Publications

This article addresses the issue of socio-demographic attributes of NEET status (dropping out of employment, education or training for young people between 15 and 24 years old) in Russia, and presents an investigation of the impact of education on falling into NEET for the first time. Whilst existing studies on Russian NEETs provide a general descriptive insight into NEET status, little is known about the role of education in NEET-types formation. The empirical analysis was based on the micro-data of the Russian Labour Force Survey (LFS) by the Federal State Statistics Service for 1995–2017, and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2017. Gender-specific multinomial logit analyses and dynamic multinomial logit panel regressions empirically support the heterogeneous nature of Russian NEETs confirming the human capital framework. They show that higher education does not provide a universal safety net from NEET status in Russia. While risks of NEET-inactivity are mainly concentrated among those who have primary or vocational education, NEET-unemployment in Russia is associated with higher education. Results contribute to the ongoing discussion about the changing rates of return for higher education and the saturation of the Russian labour market with university graduates. 

The contributions to this Special Issue present the state of the art of growth accounting in economic history, exhibiting its strengths and weaknesses. Three set of articles compose the issue: comparative papers that discuss the challenges ahead, long-run perspectives on Britain since the Industrial Revolution, Japan, Italy and Spain from the late-19th century, and Latin America during the 200 years since independence, and post-WorldWar II episodes under Soviet and Fabian socialism and the transition to market economies in Eastern Europe and India. The papers reveal how sensitive the interpretation of results is to the quality of output and inputs and the growth accounting procedure employed and the new developments in growth accounting to improve economic history narrative.

Why did the Soviet economy slowdown in last decades before its collapse? How did the proximate sources of economic growth of Russia change after the transition from a planned to a market economy? Previous research has suggested inputs‐driven growth before the transition and total factor productivity (TFP) as its main driver afterwards. This paper presents a new growth accounting exercise for Russia and Russian industry, using new historical statistics and Russia KLEMS data for capital, the historical series of Russian gross domestic product (GDP) from the Hitotsubashi Asian Historical Statistics Project, and alternative measures of capital inputs. In contrast with previous studies, this paper shows that in Russia TFP was the main determinant of labor productivity performance before and after the transition. The contribution of capital intensity was relatively stable in both periods. For Russian industry, the difference between the planned and market economy periods appears in the impact of capital quality. Before the transition, growth structures overbore machinery, deteriorating capital quality and labor productivity growth, while in 1999–2008, the dominating contribution of machinery fueled growth. Finally, the paper shows that the transformational recession of 1990s can be partially explained by the fall of capital services.

We study necessary conditions for stability of a Numerov-type compact higher-order finite-difference scheme for the 1D homogeneous wave equation in the case of non-uniform spatial meshes. We first show that the uniform in time stability cannot be valid in any spatial norm provided that the complex eigenvalues appear in the associated mesh eigenvalue problem. Moreover, we prove that then the solution norm grows exponentially in time making the scheme strongly non-dissipative and therefore impractical. Numerical results confirm this conclusion. In addition, for some sequences of refining spatial meshes, an excessively strong condition between steps in time and space is necessary (even for the non-uniform in time stability) which is familiar for explicit schemes in the parabolic case.

The Basel III regulation raised the minimum capital requirements for banks. However, its implementation may not have reduced systemic risks. Academicians investigating optimal banking regulations do not have a consensus on whether to increase or decrease capital requirements. Here, we use the agent-based approach to study capital regulation and its implications on the evolution of the banking system. We chose the Russian banking system to proxy key model parameters. We find that lower capital requirements imply higher financial stability than the Basel III regime, where the regulator requires banks to have capital over 10% of its risk-weighted assets’ amount. However, the regulatory rule to merely have a non-negative capital is the simplest solution that best fits heterogeneous economies. It produces the highest ratio of capital to assets, the least number of bank bankruptcies, and the lowest demand of banks to enter the interbank market to cover liquidity problems for all systems.

Russia is one of the most important nations in the world, with 145 million inhabitants and 85 regions. The process of structural change in its economic transition has been influenced by its size, distance to markets, climate, natural resource endowments and allocation of industries, producing strong regional differentials. In this paper, we analyse the differences among regions and their dynamics from 2007-2013. For this purpose, we apply a dynamic multivariate method, named STATIS, in order to identify the main socio-economic characteristics of the regions, to find homogeneous clusters, and to examine their temporal dynamics.

In this note, we present basis-free definitions of subspaces of fixed grades of real Clifford algebras of arbitrary dimension. We do not use fixed basis of Clifford algebra and use only the properties of commutators and anticommutators.

We present a new formulation of the hyperbolic singular value decomposition (HSVD) for an arbitrary complex (or real) matrix without hyperexchange matrices and redundant invariant parameters. In our formulation, we use only the concept of pseudo-unitary (or pseudo-orthogonal) matrices. We show that computing the HSVD in the general case is reduced to calculation of eigenvalues, eigenvectors, and generalized eigenvectors of some auxiliary matrices. The new formulation is more natural and useful for some applications. It naturally includes the ordinary singular value decomposition.

We propose an algorithm for linearizing systems of partial differential equations at constant solutions. The algorithm is based on an isomorphism constructed between the ring of linearized functions and the ring of special matrices, which makes it possible to simplify calculations in the process of linearization. The algorithm is illustrated by applying it to the quasigasdynamic system.

Sellers often have the power to censor the reviews of their products. We explore the effect of these censorship policies in markets where some consumers are unaware of possible censorship. We find that if the share of such "naive" consumers is not too large, then rational consumers treat any bad review that is revealed in equilibrium as good news about product quality. This makes bad reviews worth revealing and allows the seller to use them to signal his product's quality to rational consumers.

The paper examines how the type of ownership affects the efficiency of Russian banks. Using bank-quarter data for selected banks in the period 2004–2015, we combine stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) methodology with an intermediary approach to assess both profit and cost efficiency scores. Our key findings show that foreign-owned banks are the most profit efficient, and state-owned banks efficiently manage costs compared to other banks. These results are robust when we consider these banks in terms of risk preferences and specialization.

During periods of financial turmoil, depositor behaviour is influenced by the economic information environment, which is largely formed by the media—at least for retail depositors. Therefore the severity of bank runs during financial crises, and their efficiency might be conditional on the volume of the bad news appearing in the media during a crisis. If the news flow remains unrestrained, then the probability of bank runs will increase due to the information sensitivity of depositors. Examining whether it is possible to reduce the severity of bank runs during a crisis by controlling the media, we use the panel data 28 countries from 2001 until 2016. We analyze the impact of media freedom on the growth rate of retail deposits: the major role in bank runs is usually played by unsophisticated individual depositors. Generally the results do not support the hypothesis that changes in the degree of media freedom directly influence behavioural strategies of retail depositors during financial crises. However information limitations may be an instrument to support the market discipline mechanisms: higher media freedom during crises seems to blur the information environment depositors make decisions in. Media restrictions could also prevent the financial literacy effect from dilution during financial crises, ensuring that market discipline is not further undermined.

Factor momentum and high volume separately work well in developed markets, but they have shown poor results in extremely volatile and illiquid emerging markets. Guided by the characteristics of illiquid markets, we combined momentum and high volume into a composite factor by a unique technique. The stability of momentum winners was improved by an increase in trading volume, which may reflect an inflow of foreign money. The problem of volatility and momentum crashes disappeared with the inclusion of a volatility switch for each stock in the portfolio. The daily calculation of volatility for a possible closing of the position for each stock is due to the spike volatility and a small number of liquid securities. This combination of factors allows us to capture significant inefficiency of a diversified market using Russia as an example and shed light on the puzzle of factor investing.

The paper uncovers the major value drivers in strategic acquisition for growth, which are considered to be the most complex and the most challenging of the corporate transactions. Focusing on the unique data sample out of acquisitions of 5th and 6th merger ways with a single purpose – strategic growth – it reveals the major success factors of such transformative deals. The results outline that successful strategic acquirers follow some similar patterns – they pay in cash, diversify risks, grow in close but unrelated industries (especially in the period of crisis) and acquire mid-sized companies. The results of the study can be of interest for academic researchers and professionals.

We propose a new notion of farsighted pairwise stability for dynamic network formation which includes two notable features: consideration of intermediate payoffs and cautiousness. This differs from existing concepts which typically consider either only immediate or final payoffs, and which often require that players are optimistic in any environment without full communication and commitment. For arbitrary (and possibly heterogeneous) preferences over the process of network formation, a non-empty cautious path stable (CPS) set of networks always exists. Furthermore, some general relationships exist between CPS and other farsighted concepts.

Commuting is linked to fertility through demographic, social, and economic mechanisms. Average differences in first-birth rates of young, working women are estimated by a bivariate model with endogenous commuting. Empirical evidence based on administrative data (Sweden) reveals that commuting women have a lower probability of a first birth between 21-28 years of age and a higher probability between 29-32 years. Therefore, commuting women likely postpone their first child. Additional direct and spillover effects of commuting on fertility appear in income cross-municipal flows, diffusion of fertility norms across space, and changes in gender structure of the population of fertile age. A positive effect on relative income and social norms and a negative sex ratio effect are found significant both for commuting women and those who work in the municipality of their residence. Marginal effects for commuters are greater in magnitude.

This paper presents a novel combinatorial approach for voting rule analysis. Applying reversal symmetry, we introduce a new class of preference profiles and a new representation (bracelet representation) of preference profiles. By applying an impartial, anonymous, and neutral culture model for the case of three alternatives, we obtain precise theoretical values for the number of election scores for the plurality rule, the Kemeny rule, the Borda rule, and the scoring rules in the extreme case.