+2%
was the level to which the business confidence index in the service sector fell in the third quarter of 2014. One year ago, it was at the level of +6%.
Inventing in Just 48 Hours
A cardio-undershirt, a cyber piggy bank, a flying advertising platform, and other unexpected inventions were all the result of the second FabLab Weekend hackathon, which was carried out by HSE’s Prototyping Centre. Participants had just 48 hours to create a prototype of a useful technological product ready to enter the market. The final presentation took place on September 22, when the winners were announced.
Childlessness Increasingly Determined by Attitudes
Generally in Russia, being childless is an involuntary situation associated with infertility, age, and being single. However, being childless in Moscow is often a deliberate decision. Aside from a biological inability to bear children, childlessness in Moscow is likely to be associated with higher levels of education, income security, the structure of the family of origin, and certain attitudes, i.e. that having children is not necessary for happiness, according to Svetlana Biryukova, Research Fellow of the HSE's Centre for Studies of Income and Living Standards.
'Russia May Open its Own Econometrics School'
On September 20, the three-day international conference ‘Modern Econometric Tools and Applications’ came to an end at HSE’s Nizhny Novgorod campus. The conference was organized by the Higher School of Economics and the New Economic School (NES). Academics from Canada, France, Great Britain, and other countries discussed cutting-edge research in the field of theoretical and applied econometrics, in particular stochastic economic processes.
High Demand for Education in BRIC Countries is Built on a Lack of Respect for Trades
A HSE Institute of Education seminar on September 16, saw the launch of the Russian-language book Mass higher education – BRIC triumph? by HSE publishing house (the English original, University Expansion in a Changing Global Economy, Triumph of the BRICs? was published last year by Stanford University Press). Attendees discussed development trends in higher education.
65%
of upper-class students at Russian universities have experience combining employment and studies.
29
employees of the HSE completed individual training sessions at foreign universities and research centres during the first half of 2014.
From Turkey to Moscow by Way of Prague
Levent Çelik recently joined the Higher School of Economics as Assistant Professor of Economics. Before arriving at the HSE, he was Assistant Professor of Economics at CERGE-EI in Prague from 2006 to 2014. Professor Çelik’s research interests include industrial organization (with a focus on information disclosure, advertising, product differentiation and consumer search), international trade, and political economy.
29%
of construction companies reduced their overall quantity of work in the third quarter of 2014 – the worst result of the last four years.
I Believe in Text Analysis
The HSE St Petersburg Laboratory for Internet Studies is hosting a conference on 18-19 September on Social Media and Social Movements. A key speaker at the conference is Robert Ackland, Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, Australian National University. The HSE English Language News Service asked him about his work and his hopes for the conference.
Deadline for abstract submission - November 15