Food helps democracy and hormones affect financial behaviour.

Before it could fully emerge, Russia's middle class was hit by the economic crisis.

Qualifications and education being equal, it's rare for women in Russia to make it to the top of the corporate ladder compared to men. The reasons for this may vary from a lack of state support to gender role stereotypes which view women as primarily mothers and homemakers, according to the HSE researchers.

With the birth of her third child, the risk of unemployment quadruples for a woman.

The wide popularity of ecovillages in Russia is little more than a myth. Most urban Russians who have considered living in the countryside have a dacha or cottage community in mind, rather than real farm and agricultural work.

In recent years in Russia, female smoking has increased, while the opposite holds true for men; in addition to this, smoking has increased at higher rates among those with lower levels of education compared to more educated Russians.

Freelancers’ sense of freedom, comfort, opportunities for self-realization, and flexible schedule are often accompanied by regular overwork, urgency and stress. In addition, their earnings are irregular, while their families often have trouble understanding the concept of working from home and don’t see such activities as a ‘real job’.

Societal values have a strong influence on young people’s reproductive habits.

While being single or married does not usually make much difference in terms of life satisfaction for younger people, single individuals tend to feel less happy as they age, particularly at certain moments of their lives, and most single people experience a peak of unhappiness once they retire, according to Anna Shirokanova, Senior Research Fellow of the HSE Laboratory for Comparative Social Research in St. Petersburg.

Far from being passive, Muscovites – at least more than half of them – are more likely than residents of other Russian cities to join together with others in pursuit of a common cause, engage in civic campaigns online, and trust other people and non-profit organizations (NGOs). While in terms of offline civic engagement Muscovites do not differ much from the rest of the country, their activity can be encouraged by creating an appropriate infrastructure, according to Irina Mersiyanova, Director of the HSE Centre for Studies of Civil Society and Non-Profit Sector, and Irina Korneeva, Research Fellow of the same Centre.

The likelihood of being denied a visa depends on the quality of institutions in the applicant's country – such as public administration, corruption response, rule of law, and prevalent norms and values. The same factors play a role in whether residents of a particular country are likely to be granted visa-free entry, according to the study 'Institutions and Visa Regimes' by HSE researchers Kamila Gracheva, Leonid Polischuk, Alexander Yarkin, and Kong Schoors from the University of Ghent, Belgium.

The level of education has a direct impact on young Russians’ chances of getting a job. Young men and women with some post-secondary education – in particular those with higher education – experience a shorter transition to their first employment and a fairly low risk of staying unemployed, while those with just nine year of compulsory secondary school – in fact, 20% of Russians under 29 – are likely to remain unemployed for prolonged periods, according to Elena Varshavskaya, professor of the HSE Department of Human Resources Management.