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Researchers at the HSE Institute of Education have used regional data to describe, for the first time in Russia, how inequality in access to education affects different parts of the Russian Federation. The research findings reveal that the key determining factors are the local economy and the proportion of people with a university degree: urbanised regions with well-developed economies and educated inhabitants are more likely to have good-quality schools, with a large proportion of students scoring highly in the Unified State Exam and going on to university. In contrast, poorer regions with low human capital see many of their school students drop out after the 9th grade, limiting their chances of further education.

The HSE Centre of Development Institute has begun publishing the Daily Economic Stress Index (DESI), which tracks economic activity in the financial markets and in the real sector. Current stress index indicators do not paint an optimistic picture – they significantly exceed the background retrospective values ​​since 1997, indicating a high probability of a recession.

HSE researchers, jointly with colleagues from the RAN Institute of Organoelement Compounds and the RAN Institute of Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, have studied the properties of a polyarylene ether ketone-based copolymer (co-PAEK) for potential space applications. Co-PAEK films are highly resistant to electrostatic discharges caused by ionizing radiation and can thus be used as protective coating for spacecraft electronics. The study findings have been published in Polymers.

Lev Jacobson, Deputy Head of the April Conference Programme Committee, explains the changes to the conference format.

In some former Soviet bloc countries, men often die early due to alcohol abuse. Alcoholism-related mortality varies considerably from one region to another, according to a study in the European part of Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Poland. The most problematic regions in these terms are north-western and western Russia, eastern and north-western Belarus, south-eastern Lithuania, and eastern and central Poland, say an international team of demography researchers that included scholars from HSE University.

At the end of February, the HSE IGITI Research Centre for Contemporary Culture hosted a roundtable entitled ‘Field Studies in Russia: A Country Familiar and Foreign’. Roundtable participants talked about field work methods and standards, research challenges, and ways to solve them. The participants also discussed the extent to which it is possible to apply international experiences and approaches to field work in Russia as well as ways to study Russia from within and without.

The scope of childhood malnutrition has decreased since 2000, although millions of children under five years of age are still undernourished and, as a result, have stunted growth. An international team of researchers analysed the scope of global childhood malnutrition in 2000 and 2017, and estimated the probability of achieving the World Health Organization Global Nutrition Targets by 2025.

Additional certification and training courses can not only affect an employee’s pay grade and career, but their sense of control over their life. Employees who have ‘upgraded’ their professional knowledge and skills find it easier to manage problems both in their personal lives and in the workplace. However, the trend does not hold equally for men and women. A study by Natalia Karmaeva and Andrey Zakharov of the HSE Institute of Education shows that men reap more benefits than women.

The book ‘Exploring Universal Basic Income. A Guide to Navigating Concepts, Evidence, and Practices’ was presented at an HSE University event, which was organized by the HSE Institute of Social Policy. During the event, participants noted the foundational nature of the publication prepared by the World Bank experts and held an emotional debate on the prospects of introducing a universal basic income.

Getting an education and a job, leaving the parental home and starting a family are some of the the milestones of growing up. For Russians in their thirties today, these stages do not necessarily follow a pre-set sequence and often overlap. In contrast to their parents, linear and predictable biographies are increasingly rare among Russian millennials, whose lives tend to look more like a patchwork of diverse events than a straight line. Some of these events, especially childbirth, often get postponed until later in life. For young Russians today, having children tends to be the last stage in their own transition to maturity, according to demographer Ekaterina Mitrofanova.