On July 20, 2018, a new issue of the Russian population welfare monitoring was released. The issue tackles the interstate salary comparison in 2011-2017
The new issue of the monitoring analyses the dynamics of the salary levels in Russia in comparison with the salaries in the other countries, such as these ones of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) ors of the Central and Eastern Europe, China and Brazil. The issue is the update of the feature published by HSE in the May issue of the monitoring in 2016.The foundation for the analysis lies on the data provided by national statistic services, statistical services of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Interstate Statistical Committee of the CIS, the World Bank and the International Monetary Bank (IMF). According to the results of the analysis, Belarus is the only country in the CIS to reach the level of average wages in terms of purchasing power parity, which could be comparable to Russia. That is while the Belarusian figures are significantly lower than Russian ones in terms of the nominal exchange rate. The published evaluations are based on the official statistic data and hence can be applied only to the open sector of the economy. They also do not consider the palpable geographical difference of the wages level.
Interview to the Pervyi (One) TV Channel on the changes in the pension legislation
On June 28, 2018, Lilia Ovcharova, director of the Institute for Social Policy, commented on the changes in the pension legislation in the interview given to the Pervyi (One) TV Channel.
On June 28, 2018, the Institute for Social Policy held a scientific seminar on the topic “Study of structural imbalances of regional labor markets.”
The seminar heard a presentation by Sergey Smirnov, PhD, director of the Center for analysis of social programs and risks, and by Alexey Kapustin, PhD, chief analyst of this Center.
Lilia Ovcharova, director of the Institute for Social Policy, took part in the discussion “Consequences of the pension reform for the society and challenges to the non-profit organizations” in the Blagosfera Media Centre
The discussion participants talked about the reasons and the consequences of the reform proposed by the Government. How will it influence the quality of life, the demographic situation, the labour market and the solvation of the poverty problem? Will the family institute benefit or suffer from it? What could civil society and non-profit organizations do in the face of coming reforms?
On June 21, 2018, Serguey Smirnov presented his book “Soviet era in the correspondence of historians” in the Moscow Sakharov center
“I have got great pleasure from writing this book, the author says. The most difficult thing was to understand the handwriting of other people. Readers will not have such problems.
Presentation of Ekaterina Demintseva at the International Conference of The International Education and Diversity Network, Genève
On June 19, 2018, Ekaterina Demintseva, director of the Center for Qualitative Research of Social Policy, made a presentation "Migrant children in Russian schools: between ethnic and social issues" at the International Conference of The International Education and Diversity Network (Le Réseau International Éducation et Diversité - RIED), Genève.
On June 19-20, 2018, over 20 researchers from the Institute for Social Policy, HSE, took part in the training workshop “Analytical tools for poverty reduction programs and social policy objectives in the Russian Federation”
Lilia Ovcharova, Director of the Institute for Social Policy, HSE, and Aleksandra Posarac, Lead Economist at the World Bank, opened the workshop conducted by Ruslan Yemtsov, Lead Economist and Team Leader for Social Safety Nets in the World Bank Social Protection and Jobs Global Practice, conducted the workshop with the unevaluable help of Maria Nagernyak, Coordinator of social protection projects in Russia of the World Bank.
Ilya Kashnitsky received EAPS Outreach Award
At the closing ceremony of Europan Population Conference in Brussels Ilya Kashnitsky received European Association for Population Studies Outreach Award. He shared the award with Tim Riffe.
Should we be afraid of pension reform?
On June 16, 2018, Oksana Sinyavskaya, deputy director of the Institute for Social Policy, answered this question in the TVC program “Postscript”. The expert believes that the Government will gain money for additional indexation. This will affect all pensioners – they will only benefit from this measure.
“The current proportion of employees who pay pension contributions to the Pension Fund and the pension recipients will not allow the pension to grow in the coming years. Under current legislation the pensions will only fall. To index pensions higher than inflation we need drastic measures”, said Lilia Ovcharova, director for Social Studies, HSE, in the interview to the Pervyi (One) TV Channel
“The majority of the countries with the comparable level of development, including the countries of the former Soviet Union, have already raised the retirement age”, added the expert.