It is a myth that civil society is underdeveloped in Russia – more than a third of Russians take part in solving problems in their communities, and 3% volunteer for some or other organization. Elena Petrenko, Assistant Professor at the HSE Faculty of Sociology presented her report 'The Russian Volunteer Movement, Its Actors and Environment' at the Tenth National Conference on Voluntary work

More traffic jams and better public transport may force Moscow's motorists to leave their cars at home, suggest the findings of a recent study 'Dealing with Traffic Jams in Moscow: Factors Influencing the Choice of Private vs. Public Transport'

The more income a policeman and his family earn, the less open he is to corruption. Tatiana Karabchuk report “Wages and unofficial payments in the police: a comparative analysis in Russia, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria and Latvia”

The reform of pedagogical education in Russia should include training teachers in various subjects simultaneously, creating career opportunities, and an algorithm for ‘mobilizing’ the best recent graduates. Anatoly Kasprzhak has studied the experience of teacher training modernization in France, Germany, USA, Great Britain, Finland, Singapore, and Japan

Contrary to expectations, a growing number of open auction participants doesn’t decrease the price of the contract. On the contrary, the price is lower when the bidding involves only one player – usually, the market leader. Anna Balsevich presented her paper ‘Interregional Comparison of State Procurement Efficiency in Russia’ at the international seminar ‘Sustainable state procurement: development trends and challenges’

Every day, about one million residents of Moscow’s surrounding regions commute to work in the city. Remote districts are losing prospective labour resources, and the contrast between the quality of life in Moscow’s centre and its outskirts is growing increasingly more noticeable. The HSE online journal Demoscope Weekly analysed the commuting practices of Moscow region residents

Medium-sized businesses in Russia are set to grow thanks to regional expansion and a broadening of the selection of goods and services. Businesses which can set up good customer relations and cut down the number of middle-men in the areas of promotion and sales will come out on top in the fight with competitors. The School of Marketing and Business Development at the HSE has conducted the following research:’ Business Development: Current trends. Business practices of medium-sized companies in Russia in 2013.’

A high level of trust in state institutions and fines for defaulters contribute to better tax collection. During the international scientific conference Culture, Diversity, and Development, Alexey Belianin, Head of the HSE Laboratory of Experimental and Behavioral Economics, presented ‘Tax Payments and Trust: A Cross-Country Empirical Analysis’, research conducted by an international group of scientists

Social networks are one of the reasons for the growing demand for professional photography. Social networks allow anyone to create their public image in a virtual reality. Anastiasia Evstratova has been studying the mechanisms of demand on the photo market, as well as the functions of photography for photographers and their clients

Minimum Monthly Wage (MMW) is a bad institution for fighting poverty and inequality. One of the reasons for this is Russia’s high heterogeneity. Raising MMW often leads to the death of companies and a growing shadow labour market, Alexey Oshchepkov concludes this in his study ‘Minimum Wage’s Influence on the Labour Market in Russia’

A number of fairly strong independent economic think tanks have emerged in Russia, but their further development depends on whether they can maintain their independence and provide good analysis while responding to the new challenges posed by changes in demand for their services.These are the findings of a collaborative ARETT-HSE study

Employees without a formal contract are less happy than those fully protected by the Labour Code, suggests the report by Ludmilla Leonova 'Empirical Models for the Correlation Between Unregistered Employment and Life Satisfaction'