Publications

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In this paper, homological methods together with the theory of formal languages of theoretical computer science are proved to be effective tools to determine the growth and the Hilbert series of an associative algebra. Namely, we construct a class of finitely presented associative algebras related to a family of context-free languages. This allows us to connect the Hilbert series of these algebras with the generating functions of such languages. In particular, we obtain a class of finitely presented graded algebras with non-rational algebraic Hilbert series.

Usually, DEA methods are used for the assessment of a region’s disaster vulnerability. However, most of these methods work with precise values of all the characteristics of the regions. At the same time, in real life, quite often most of the data consists of expert estimates or approximate values. In this regard, we propose to use modified DEA methods, which will take into account inaccuracy of the data. We apply these methods to the evaluation of wildfire preventive measures in the Russian Federation regions.

The moderate extent to which many competition authorities (CAs) worldwide apply concepts, tools and techniques developed by modern economic theory remains a puzzle for both academics and authorities themselves. In the model of reputation-maximizing CA developed by Katsoulacos (2019), in which decisions are subject to judicial review, the choice of the legal standard (LS) in a particular case is explained by the cost of litigation and anticipation of the LS adopted by the appeal courts. In this article, we empirically test, using  a dataset of decisions reached by the Russian CA, the relation between the LS adopted and the annulment rate of appealed decisions and show that this is consistent with the assumptions of reputation-maximization choice. The implications of the analysis allow us to conclude that, first, the model of rational reputation-maximizing authority can explain the extent of economics utilized by CAs; second, the role that courts play in the administrative (in contrast to prosecutorial) model of competition enforcement is higher than is widely believed.

Doctoral education worldwide is characterized by parallel trends toward diversity and, at the same time, toward unification. There is no such thing as a standard doctoral education model. The landscape of doctoral education across the world is quite diverse and there is a considerable rise in its variations and flexibility. However, doctoral education has become a global market with flows of international students, faculty, and graduates who create a demand for unification of standards and benchmarking.

Many governments attempt to improve national higher education through the competitive support of universities. These policy approaches raise questions about the impact on the entire system—both in research and educational—of targeted support for a small number of universities. Addressing challenges in the measurement of university excellence initiatives are among the most vital topics in research evaluation due to the central roles they often play in national research and university policy efforts. Using data from the Russian University Excellence Initiative (RUEI), we measure the spillover effects of such focused support and demonstrate that a broader impact does exist. In particular, we examine the performance of higher education institutions that were not part of RUEI and were not directly supported by it. We compare the university performance in regions both with and without RUEI universities. In doing so, we measure the indirect impact of RUEI on the higher education sector at the regional level. We show a positive effect on the level of publication activity that has recently become apparent. However, there has been no effect on the share of young faculty, international collaboration in publications, or the quality of enrollment. Judging from the broader research policy\research evaluation perspective, our study sheds light on the systemic effects of excellence initiatives, which are often neglected. Besides, excellence initiatives could trigger a change in the approach to evaluating research. So government should develop measure properly, taking into account various consequences, some of which are considered in our article.

During the first decade of the present century the countries which accessed the EU were characterised by high GDP growth rates while most of their regions displayed negative net-migration rates. At the same time, the new member states’ human capital endowments were high relative to their GDP levels, creating incentives to emigrate. The present paper takes a detailed look at the interplay of regional human capital endowments and migration. First, by theoretically examining migration’s determinants and second, by testing the corresponding findings via panel econometric regressions for the EU’s new member states’ regions. The results display positive impacts of net-migration on regional human capital growth rates, improving the economic potential of thriving regions but possibly increasing disparities within countries.

This article investigates whether the level of academics’ societal engagement (ASE) is higher or lower at universities with leading research university (LRU) status compared with institutions at lower status levels within vertically stratified systems. In a theory-based purposeful sampling, we studied the correlation of LRU-status and ASE in Canada and Germany (intra-academic competition-based status model) and Kazakhstan and Russia (state-assigned status model). In Canada and Germany, universities have self-organized LRU-status groupings, such as the U15. In Kazakhstan and Russia, the National Universities’ LRU-status was assigned by the state. In Russia and Germany, Excellence Initiatives blur status-assignation models. Survey data is provided by the cross-country study “Academic Profession in Knowledge Society (APIKS)”. We find that techno-commercial ASE is only positively correlated with LRU-status in countries with state-assigned status groupings. Dissemination ASE is not correlated to LRU-status. Negative correlations between dissemination ASE and LRU-status are found in Canada. The results show that societal recognition (captured by industry, ministry, etc. grants) and LRU-status run in parallel in Russia and in Kazakhstan. In comparison with Russia, societal recognition is a distinct mechanism in Germany, which is not triggered by LRU-status. In Canada, ASE is mainly correlated with individual (status) determinants.

Economic and sociological research that touches upon the determinants of alcohol consumption is mostly centered on the traditional factors of human capital (e.g., education). While much attention is given to education as a valid instrument to reduce alcohol misuse, less is given to the impact of non-cognitive skills. Data are collected from a nationally representative Russian panel survey, 2016–2018. We estimate a random-effects probit model for the probability of abstinence and a random-effects tobit model with a Heckman correction for the volume of alcohol consumption. Non-cognitive skills are consistent predictors of drinking in Russia. In both genders, conscientiousness and extraversion have strong connections to the probability and the volume of alcohol consumption, while openness to experience and neuroticism only affect the volume. The estimates for education differ substantially when the Big Five variables are excluded from the model, which suggests that a major part of the effect of education on alcohol consumption patterns may be mediated through non-cognitive skills. Although educational interventions are often seen as a method of solving excessive drinking problems, introducing personality traits into the analysis raises the question of the effectiveness of such interventions.

On the eve of transition in the late 1980’s the perspectives of the economic development for most economies of the Soviet Bloc in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe seemed optimistic. They had been already industrialized; their labor force was relatively healthy and educated. Being technological backwards in many industries these countries had lots of opportunities for catch up, extending international trade and allowing the inflow of foreign direct investments. However, after two decades of transition these expectations did not materialize to the fullest extent. On the one hand, by 2008, the last year before the global financial crisis, GDP per capita of all post-transition economies grew, except Moldova and Ukraine. On the other hand, six of the twenty economies of the region increased the lag behind the twelve advanced West European economies (EU12). A reasonable question in this context is to what extent is this backward take-off caused by the command-economy past or some myopic country-specific issues of the post-transition development?

                With the growth accounting framework this study confirms the leading role of total factor productivity in late transition at the aggregate level. Delving into industry levels the literature shows that, at least, for some East European economies the key driver of TFP growth in most CEE economies was manufacturing. This is not surprising, because manufacturing was also one of the most technologically backward sectors of the economy in early transition with multiple opportunities for improvements through adaptation of better practices and ways of production from the West. So, catching up in technologies seems to be the most essential driver of the post transition growth.

                At the same time, this exposition of the story of growth in transition critically depends on data quality, essential for measurement of economic growth and productivity. That is why it is important also to take into account that transition in economies of the region coincided with the transition in state statistics from the Material Product System of national accounts to the United Nations System of National Accounts. All this is important for understanding of the limitations of existing data and suggested interpretations, especially in the comparative perspective with developed economies.