Asia is turning from a ‘global factory’ into a colossal consumer of goods and services, and this could lead to radical changes in the world economy, Junior Research Fellow in the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies (CCEIS), Anastasia Likhacheva, said in the paper ‘A New Model of Development in the Asian Region: Continent of Consumption’ presented at HSE’s XVI April International Academic Conference.

Quantum cryptography is an almost perfect method of encrypting sensitive data. Information sent over quantum cryptography networks cannot be intercepted without distortion, and any attempt at eavesdropping can be easily detected. However, the problem with quantum cryptography is that it only works over relatively short distances. A team of researchers of the HSE Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM) Department of Quantum Optics and Telecommunications has developed and tested a system capable of increasing the transmission distance by an order of magnitude.

The larger the household, the greater the likelihood that it will escape poverty. Each member of a large family pays less for housing, food, clothing and furniture due to economies of scale. They have lower transport and telecommunications expenses than members of small families do, say Kseniya Abanokova, Junior Research Fellow at the Centre for Labour Market Studies, and Michael Lokshin, Leading Research Fellow at the Centre.

Companies with Russian ownership more often than not have an authoritarian style of management, and their employees participate less frequently in making business decisions than their colleagues from foreign companies. This conclusion was drawn by HSE Professor Azer Efendiev in his paper ‘The Political Regime in Russian Business Entities: Results of Empirical Research’, which was presented at the HSE conference ‘Modern Management: Problems, Hypotheses, and Research’

Contemporary Russia’s political system is becoming more and more similar to the Chinese one, while the Chinese economy is demonstrating stable growth and the Russian one is stagnating. Andrey Yakovlev, Professor at the HSE Department of Theory and Practice of Public Administration, believes that the Chinese were able to effectively use the methods of governance they adopted from the USSR. His paper ‘Incentives in the System of Public Administration and the Economic Growth’ was presented at the conference ‘Challenges for Economic Policy in the New Environment’

Almost two-thirds of Russians use financial services. With this, however, the public’s level of financial literacy is low overall, and there is no convincing evidence that people are interested in improving this. This is largely due to the fact that the information presently available on financial services is complex and difficult to understand, according to experts tasked by the Russian Finance Ministry to conduct the first base survey on the financial literacy level and competence of the Russian public

Modern slaves are not physically shackled, and their captors do not look like slave traders. It is not easy to detect criminals involved in human trafficking. An international team including researchers of the HSE's Department of Data Analysis and Artificial Intelligence have been helping police develop a methodology for combating human trafficking. Their software, based on formal concept analysis, helps process numerous police reports and identify potential suspects and criminal networks

One third of all graduates from regional colleges and universities plan to move elsewhere. Most would like to relocate to another Russian city, while some 7% of graduates are planning to leave the country, according to the study 'Migration Intentions of Graduates of Russia’s Regional Higher Educational Institutions' by Elena Varshavskaya, Professor at the HSE's Department of Human Resources Management, and Olga Choudinovskikh, Director of the Centre for Migration Policy

Access to cultural heritage, including museums, is guaranteed under numerous international and domestic Russian documents, but certain disadvantaged groups are unable to exercise this right in practice, according to the report «Access to Russian Museums: Internal and External Factors» by Tatyana Abankina, Director of the HSE’s Centre for Applied Economic Research

The social standing of parents has a greater effect on a child's education than the kind of school the child attends – in fact, the school's human, material, and financial resources make almost no difference to a student’s academic performance, according to a study by Senior Lecturer of the HSE's Subdepartment of Economic Methodology and History Gordey Yastrebov and Master's student at the HSE's Faculty of Economics Alexei Uvarov

The better a customer's mood, the less they are concerned about a product's price and quality and the more they are driven by attractive design, the reputation of the brand, and other people's opinions, according to a study by Olga Patosha, Associate Professor of the Department of Organisational Psychology, and Tatiana Varavina, Master of Psychology, published in the HSE's Psychology

A hostel is not just a cheap hotel with shared facilities, but a specific business model supporting an emerging new culture in the tourism industry, one which mainly targets the 'creative class' and the members of modern urban subcultures, according to the recent report 'Hostels: A New Culture of Hospitality. St. Petersburg's Experience' by Senior Research Fellow of the HSE's Laboratory of Cultural Economics (St. Petersburg) Irina Borovskaya