Yuri V. Simachev

On December 15, the Second Sino-Russian Economic Cooperation Workshop–Youth Forum took place online. The event was organised jointly by HSE University and the Shanghai University School of Economics. Anastasia Stepanova, Deputy Vice Rector of HSE University, Associate Professor at the School of Finance, and one of the workshop organisers, talked to the HSE News Service about cooperation with Shanghai University and the topics covered by the workshop.

HSE University faculty presented at the 5th International Conference “The World Economy in the Great Changes 2023”, sponsored by the School of Economics of Shanghai University

Like any crisis, the sanctions of 2022, besides problems, have created new opportunities for Russian companies. This is the conclusion that HSE University’s experts have come to. Their study results are presented in the report ‘Adaptation of Russian Industrial Companies to Sanctions: First Steps and Expectations’, prepared by HSE University for the XXIV Yasin (April) International Academic Conference.

On October 27, an online presentation of the book by Professor Yuqing Xing (National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Japan) was held by the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS) in cooperation with the Department of World Economy of the Higher School of Economics. The presentation was dedicated to revealing the phenomenon of the Chinese export miracle through the prism of global value chains. The discussion touched upon the issues of the Chinese experience for emerging economies, the current realities of economic cycles, and the factor of US-China decoupling and its impact on the global economy.

Participants of the HSE Economic Policy Club discussed why politics often serves the interests of a small group of people to the detriment of the welfare of the majority of citizens, and also why the government ignores recommendations from economists. At the same time, economic policy always redistributes resources, and it isn’t possible to achieve the optimal solutions suggested by economic theory.

On April 14, at the XXII April Conference, a team under the supervision of Vladimir Gimpelson presented their report, prepared as part of the HCMRC (Human Capital Multidisciplinary Research Center) program.The labor force quality indicator from the Russia KLEMS data set made it possible to assess the contribution of labor force quality to labor productivity growth in the Russian economy, and to compare this contribution with similar indicators for former Soviet republics.The research concludes that Russian human capital is not as productive as it could be. The quality of the labor force does not make a tangible contribution to the growth of labor productivity and an acceleration of growth due to the role of human capital will not occur in the next two to three decades.

Alarmist forecasts have not come true: the Russian IT industry did not suffer as many losses due to the pandemic as had been expected. But the pandemic increased the need for digital products and made some old problems more acute. What should be done to accelerate the industry’s development? Participants of a seminar at HSE University attempted to answer this question.

HSE experts have analyzed the position of Russian non-commodity sectors in global production and opportunities for their revitalization. The researchers believe that long-term sustainable growth of its non-commodity exports can be achieved by repositioning and including them in the global value chain at some more advanced stages than the supply of raw materials and semi-finished products.

Russia's place in world trade

On June 4-5, the Development of Parliamentarism International Forum was held in Moscow. HSE experts took part in the forum organization, with several research departments from the university providing programming support for the event.

Slower GDP growth rates over the last several years were brought about by changes on international markets and the exhaustion of transformational bonuses due to the transition from a planned economy to a market economy, and this slowdown proves the necessity of looking for new solutions for stimulating the economy. The authors of the paper ‘Structural Changes in the Russian Economy and Structural Policy’ conducted a large-scale analysis on structural policy in Russia and around the world, as well as on possible ways for this policy to develop further. The first presentation of the paper took place as part of the plenary session called ‘Structural Policy in Russia: New Conditions and a Possible Agenda,’ which closed out HSE’s XIX April International Academic Conference.

On January 24, 2018, the Higher School of Economics jointly with RVC JSC held an expert discussion on indicators and instruments of the government’s policy of innovative development, designed for the National Report on Innovation in Russia — 2017.

HSE ICEF student Alexander Lee delivered a presentation titled ‘The Economy for Future Development’ during the session ‘Youth 2030. The image of the future’ at the XIX World Festival of Youth and Students, which took place in Russia from October 14-22. The presentation was based on creative work and discussions held over the course of one week among a group of international students led by experts from ISSEK and Yuri Simachev, Director for Economic Policy. Vladimir Putin, President of the Russian Federation, took part in the event.

On 8 December ISSEK hosted a discussion of best R&D and/or S&T management practices applied by academic organisations. Leading science, technology and education experts discussed conceptual models of R&D management, analysed various aspects of measuring academic organisations’ performance, and debated whether it would be at all possible to develop any universal success recipes.