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.

In choosing a field for further studies, high school students are influenced by their peers, among other factors. For example, a high school student interested in technology among a class of peers who are not so good at physics may perceive it as a competitive advantage, increasing the likelihood of their choice of a technical field for a career, according to Andrey Zakharov, Deputy Head of the International Laboratory for Education Policy Analysis at the HSE's Graduate School of Education, and Elizaveta Chernenko, Research Fellow of the same laboratory.

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?'

Even today, ages-old folk culture can serve as a basis for collective identity by bringing together people who share this interest and underlying values, as evidenced by Russia's folk heritage movement. According to Rostislav Kononenko, Senior Lecturer at the HSE's Department of General Sociology, and Evgenia Karpova, Master's student at the HSE, the folk heritage movement in Russia is driven by urban intellectuals working to preserve and promote authentic folk culture.

'Avtokamera' is new development in technology by Denis Korolev and Roman Osmolovsky of the HSE's Moscow Institute of Electronics and Mathematics (MIEM) that aims to simplify and automate video capture, processing and publication.

For most Russians, their first experience of cohabitation is as a precursor to marriage. Younger Russians, however, pursue a variety of matrimonial strategies, which often include cohabitation as an alternative to official marriage, according to Ekaterina Mitrofanova, Junior Research Fellow at the HSE's Institute of Demography, and Alyona Artamonova, Bachelor student at the HSE's Faculty of Social Sciences.

State funding for education systems fails to take popular demand into account. About 10% of state-funded places are not in areas that interest school-leavers. There are too few options in the humanities, and too many in engineering, research carried out by the HSE’s Institute of Education, School of Mathematics, the Educational Center of Semantic Technology and Faculty of Economics.

The economic and political transformation following the fall of the socialist bloc has affected health and average life expectancy differently in former socialist countries. In nations where reforms led to true political and economic liberalization, health indicators are higher than in countries with hybrid regimes, according to a study by Vladimir Kozlov, a Research Fellow at HSE’s Laboratory of Social and Demographic Policies, and Dina Balalaeva, an Assistant Professor in the School of Political Science.

Addiction to love may be as dangerous as alcohol or drug addiction. A person in a dependent relationship compensates for their internal deficiency, but at the same time gradually works themselves into exhaustion. By many indicators, love addiction can be attributed as a clinical disorder that can be cured by means of professional psychological help. This discovery was made in a recent study by Svetlana Skvortskova, a graduate of the Master’s programme in the HSE School of Psychology, and Vladimir Shumskiy, Associate Professor at the HSE Department of Psychology of Personality.

Russians would like their children to value achievement and wealth more than they themselves do. This stems from the reality and norms of modern life, Maxim Rudnev and Alexandra Savelkayeva from HSE’s Laboratory for Comparative Studies of Mass Consciousness noted in a study on intergenerational value transmission.

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.

The mania for a slim body and a phobia of obesity, an obsession with their bodies, constant reflection about their looks and following the ideals of ‘model’ slenderness are the specifics of body culture in the consumerist society, which are widespread among young people, according to Yana Krupets and Nadezhda Nartova, researchers at the HSE Centre for Youth Studies in St. Petersburg.