Social policy challenges and losses; Russians are not Europeans; Why parents in Moscow hate the USE; Defence attorneys' strategies in dealing with law enforcement agencies; Migrants in Moscow: myths and reality; Why switching to 'effective contracts' for school teachers does not work—these were among the most interesting papers from the HSE's XV April Conference, according to Opec.ru.

In an environment where the natural-resources growth model is exhausted, human capital becomes the Russian economy's key competitive advantage. The problem of how the state, business and citizens can develop and invest in it was the main theme for the plenary discussion 'Social Policy Priorities' which took place on 7 April at the HSE's XVI April International Confernce on Modernizing the Economy and Society.

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.

Despite the Russian government's efforts to support economic development in the Far East of Russia, this area still lags behind in terms of modernization. Many of its residents are planning to migrate to elsewhere in Russia or even another country. According to Anna Nemirovskaya, Senior Research Fellow at the HSE's Laboratory for Comparative Social Research (LCSR), the federal government needs to step up its efforts to remedy this situation.

Russian firms prefer to freeze rather than cut employee wages during crises, reasoning that high inflation will cause real wages to drop anyway, while nominal wage cuts may prompt valued employees to leave, suggests Alexander Larin, Senior Lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, HSE Branch in Nizhny Novgorod, in his paper 'Downward Nominal Wage Rigidity: Unions' Achievement or Employers' Choice?'

The labour market in Russia differs from that in other countries. The Russian labour market does not react to decline and crisis with growing unemployment, and the market recuperates quickly. The reason for this is that employers have a great amount of flexibility; they do not fire employees, instead cutting their pay and work hours, according to the Deputy Director of HSE’s Centre for Labour Market Studies Rostislav Kapeliushnikov.

How Russia has become an industrial economy; Class bias in Russia's judicial system; Why Russia could benefit from zero import duties with the EU; Why Russian elites prefer foreign jurisdictions; What is fake economic growth; Why the reforms of the 2000s have failed; Whether currency depreciation must inevitably lead to inflation—these were the most interesting research papers in 2014 relevant to Russia, according to Opec.ru.

Low prices, cheap delivery and positive purchaser reviews are all factors that make e-shops attractive to Russian shoppers. In order to compete more effectively for customers with offline stores, online retailers need to decrease their margins say Associate Professor at the Faculty of Management Elena Panteleeva and researcher with the Client Satisfaction and Loyalty Research and Study Group at HSE, Flora Shamiryan, in their report ‘The influence of consumer experience among online shop clients on their satisfaction and loyalty.’

The Russian labour market is very mobile. People change jobs often, exiting the labour market only to enter it again. Those who are temporarily out of work do not manage to become officially unemployed since such a move would make no economic sense. Around a third of all unemployed Russians are outside of the governmental and statistical realm, according to the Director of HSE’s Centre for Labour Market Studies, Vladimir Gimpelson, and a Junior Research Fellow in the Centre, Anna Sharunina

It is becoming more and more common for employers to hire workers under fixed-term contracts. This allows companies to save money and more easily adapt to the changing conditions of the market. Flexible employment regulations do not, however, foster growth in productivity or an adequate reallocation of resources on the labour market, the Deputy Head of HSE’s Laboratory for Labour Market Studies, Larisa Smirrnykh, posits

Generally, Russian businesses are fairly resistant to external shocks. Many enterprises have not only survived the 2008 crisis, but have increased their market share since then. Major companies with foreign owners and those investing in restructuring and modernisation have a better chance of success, according to Boris Kuznetsov, Professor at the Department of Economic Analysis of Organizations and Markets and co-author of the study 'The impact of industrial strategies on resilience to external shocks and on the post-crisis development trends'

Most Russian company owners invest in the continuing education of their employees, but not all of them. The lucky ones are 10-20% of all staff. Such spending looks risky even though the return on it is high. Continuing education increases salary by 8% on average, which is an indirect sign of the same improvement in the labour productivity of the educated staff, Pavel Travkin, Junior Research Fellow at the HSE Laboratory for Labour Market Studies, found