90%
of their average monthly income would have to be spent by residents of the Kuril Islands to purchase a plane ticket to Moscow.
Out of Wedlock Does Not Mean Fatherless
The proportion of children born outside of marriage is declining in Russia – not because fewer children are being born out of wedlock, but because more children are being born to married couples. In fact, out-of-wedlock children are not necessarily born to single women as used to happen in Soviet times, but instead, most are born to couples living in unregistered unions, according to Sergey Zakharov, Deputy Director of the HSE's Institute of Demography, and Elena Churilova, Postgraduate Student at the Institute's Department of Demography.
19%
of the cost of small state procurements are expenses associated with conducting a competitive bid process for suppliers.
No Demand for Educated Migrants
Russia's labour market has a growing demand for unskilled migrant workers from other CIS countries. Migrants who have worked in managerial or professional positions in their home countries almost always see their status decline once they move to Russia. In contrast, less skilled workers easily find jobs of similar status in Russia, according to Elena Varshavskaya, Professor of the HSE's Department of Human Resources Management, and Mikhail Denisenko, Deputy Director of the HSE's Institute of Demography.
29%
of Russians who make donations give money to ‘medical care and health-related causes.’ This is the most popular area of charitable giving among Russians.
Russians Only Live Well Thanks to ‘Grey’ Incomes
The widespread belief that wage increases in Russia outstrip growth in productivity is no more than a myth, Deputy Director of the HSE Centre for Labour Market Studies, Rostislav Kapelyushnikov claims in an article ‘Productivity and wages: a little simple arithmetic’. Besides, in recent years we have seen a fall in the cost of labour, particularly in industry.
Young People Seek Self-fulfillment
People's lives today are more flexible, while individual biographies – even though they may look like 'games without rules' to an outsider – are in fact carefully designed around personal choices. These are the main themes of a paper by Sergey Zakharov and Ekaterina Mitrofanova published in the monograph Russia and China: Youth in the 21st Century. Although the paper focuses mainly on young Russians' reproductive behavior, its content goes beyond demographics and addresses certain existential aspects, such as non-stereotypical biographies of modern people and their diverse identities, values, and desires.
45%
of all working poor Russians are either low-skilled or medium-skilled workers in blue-collar jobs.
40%
of Russian workers are employed either completely or partially in the informal sector.
Why Russian Firms Need Business Lobbies
Professor William Pyle from Middlebury Collage gave a seminar about research into Russia's business lobby. In 2014, together with Finnish economist Laura Solanko, he received the National Award for Applied Economics, which was established by organizations including the HSE.