Department of Theoretical Economics

A prominent Soviet and Russian sociologist, political scientist, philosopher, and tenured professor at HSE University, passed away on December 11, 2024

The HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences summarised the results of its traditional prediction contest. FES holds this contest annually on the eve of Nobel Week. This year, the contest once again attracted participants from different regions of Russia and countries around the world. Remarkably, one participant managed to predict all three laureates of the 2024 Economics Prize — Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James Robinson.

HSE University economists have proposed a novel approach to modelling monopolistic competition with heterogeneous firms and consumers. It addresses the shortcomings of the traditional model and takes into account the diverse preferences of consumers. The results of collaborative research carried out by Alexander Tarasov from Moscow, his co-authors from HSE University–St Petersburg, together with the Norwegian School of Economics, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Free University of Brussels, have been published inAmerican Economic Journal: Microeconomics, one of the most prestigious journals of the American Economic Association.

Zaruhi Hakobyan, master’s graduate of the HSE University Faculty of Economic Sciences and research scientist at the University of Luxembourg, is involved not only in research but also in organising academic events for young scientists and students. As a foreign graduate of HSE University, Zaruhi was nominated for the HSE Alumni Awards ‘for her tireless enthusiasm in popularising economic science, teaching, and research at the international level’ and made the shortlist.

Faculty of Economic Sciences is proud to welcome Dr. Soubhagya Sahoo, new Assistant Professor of the Department of Theoretical Economics, hired by the faculty under HSE University international recruitment procedure.

Alexander Tarasov is the Head of the Department of Theoretical Economics at the Faculty of Economic Sciences (FES) and Leading Research Fellow at the Centre for Market Studies and Spatial Economics at HSE University-St Petersburg. In his interview, Alexander talks about the appeal of academia, the challenges that await graduate students, and his research into the impact of railroads on economic growth, affirmative action in university admissions, and much more.

Behrang Kamali-Shahdadi, from Iran, recently joined the HSE University Department of Theoretical Economics as an assistant professor and will start teaching courses in autumn 2023. In his interview, he shares his experiences of getting a PhD from an Ivy League university, working at a new university in Iran, and his research on matching attorneys to poor defendants, unskilled workers to firms, and baby boomers to universities.

Congratulations to Alexander Tarasov, Head and Associate Professor of the Department of Theoretical Economics, on the publication of his paper "Optimal income taxation under monopolistic competition " in Economic Theory.

Oleg Baranov is a graduate of Moscow State University, the New Economic School, and the University of Maryland. He also lectured and ran a popular course on market design at the University of Colorado. He recently passed review for a tenured position at HSE University, and served as the Head of the International Recruiting Committee at the Faculty of Economic Sciences in the 2022–2023 academic year. He will also begin teaching the course ‘Microeconomics 2’ on the HSE and NES Joint Programme in Economics in September 2023. In his interview, Oleg talks about auctions, studying for a PhD, and international recruiting.

What are the modern trends in economic education and how are they incorporated in HSE programmes? Why do economists need machine learning and artificial intelligence? Is it necessary to attend lectures and how can students get the most out of their bachelor's programme? How radical are the changes in economic laws that have occurred in recent years? These questions and many other topics were discussed by Sergey Pekarski, Dean of Faculty of Economic Sciences (FES), and interns of the Laboratory for Economic Journalism.