Events - 2019

On December 20, 2019 the HSE University hosted a Russian-Chinese meeting on ‘Social policy as a tool for combating poverty and developing human capital’. 

Representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Civil Affairs, the World Bank, the Russian Pension Fund, the government of Tatarstan, and HSE University researchers evaluated the social policies of both countries, shared effective measures for combating and eliminating poverty.

Information on the link
 

On June 18, 2019 the Institute for Social Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics held an academic workshop devoted to 'Human Capital Investments in the Context of Active Ageing: the Evidence from Japan'.

The study aimed to highlight the patterns of human capital investments in Japan in an international context. In contrast to western Europeans, the Japanese are more likely to improve their qualification on-the-job informally. They do not consider their ‘investments’ as a component of active ageing and perceive it instrumentally. But it is not a matter of their individual choices; it has institutional roots. The senior working population of Japan is less included in the information and communication technologies than their working peers from Russia. However, Japan is showing a much higher incidence of training than Russia. The study was based on secondary data and interviews with Kyoto business accomplished this year in winter.

The seminar moderated by Svetlana MAREEVA, Director of the Center for Stratification Studies, Institute for Social Policy, Higher School of Economics, heard a presentation by Vasily A. ANIKIN , Senior Research Fellow of the Center for for Stratification Studies of the same Institute. Dmitri DIDENKO Leading Research Fellow, RANEPA,  took part in the discussion as a panelist.

On April 23, 2019 the Institute for Social Policy (ISP) at the National Research University Higher School of Economics held an academic workshop presenting a paper by Hai-Anh H. Dang, Michael M. Lokshin, and Kseniya Abanokova Subjective Wealth, Life Satisfaction, and Poverty Adaptation: Evidence from Long-run Russian Panel Data.

Few studies currently exist on poverty adaptation to subjective well-being, mostly for richer countries like Germany. The authors offer analysis on poverty adaptation for Russia, a middle-income country in transition, using panel data for 1994-2017. They found no poverty adaption for life satisfaction and subjective wealth, with longer poverty spells being associated with more dissatisfaction. The interrelationship between satisfaction and poverty is studied by controlling for state-dependence and feedback effects. When accounting for high-order dynamics, past poverty experiences remain significant, which can be interpreted as a lack of adaptation to poverty. Similar results hold for other outcomes including satisfaction with own economic conditions, work contract, job, pay, and career, and for poverty defined using absolute or relative thresholds. There is also some evidence that women may be less adaptive than men, particularly at higher relative poverty thresholds. The authors also did not find adaptation to vulnerability, with longer vulnerability duration being associated with less satisfaction, especially for men.

The seminar moderated by Oksana Sinyavskaya , Deputy Director, Institute for Social Policy, Higher School of Economics heard a presentation by Kseniya Abanokova, Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Comprehensive Social Policy Studies, Institute for Social Policy, Higher School of Economics. Evguenia Chernina, Junior Research Fellow, Center for Labor Market Studies, Higher School of Economics, took part in the discussion as a panelist.

The presentation is available here

On March 18, 2019 Cyril Lemieux (France), sociologist, the director of Research of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences  (EHESS) made a presentation on the topic ‘Should we finish with сomparativism?’. The presentation was held within the framework of the scientific seminars on sociology organized by the Institute for Social Policy HSE and the Center for French-Russian Studies, Moscow.

Today comparative studies themselves can be seen more rarely than claims of their importance for the social science. The most common type of research is monographs, which examine only one country, one region, or one epoch.  Indeed, the comparativism has faced a lot of criticism in  recent years. Cyril Lemieux pondered on the crisis of comparativism and made a connection between the said crisis and the revision of the idea of a national state, both from political and state-centric epistemological views. He reminded that comparativism, at least due to its aspiration for reflexivity, was at the foundation of the social sciences. The current revision of these ideas strives for applying truly comparable concepts, not just ‘half-comparable’ ones. 

Cyril Lemieux, sociologist, Director of Research of School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS), Head of the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Study of Reflexivities – Jan Thomas Fund (LIER-FYT).

The author of the papers on journalism and media (La subjectivité journalistique, Editions de l’EHESS, 2010), sociological theory (Le devoir et la grâce, Economica, 2009; Pour les sciences sociales, Editions de l’EHESS, 2017; La sociologie pragmatique, La Découverte, 2018). An issue of Politix journal on globalization and modernization was published under editorship of Cyril Lemiuex and historian Pablo Blitstein («Paradoxes de la modernité», vol. 31, n°123, 2018).

The presentation was made in French with translation into Russian.

 On March 14, 2019, the Center for Longitudinal Studies within the Institute for Social Policy presented Basic skills for working with RLMS-HSE.

The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) is almost the only longitudinal data base in Russia which contains the results of 26 rounds of nationally representative household surveys conducted on the basis of a probability stratified multi-stage area sampling. The data cover the period of 1994-2017.

A unique feature of the monitoring is the broad coverage of socio-economic indicators: the database gathers information about the structure of income and expenditures, wealth, employment structure, migration behavior, health status, family planning and educational behavior, social well-being etc. The monitoring survey includes a number of indicators that are not covered by state statistics.

The RLMS-HSE gives an opportunity of cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. Panel data as a component of longitudinal survey suits for analysis of economic, behavior and social factors which influence Russian families’ life, their well-being, health and psychological status of adults and children.

The event is first of all devoted to those who are new to RLMS-HSE but willing to use the data. The speakers explored sample design features and household numbering; data structure, i.e. work with different data levels (individual, household, community). The discussion was focused on the specific problems which arised during the file preparation for longitudinal analysis and aimed on practice of methodical researches which should be conducted to get the maximum result for goals of publications, Bachelor or Master thesis preparation.

The workshop moderated by Polina Kozyreva, Director of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies within the Institute for Social Policy heard the presentation by Zlata Dorofeeva, Research Fellow at the same Center. Alfia Nizamova, Chief Expert at the same Center, participated as a panelist.

Presentation is available here.

On February 6, 2019 a collective book “Income Stratification Model of Russian Society: Dynamics, Factors, Cross-country comparisons”  was presented.

The book is devoted to the analysis of the specifics and dynamics of the income stratification of Russian society . A detailed overview of approaches to income stratification that are used in foreign and Russian practice is provided; the methodology of defining income groups that is effective for Russian conditions is presented .

The authors also focus on the dynamics of the model of income stratification in Russia over the past few decades, the factors of falling into certain income groups, the specifics of life and behavior of the representatives of different income groups .
Comparative analysis of the model of income stratification in Russia with models in other countries of the world, including dynamic analysis, is of particular interest.
The analysis is based on data collected by several research centers in different years – Monitoring of Institute of Sociology FCTAS RAS, Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey - Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE), International Social Research Program (ISSP) .

The event was opened by Lilia Ovcharova, Vice Rector of HSE, Director of the Institute for Social Policy. Then main results were presented by the book’s authors from the Center for Stratification Studies of the Institute for Social Policy NRU HSE Natalia Tikhonova, Vasiliy Anikin, Yulia Lezhnina, Ekaterina Slobodenyuk. Yuriy Latov (Institute of Sociology, Russian Academy of Sciences), the panelist, took part in the discussion.

The electronic version of the book (Russian) is available here

The powerpoint presenting the book  Book Presentation 06-02-2019.pdf