Диссертации, представленные на защиту и подготовленные в НИУ ВШЭ

The thesis is devoted to the study of features of Anti-Western currents of thought in the context of the decline of Western hegemony and crisis of the liberal international order. The thesis provides a comparative analysis of Neo-Ottomanism and Neo-Eurasianism in order to reveal the patterns that are specific for Anti-Westernism in the beginning of the 21st century. As a response to the quest for new identities and international position of Turkey and Russia in the new world order, Neo-Ottomanism and Neo-Eurasianism appeared following the end of the Cold War and became more prominent since 2000. Their rise occurred against the backdrop of the shifts in Turkish and Russian foreign policies under the personalized rules of Erdoğan and Putin. Neo-Ottomanism and Neo-Eurasianism offered macro-political identities, assertive foreign policy visions and geopolitical concepts as an alternative to the Western ones. Underlining the importance of ideas in world politics, the thesis employs constructivist approach and the concept of worldview. The comparative analysis of Neo-Ottomanist and Neo-Eurasianist worldviews demonstrated that the patterns of contemporary Anti-Westernism encompass opposition to the Western dominated world order, criticism of Western philosophy, thought and conservative response to Western modernity, secularism and liberal values. These two Anti-Western and conservative worldviews offer an alternative to the West based on civilizational and conservative values including specific moral principles, emphasize on the religions, believe in strong authority and the imagine of supranational identity.

This research focuses on developing methods for converting raster images and three-dimensional objects into vector representations using deep learning. Vectorization of objects involves finding object representations using mathematical primitives and relationships between them.To achieve this goal, the following tasks were addressed: data collection, construction of mathematical models, and development of vectorization algorithms. Data collection was performed by processing scanned images of 2D and 3D objects and generating synthetic data. Automatic algorithms using computer vision methods were developed for data cleaning and processing, along with procedures for manual data processing. These algorithms facilitate semi-automatic annotation of data, opening up the possibility to train neural networks using deep learning methods. Various neural network architectures, including convolutional neural networks and transformers, are explored to create models capable of accurately and efficiently vectorizing technical drawings and 3D point clouds. The proposed algorithms demonstrate high accuracy and efficiency in solving object vectorization tasks, with potential applications in computer vision, robotics, and data visualization.

The dissertation is comprised of three separate papers on one overarching topic -- causes and consequenses of economic inequality. I investigate inequality both at the cross-country and within country level. Specifically, I explore the possible channels, such as the financial sector, through which within-country income inequality could affect macroeconomic outcomes. I also explore such causes of cross-country income differences as reserve currency status, and colonial history.

The purpose of this research is to develop econometric models in order to reveal observable and unobservable heterogeneity in economic choices by producers and consumers, to disentangle heterogeneous effects of exogenous shocks on firm costs, and to evaluate heterogeneous effects of policy reforms aimed at price and quality regulation. The theoretical part of the dissertation deals with conditional quantile regression, data envelopment analysis and dynamic panel data models. The empirical part of this dissertation employs conditional quantile regression, finite mixture (latent class) models, stochastic frontier analysis, data envelopment analysis, dynamic panel data models and treatment effect estimation in an application to several economic fields: banking, productivity analysis, health economics, contracts and empirical corporate finance. As regards regulation, the models help to identify the heterogeneous effect of policy reforms on different agents. Extensions of the methodology pertain to empirical labor economics, energy economics, municipal finance and macroeconomics.

Nowadays, recommender systems are essential components of various consumer services, from e-commerce to social media. They help navigate through a large volume of items empowering user experience. Methods vary from classic matrix completion techniques to modern sequence models inspired by natural language processing. One of the prominent approaches is to consider the recommender system as a link prediction problem on a bipartite user-item interaction graph.The dissertation studies the adaptation of network embedding techniques to recommender systems. In the dissertation, we investigated different aspects of graph machine learning techniques, and their effect on downstream link prediction problem. We proposed an efficient strategy to incorporate node and edge features with structural information to solve the link prediction (recommendation) problem. Also, we developed novel models to preserve temporality and enable graph-based exploration for recommender systems. Proposed approaches were compared with the state-of-the-art open-source benchmarks and showed the efficiency of our approach.

Our aging world is faced with the ever-growing incidence of dementia and age-related cognitive decline. In the absence of satisfactory pharmacological treatments, it becomes increasingly important to identify alternative, lifestyle-based approaches to preventing and mitigating age-related cognitive impairments. The leading theoretical framework in this area is that of so-called cognitive reserve (CR). CR is defined as the level of resilience of an individual’s cognitive processes to age-related brain deterioration. One experience-related factor that has been linked to CR build-up is bilingualism: by means of a constant additional cognitive effort required to control dual-language use, bilinguals strengthen their neurocognitive substrate which provides a protective effect against age-related cognitive decline, mediated by the CR mechanism. In my PhD research, I examined the role of individual life experiences, bilingualism in particular, in promoting the development of CR during the entire lifespan. Moreover, to tackle the long-standing issue of CR measurability, I refined recent approaches to devise a novel method for quantifying CR directly. For the first time in the literature, I tested its validity by comparing it with traditional approaches to measuring CR. This newly-developed measure may contribute to advancing the theoretical framework of CR, as well as inform the clinical practice, enabling new approaches in the fight against cognitive aging through the design of personalized care plans. Individuating CR-enhancing factors and their underlying mechanisms may provide a tool to improve senior citizens’ quality of life, and ease the economic burden on healthcare systems and public funds.

В работе выполнен комплексный анализ движения наблюдателей на выборах, которое сформировалось в ходе федеральной электоральной волны 2011-2012 гг. Диссертационная работа ставит вопросы о том, (1) какие условия оказали воздействие на формирование массового движения наблюдателей на выборах, (2) какова динамика его развития, (3) кто и почему принимал в нем участие и принял решение «выйти» из движения. Теоретической основой исследования является комплекс классических и современных теорий общественных движений, критически систематизированных по основным вопросам исследования – теории коллективного поведения, относительной депривации, мобилизации ресурсов, политического процесса и новых общественных движений.  Эмпирической базой исследования являются количественные и качественные данные, собранные и анализируемые в рамках стратегии смешанных исследований. Серию онлайн-опросов участников движения наблюдателей на выборах, выступающих в качестве основного источника данных, дополняют результаты экспертных интервью с представителями движения в семи регионах России.

One of the main features of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) is frequent client interactions that pursue the intensive creation and sharing of knowledge which magnitude is still being underexplored. To fill this gap, this study aims at investigating how the capacity of KIBS firms to absorb client knowledge influences on the implementation of business innovations in KIBS. Using two unique datasets on Russian KIBS surveyed by HSE ISSEK in 2015 and 2019, the findings show that each of the three main dimensions of the client knowledge absorptive capacity (i.e. acquisition, assimilation and application of client knowledge) is a key factor which is positively associated with the implementation of business innovation in KIBS. Moreover, these effects are observed for both product and business process innovations. These results suggest that innovation activity of KIBS may be supported by acquiring client knowledge through the digital communication channels, by assimilating this knowledge via using more formal IT-enhanced approaches to manage explicit and implicit knowledge, and by extending the areas for its further application.

Диссертационное исследование посвящено анализу влияния волатильности цен нефти и санкций на волатильность обменного курса доллар/рубль и волатильность Российского фондового рынка как индикаторов российской экономики. Поскольку доля экспорта нефти и нефтепродуктов составляет значительную часть экспорта Российской Федерации, то валютный курс и фондовый рынок в значительной степени должны зависеть от изменений цены нефти. Так как с 2014 года РФ находится под действием санкций, то влияние волатильности нефти и санкций необходимо моделировать совместно. Стандартные методы определения эффекта перетеканияволатильности с включением экзогенных переменных оказались непригодными для совместного моделирования влияния волатильности цен нефти и санкций, в связи с чем была использована двухэтапная процедура моделирования. Также был включен набор дополнительных факторов, способных оказывать влияние на выбранные индикаторы российской экономики. Полученные результаты подтверждают наличие влияния волатильности цен нефтина волатильность валютного курса и российского фондового индекса, а также демонстрируют убывающее влияние санкций, что говорит об отсутствии их долгосрочного влияния на волатильность выбранных индикаторов российской экономики и является свидетельством адаптации российской экономики к санкциям.

In recent years scholars are increasingly interested in the concept of life calling. Stemming from religious background, this ancient idea emerged into the modern concept focused on self-actualization. Despite salience of the concept of calling for different cultures, research involves mainly Western samples. Additionally, the mechanisms underlying the process of its discernment remain obscure. In the present research we attempted to address those gaps. The research contains two studies and a report on the practical application of the findings. In Study 1, qualitative document analysis, was used to examine open-ended responses from HSE and MEPhI students (N = 104) regarding their concept of calling. The results indicated that they saw it as something more than a mere job, were intrinsically motivated to find it and dedicate themselves to it, and associated calling with the usage of their abilities. Study 2 examined temporal relationships between calling, life meaning, and personal life position (awareness, agency, and authenticity). Data were collected at two time points nine weeks apart from a sample of HSE students (N = 61). Hierarchical regressions’ results revealed that perceived deficit of meaning in life is one of the main factors motivating individuals to actively search for their callings, and a sense of harmony between oneself and one’s actual course of life contributes to the increase in the sense of calling. The report on practical applications includes general recommendations for practitioners, as well as the results of preliminary test of an intervention aimed at helping college students to discern their callings. Additionally, results of the investigation of personal characteristics of individuals in active search for calling are presented and discussed.