this relationship due to its high regional heterogeneity. We use two measures of educational outcomes at different levels of the school system. We find no significant effect of the school financing level. However, the level of relative teacher wages has significant positive effect on both test scores. This result is robust to instrumenting relative teacher wages with regional minimum wage levels. We also provide some evidence on the possible channels of this effect.

The paper explores the information content of surveys of the Russian services sector using the surveys’ results since 2012Q1 to 2018Q4. To summarise entrepreneurial opinions in a one-dimensional index the indicators of confidence and business climate are calculated. To examine the reaction of GDP to impulses in the business climate indicator and to forecast GDP growth by the end of 2019, the Vector Autoregression Model was used. The results of services surveys provide reliable information on the economic sentiment that is essential to measure recession and recovery development of the sector. Since 2013, the survey’s results demonstrate a stable five-year trend of ‘pessimism accumulation’ in the indicators dynamics. The slight increase in entrepreneurial optimism in 2016-2018 did not result in moving confidence to a positive zone. The business climate indicator (BCI) performs better than the traditional confidence indicator in terms of synchronous correlations with GDP growth. A longer observation period needs to draw conclusions about the BCI cyclic properties; however, it can be used now to analyze the development of the Russian services sector.

The article reviews long-run sources of Russian economic growth and demonstrates that the stagnation of the Russian economy in the past decade can be considered in the context of the global productivity slowdown. Conventional industry growth accounting shows that in contrast to the transformational recession before 1998, the recent stagnation of 2008-2014 is primarily the outcome of a slowdown in total factor productivity (TFP) growth and a deterioration in the allocation of labour, rather than bottlenecks in capital inputs.

Internet of Things (IoT) technologies are of particular interest for telecommunication companies that can significantly affect the interaction of economic agents. As a result of the growth in the number of connected devices, the introduction of cloud services and business applications it became possible to combine equipment, information systems and management systems into a single communication network which in turn gave impetus to the development of the Internet of Things. The basis for the development of the Internet of Things is modern data transmission technologies including IoT Wireless Networks. There are, currently, a number of wireless IoT technologies which have different characteristics. In this regard, it is of interest to identify the most promising technologies that will form the basis of the infrastructure for the development of the IoT ecosystem. This paper develops an assessment model for the application potential of IoT wireless network technologies for the telecommunication sector. LPWAN, 4G and Wi-Fi were identified as the most promising technologies. The majority of the assessment criteria are applicable to other telecommunication technologies.

This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917, covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from a local newspaper, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world’s earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced in response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: before the regulation rents were increasing at a similarly rapid pace to other consumer prices; the policy reversed that trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability for workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the dominating problems.This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917, covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from a local newspaper, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world’s earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced in response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: before the regulation rents were increasing at a similarly rapid pace to other consumer prices; the policy reversed that trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability for workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the dominating problems.

This study focuses on the ground transportation system and its impact on the rents in 30 of Russia's largest cities. It also compares the effect with subway transit networks. The data set includes rent information from an all-Russia online advertisement website Avito and various measures of proximity to the public transit network stops (including subways for cities with them). The analysis is conducted using linear hedonic models. The results show that the ground transportation proximity is important for housing rent formation in both cities with and without subways, although the effect for subway stations is greater in comparison. Nevertheless, the benefits of a denser ground transportation system are high and stable, whereas the distance to the closest bus stop and the number within the walking distance are important solely for cities with a subway system and without it, respectively.

        The paper explores the effect of migration of Russian settlers on the intra-regional development in Kazakhstan. We use the 1897 census dataset of the Russian Empire and modern economic data to provide links between Russian settlements in Kazakhstan in 1897 and the current level of economic development. Exploiting exogenous geographic and geopolitical sources of variation across twenty-six districts (uyezd) we provide the empirical evidence of positive impact of the migration of Russians in XVIII-XIX centuries on the current level of development. The paper discusses several channels of such influence: human capital formation channel and the Soviet Union industrialization policy. 

Economists tend to reduce all corruption to impersonal market-like transactions, ignoring the role of social ties in shaping corruption. In this paper, we show that this simplification substantially limits the understanding of corruption. We distinguish between market corruption (impersonal bribery), and network (or parochial) corruption which is conditional on the social connections between bureaucrats and private agents. We argue, both theoretically and empirically, that these types of corruption have different qualities. Using data from the Life in Transition Survey (LiTS) which covers all post-socialist countries we show, first, that the correlation between market and network corruption is weak, which implies that ignoring network corruption leads not only to an underestimation of the overall scale of corruption but also biases national corruption rankings. Secondly, in line with theoretical expectations, we find that network corruption is more persistent over time, less related to contemporary national socio-economic and institutional characteristics and has stronger historical roots than market corruption. Yet, network corruption, unlike bribery, is not able to ‘grease the wheels’ and is not associated with political instability. Lastly, we show that the decline in bribery which was observed in almost all post-socialist countries in the period from 2010 to 2016 was accompanied by rising network corruption in many of them, which has important policy implications.

This article studies the evolution of housing rents in St. Petersburg between 1880 and 1917, covering an eventful period of Russian and world history. We collect and digitize over 5,000 rental advertisements from a local newspaper, which we use together with geo-coded addresses and detailed structural characteristics to construct a quality-adjusted rent price index in continuous time. We provide the first pre-war and pre-Soviet index based on market data for any Russian housing market. In 1915, one of the world’s earliest rent control and tenant protection policies was introduced in response to soaring prices following the outbreak of World War I. We analyze the impact of this policy: while before the regulation rents were increasing at a similar rapid pace as other consumer prices, the policy reversed this trend. We find evidence for official compliance with the policy, document a rise in tenure duration and strongly increased rent affordability among workers after the introduction of the policy. We conclude that the immediate prelude to the October Revolution was indeed characterized by economic turmoil, but rent affordability and rising rents were no longer the dominating problems.

Incentives are usually designed to promote desirable behaviour. In many instances, however, even in the absence of an incentive scheme, people may deliberately choose to act as desired. In such a case, introducing a system of incentives may discourage people from doing this. The discouragement mechanism works through the pos- sibility of errors that may wrongly classify the observed behaviour as undesirable, and hence trigger penalties. The effect is amplified by pessimism, which leads to an overestimation of the error probability, and by the disappointment from errors, which increases the disutility of unfair penalties. This approach is capable of ex- plaining two typical observations for enterprises/industries subject to environmental regulation – overcompliance (excessive investment in compliance) and discretionary inspections by regulators (raised frequency of inspections to enterprises suspected of non-compliance).

We develop a theoretical model in which adoption decisions are based on information received from others about the quality of a new technology and on their risk attitude. We test the predictions of this model using a field experiment in Bangladesh. We show that treated farmers who receive better training in System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technology have more accurate information about this technology, and have a higher impact on the adoption rate of untreated farmers. We also find that untreated farmers that are more risk-averse tend to adopt less and are less influenced by their treated peers. Finally, a trained farmers' impact on his untrained peers increases if he himself adopts SRI technology. Our results indicate that the crucial determinant of technology adoption for untreated farmers is their degree of risk aversion and the accuracy and reliability of information transmission about the quality of technology circulated among farmers.

Physical activity is considered today as a leading factor in health and well-being in developed countries. With decreasing levels of alcohol and tobacco consumption, widespread sedentary lifestyles have taken centre stage among the predictors of non-communicable diseases. That is why Russia, along with other countries, has adopted the “Physical activity strategy for the WHO European Region 2016–2025”. Young people are among the target groups of public policy promoting physical activity. This paper investigates physical activity among young people aged 15 to 24 years. The empirical study is based on a descriptive and econometric analysis of micro-data from the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey (RLMS), 2000–2016. The research shows that 50% of young men and 65% of young women do not exercise on a regular basis. Both for men and for women, the probability of physical activity is positively related to their educational level, household income, and residence in capital cities. Negative relations were found between the probability of physical activity and smoking, status of married person, and employed and non-employed status. The results for alcohol consumption, body mass index and self-assessed health are inconclusive for this age group. The results confirm the necessity of better-targeted public policy motivating physical activity in youth. Overall, policy measures motivating young people to take part in physical activity will have a long-term effect. Habits developed in youth often persist into adulthood. The result will be a gain in the health and longevity of the Russian population.

Public procurement costs evaluation is important both for procurement optimization at the company level and for evaluating the public procurement regulation system. This paper presents a survey-based methodological approach to public procurement costs evaluation at the macro level. We have modified the PwC approach and developed an alternative public procurement cost evaluation methodology at the macro level. The PwC methodology was adapted to developing and transitional economies and piloted on Russian data. Average costs of each type of procurement procedures implemented in 2016 were evaluated. A regression analysis of factors impacting public procurement costs evaluation revealed considerable differences between respondents who have and do not have experience with complex procurement procedures. Although the average overall costs of public procurements in Russia amounted to about 1% of the total value of concluded contracts, the figure stands at 6.6–8.1% for small purchases. This exceeds the economy from price decrease and calls for a need to simplify regulation of such procurements.

Estimates of the term structure of interest rates depend heavily on the quality of the market data from which it is constructed. Estimated rates can be incorrect because of observation errors and omissions in the data. The usual way to deal with the heteroscedasticity of observation errors is by introducing weights in the fitting procedure. There is currently no consensus in the literature about the choice of such weights. We introduce a non-parametric bootstrap-based method of introducing observation errors drawn from the empirical distribution into the model data, which allows us to perform a comparison test of different weighting schemes without implicitly favoring one of the contesting models – a common design flaw in comparison studies. We use government bonds from several countries with examples of both liquid and illiquid bond markets. We show that realistic observation errors can greatly distort the estimated yield curve. Moreover, we show that using different weights or other modifications to account for observation errors in bond price data does not always improve the term structure estimates, and often worsens the situation. Based on our comparison, we advise to either use equal weights or weights proportional to the inverse duration in practical applications.