Economics

Human capital and its key component – education – are strongly linked to economic growth. However, high levels of education do not guarantee economic growth if a weak institutional environment hinders efficient application of knowledge and skills.

What tectonic shifts are occurring in the world economy and global trade, who are the potential winners and losers in this process, and how the global financial and economic landscape will alter after the storm are the questions addressed by Financial Congress participants.

The Russian labour market is gradually cooling, but high unemployment does not threaten it. The main challenge for the economy is not so much labour shortages as a lack of highly qualified specialists, analyzed the participants of the Financial Congress.

The slowdown in the Russian economy has provoked concerns about an immediate threat of a succession of defaults and a coming banking crisis. Participants in the Financial Congress discussed whether these gloomy expectations were justified.

Is it possible to ‘buy’ economic growth with high inflation, how demand ‘accumulated’ over years, what investments increase productivity, and where forecasters make a mistake: abstracts from the Financial Congress session dedicated to economic growth.

Although the real estate market is a separate sector, it is characterised by what is called ‘macro-criticality’. This means that the effects of changes in the market extend beyond it and may have an impact on macroeconomic stability in general.

The impact of population ageing on inflation remains contentious, as researchers’ opinions differ as to whether ageing has a deflationary or proinflationary effect. Our work uses data from the Russian regions to show that an elderly population has a proinflationary effect.

Why does a central bank need a Telegram channel, what makes the Russian economic information space special, how are inflation expectations managed, does AI help the Bank of Russia write press releases – these are key points from the discussion hosted by New Economic School.

An import reduction has a more than proportionate impact on Russia’s industrial output and exports. Over one year, a 1% decrease in imports as a share of production costs across industries leads to a more than 2% output reduction and an even more significant decline in exports.

Why should we expect a slowdown of the Russian economy, what traps has it fallen into, what will help curb inflation, and what are the fiscal policy risks? These issues were discussed by economists at the Financial Congress of the Bank of Russia.

Modern technology and big data on retail sales enable more accurate and faster measurement of inflation. We are developing a methodology for calculating a price index based on data from online receipts: in the future, it will make it possible to track inflation in near real time.

Human capital is one of the key factors of economic growth, but there are few quantitative estimates of its contribution to the Russian economy. New estimates show that its contribution peaked in the second half of the 2000s and had almost disappeared by the end of the 2010s.

In a geographically large economy, different regions can respond differently to the same events. Nowcasting used for data across Russia revealed these differences as well as their dependence on the level of development and the sectoral specialisation of the regions.

There is not a single industry in Russia in which the overhang of job vacancies is not rising. Although the renewed growth of real wages will reduce this overhang, the labour shortage may persist for many years, according to Rostislav Kapeliushnikov, a labour market expert.

The number of educated and employed women in Russia is high by world standards. Russia is among the world leaders for the share of families with a woman as the main breadwinner. The weak role in governance and large pay gap are paradoxical, but have an institutional explanation.

The past two years saw an almost complete transformation of the logistics and geography of Russia’s export and import. Analysis of this process has identified a number of patterns and risks in the new structure of foreign trade.

In terms of concentration of wealth in the hands of a small group, 1% of the population, Russia is among the world’s leaders. This group is almost inaccessible for sociological analysis, but a few assessments can be made from open sources.

Many indicators point to a rise in economic uncertainty, but it is the news that reflects this trend most quickly. The index based on media archives has accurately shown all crises in the 21st century and made it possible to calculate their consequences for the economy.

After a period of record growth in 2022, gas spot prices in the European market have returned to the levels seen two years ago. Europe has managed to adapt to the reduction in supplies from Russia, but price volatility and consumption risks persist.

The inflationary episode that has been experienced by all developed countries since 2021 is not over. The risk of losing the inflation anchor and falling into the stagflation trap exists even though the effects of pro-inflation factors have almost completely worn off.

Entrepreneurship in Russia has shown great resilience to changes in the political and economic landscape: the influence of institutions and culture on business activity may persist even after extreme changes in political and economic conditions.

International sanctions have accelerated the transformation of the labour market which started during the pandemic. The market has moved from limited demand to limited supply, and this situation will persist for a long time, labor market expert Rostislav Kapeliushnikov says.

No one will argue that the financial sector affects the real one, but the number of answers to the question of how exactly it does so is almost the same as the number of economists. A problem arises in finding indicators that characterise this influence quite fully.

The reliance of Russian economic sectors on imports is relatively low and does not exceed the median for other countries, a study has found. However, 60% of Russia’s imports come from the countries that have announced sanctions against Russia.