nep-cis New Economics Papers
on Confederation of Independent States
Issue of 2015‒09‒18
twelve papers chosen by



  1. Tourism clusters in Russia: a network perspective By Aleksandrova Anna; Sheresheva Marina; Natalya Egorova
  2. 'Age of Large'Age of Large-population Countries' and Marxian Optimal Growth Theory By Hiroshi Onishi; Ryo Kanae
  3. Constructing Tests that Can Measure and Compare the Maths and Physics Skills of Engineering Students in Russia and China By Elena Y. Kardanova; Ekaterina S. Enchikova; Shi H; Johnson N.; Lydia O. Liu; Liyang Mao; Prashant Loyalka
  4. Short-term cycles in the residential market of Moscow and St.Petersburg By Y. Kochetkov; E. Grebenuk
  5. How to Double Russia’s GDP By BLINOV, Sergey
  6. Cinema chains in Russia By Sheresheva Marina; Alexander Luzhin; Julia Trifonova
  7. Как удвоить ВВП России By BLINOV, Sergey
  8. Investigating Barriers and Drivers of the E-Commerce Market in Russia By Anna O. Daviy; Vera A. Rebiazina
  9. Digital evolution. RICS Online Academy a joint initiative in continental Europe By K. Bammel
  10. Children and Parents in the Migration Context: Dissonant or Consonant Trajectories By Raisa N. Akifyeva
  11. Domestic and multilateral effects of capital controls in emerging markets By Bijsterbosch, Martin; Falagiarda, Matteo; Pasricha, Gurnain; Aizenman, Joshua
  12. Institutions as key drivers of collective action in WUAs [Water User Associations] of Uzbekistan By Mochalova, Elizaveta; Anarbekov, Oyture; Kahhorov, U.

  1. By: Aleksandrova Anna (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University); Sheresheva Marina (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University); Natalya Egorova (National Research University – Higher School of Economics (Nizhny Novgorod))
    Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to discuss problems and prospects of tourism clusters development in Russia. The Russian tourism market has huge potential, due to its history, culture, extremely diverse landscapes, rivers, lakes, mountains, flora and fauna, “hidden gems” of small towns with their ancient churches, original local museums and unique sights. In the last decade Russia has witnessed rapid quantitative growth as well as significant changes in strategic development of the tourism industry. Russian Government initiated a number of Federal target programs important for tourism and hotel industry development. In particular, tourism clusters are now in the focus of interest. In 2008, the Russian Government adopted the Concept of cluster policy in the Russian Federation, laying the cluster approach in the basis of the strategy of socio-economic development and considering it as a tool to raise competitiveness of industries and territories. However, the formation of clusters in Russia faces a number of problems due to the peculiarities of the Russian institutional environment. The main challenges facing tourism clusters development in Russia are described. The importance of development joint marketing strategy is underlined. The case of "Big Volga" tourism cluster in the Nizhny Novgorod region is presented.
    Keywords: tourism clusters, networks, regions, Russia
    JEL: L83 R12 L50 M21
    Date: 2015–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upa:wpaper:0022&r=all
  2. By: Hiroshi Onishi (Faculty of Economics, Keio University); Ryo Kanae (Faculty of Economics, Kyoto University (Lecturer))
    Abstract: While it appears that small-population economies were advantageous for growth when Asia's newly industrialized economies (NIEs) were expanding rapidly, we are now seeing a different trend in which large-population countries like China and India have become the most rapidly growing nations in the world. This is true for the BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) as a whole. Brazil and Russia also have large populations of over 100 million, and their geopolitical and economic influence is crucial. This is one of the most important features of the present geopolitical economy. The present paper first demonstrates this trend statistically and then proposes the hidden historical law underlying these phenomena. This anti-Malthusian law can be explained by Marxian Optimal Growth Theory, as developed by our research group. This shows that each country experiences its own rapid growth phase over a certain period and finally realizes a higher per capita GDP similar to that of the present advanced nations. Under this trend, GDP balance among countries will become closer to the population balance among countries. It should be a much more equal world.
    Keywords: NIES, BRICS, Large-Population Country, Marxian Optimal Growth Model
    JEL: E11 N30 O11
    Date: 2014–12
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:keo:dpaper:2014-009&r=all
  3. By: Elena Y. Kardanova (National Research University Higher School of Economics.); Ekaterina S. Enchikova (National Research University Higher School of Economics.); Shi H (Stanford University.); Johnson N. (Stanford University.); Lydia O. Liu (Educational Testing Service.); Liyang Mao (Educational Testing Service.); Prashant Loyalka (National Research University Higher School of Economics.)
    Abstract: Although the number of engineering graduates has expanded rapidly in the last two decades, relatively little is known about the quality of engineering programs worldwide. In particular, few studies look at differences in the degree to which students are learning skills across different engineering programs within and between countries. There is particular interest in the investigation of the engineering education quality in the countries with the rapidly growing economy, such as BRICS countries. Until now, there was little research in this field and one of the main reasons for this is the difficulty in developing an assessment approach and the accompanying set of instruments, which would allow for measurement and international comparison. Our study describes a set of procedures for developing such an assessment framework of instruments, to measure and compare skill levels and gains across engineering programs. We first describe a systematic approach for constructing cross-nationally comparable instruments in maths and physics for students in the first two years of their undergraduate engineering programs. The approach includes both a priori procedures (including expert assessments to avoid construct, method, and item bias), and a posteriori procedures (including the psychometric analysis of test quality, differential item functioning, and identifying and reducing bias in the data). In addition to describing this set of procedures in theory, we also show how we systematically implemented these procedures. Drawing on data that we collected from over 24 engineering experts and 3,600 engineering students across Russia and China, we provide evidence that it is possible to create tests that are cross-culturally valid, equate-able, and free from bias
    Keywords: engineering education, BRIC countries, quality of education, cross-cultural measurement
    JEL: Z
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:28edu2015&r=all
  4. By: Y. Kochetkov; E. Grebenuk
    Abstract: To date, the theory of housing market cycles is not well developed. Clearly, even in general case the development of the models for cycle analysis involves numerous interrelated and unresolved theoretical problems. As for Russia, we face a lot of additional problems – lack of reliable data, existence of calculus in two types of currency for real estate market, high influence of government decisions and regulations on supply and demand. Anyway, residential property cycles exist in Russia cities and could be detected and investigated by various methods.For large cities of Russia (Moscow and St.Petersburg) extensive data for housing market have been accumulated and processed. In this paper, we explore the following data: asking prices for apartments since 2000 year, sales volumes, number of apartments on display at the market, share of mortgage in sales, information about starts of new construction, etc. Using a panel of 15 year, we examine the formation of housing market cycles, behavior in inflection point, their amplitude and period.The paper contributes to our understanding of housing market cycles in Moscow and St.Petersburg in two ways. First, we found high influence of real macroeconomic variables on market. The analysis suggests that results from the housing market should be evaluated in the context of the overall economy’s performance. Second, we discover the existence of short-term cycles in price dynamic, inherent to own real estate market. The period of cycles is about 27 months in 2000-2009 and up to 40 months in 2009-2014. Presumably, unusual turnaround took place in the residential market during 2008-2009 years crisis. It would be noted the nature of the impact of fundamentals on residential market changed in 2008/2009 too.Will be considered separately hypothesis about the formation of the 18-year cycle, where shot-term cycles are the part of general 18-year process.
    Keywords: Market Modelling; Real Estate Cycles; Time Series
    JEL: R3
    Date: 2015–07–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2015_124&r=all
  5. By: BLINOV, Sergey
    Abstract: In 2003, President of Russia Vladimir Putin set the task of doubling the GDP. However, this task is yet to be accomplished. Why has not this goal been achieved yet? What needs to be done to double Russia’s GDP? To answer these questions is exactly what this paper sets out to do. We can see that it is quite possible to double the GDP, but to do that, it takes an absolutely different perspective of the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Russia.
    Keywords: GDP, economic growth, money supply, monetary policy
    JEL: E37 E41 E52 E58 E65 O11 O17 O42
    Date: 2015–09–14
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66625&r=all
  6. By: Sheresheva Marina (Department of Economics, Lomonosov Moscow State University); Alexander Luzhin (Univers-Consulting LLC, Russia); Julia Trifonova (Univers-Consulting LLC, Russia)
    Abstract: The purpose of the paper is to discuss problems and prospects of tourism clusters development in Russia. The Russian tourism market has huge potential, due to its history, culture, extremely diverse landscapes, rivers, lakes, mountains, flora and fauna, “hidden gems” of small towns with their ancient churches, original local museums and unique sights. In the last decade Russia has witnessed rapid quantitative growth as well as significant changes in strategic development of the tourism industry. Russian Government initiated a number of Federal target programs important for tourism and hotel industry development. In particular, tourism clusters are now in the focus of interest. In 2008, the Russian Government adopted the Concept of cluster policy in the Russian Federation, laying the cluster approach in the basis of the strategy of socio-economic development and considering it as a tool to raise competitiveness of industries and territories. However, the formation of clusters in Russia faces a number of problems due to the peculiarities of the Russian institutional environment. The main challenges facing tourism clusters development in Russia are described. The importance of development joint marketing strategy is underlined. The case of "Big Volga" tourism cluster in the Nizhny Novgorod region is presented.
    Keywords: Cinema, Chains, Experience, Networking, Russia.
    JEL: L82 Z10 L80 N74 M21
    Date: 2015–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:upa:wpaper:0021&r=all
  7. By: BLINOV, Sergey
    Abstract: In 2003, President of Russia Vladimir Putin set the task of doubling the GDP. However, this task is yet to be accomplished. Why this goal has not been achieved yet? What needs to be done to double Russia’s GDP? To answer these questions is exactly what this paper sets out to do. We can see that it is quite possible to double the GDP, but to do that, it takes an absolutely different perspective of the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Russia.
    Keywords: GDP, economic growth, money supply, monetary policy
    JEL: E37 E41 E52 E58 E65 O11 O17 O42
    Date: 2015–09–11
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:66583&r=all
  8. By: Anna O. Daviy (National Research University Higher School of Economics); Vera A. Rebiazina (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: The evolution of e-commerce positively affects the development of business in different areas, especially in developing countries. Also the development of e-commerce assists in creating new business models that are in certain cases results of overcoming existing barriers of the e-commerce market. However, there is little research on e-commerce market development and it hinders our understanding of the e-commerce market potential. The internet audience in Russia is 66.5 million people – the largest online audience in Europe. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the barriers and drivers for e-commerce market development in Russia. It gives an overview of the current Russian internet market development and trends. To identify the obstacles to and opportunities for the Russian e-commerce market, 25 in-depth interviews with representatives of Russian internet businesses were conducted. The empirical research reveals that the most significant barriers for the Russian market are barriers concerning market, infrastructure, and institutional issues
    Keywords: marketing, e-commerce, qualitative study, emerging markets
    JEL: Z
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:40man2015&r=all
  9. By: K. Bammel
    Abstract: Since over 15 years RICS is establishing profound and trusted relationships with universities running accredited courses. Even before the online learning revolution and the emerging MOOC, RICS started its online learning initiative. Today the RICS Online Academy provides members and professionals working in land, property and the built environment with convenient, flexible, online study options outside of the traditional classroom. Since its launch in 2011, RICS training has been very successful in the UK. This year demand has become more international therefore, our efforts in the future months will focus on introducing online training in continental Europe, Russia & CIS. At the same time we want to intensify the co-operation with the industry and academic world on the further development of training and education. We follow our vision to be recognised as the premier provider of training services in the land, property and construction sectors and we will be working on a suitable training offer for our stakeholders in continental Europe, Russia and CIS.
    JEL: R3
    Date: 2014–12–01
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:arz:wpaper:eres2014_edu_106&r=all
  10. By: Raisa N. Akifyeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics)
    Abstract: The article is drawn on a study of the families of migrants, having school-age children, from Central Asia. The transnational practices of migrants are closely tied to integration processes, and this is reflected in generational differences. In some families, children that, unlike their parents, go or used to go to a Russian school, try to distance themselves from their parents’ generation, refuse to identify with it, and do not want to speak the native language of their parents. In some ways, these trends are a consequence of parentage practices that orient children toward the local social milieu and encourage the use of Russian. Despite the significance of transnational practices in the life of migrant families, the outcome of the study demonstrates the importance of examining the intergenerational dynamics in the incorporation process
    Keywords: transnationalism, children of migrants, second generation, migrant integration, cultural orientation, identity
    JEL: F22
    Date: 2015
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hig:wpaper:103hum2015&r=all
  11. By: Bijsterbosch, Martin; Falagiarda, Matteo; Pasricha, Gurnain; Aizenman, Joshua
    Abstract: Using a novel dataset on changes in capital controls and currency-based prudential measures in 17 major emerging market economies (EMEs) over the period 2001-2011, this paper provides new evidence on domestic and multilateral (or spillover) effects of capital controls before and after the global financial crisis. Our results, based on panel VARs, suggest that capital control actions do not allow countries to avoid the trade-offs of the monetary policy trilemma. Where they have a desired impact on the trilemma variables – net capital inflows, monetary policy autonomy and the exchange rate – the size of that impact is generally small. While we find some evidence of effectiveness before the global financial crisis, the usefulness of these measures weakened in the post-crisis environment of abundant global liquidity and relatively strong economic growth in EMEs. Our results also show that capital control policies can have unintended consequences, as resident outflows offset the impact of capital control actions on gross inflows (or vice versa). These findings highlight the importance of the macroeconomic context and of the increasing role of resident flows in understanding the effectiveness of capital inflow management. Using panel near-VARs, we find significant spillovers of capital control actions in BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to other EMEs during the 2000s. Spillover effects were more important in the aftermath of the global financial crisis than before the crisis, and arose from inflow tightening actions, rather than outflow easing measures. The channels through which these policies spilled over to other countries were exchange rates as well as capital flows (especially cross-border bank lending). Spillovers seem to be more prevalent in Latin America than in Asia, reflecting the greater role of cross-border banking and more open capital accounts in the former countries. These results are robust to various specifications of our models. JEL Classification: F32, F41, F42
    Keywords: Capital controls, capital flows, emerging market economies, monetary policy trilemma, policy spillovers
    Date: 2015–08
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20151844&r=all
  12. By: Mochalova, Elizaveta; Anarbekov, Oyture; Kahhorov, U.
    Abstract: This paper presents a multifactor approach for performance assessment of Water Users Associations (WUAs) in Uzbekistan in order to identify the drivers for improved and efficient performance of WUAs. The study was carried out in the Fergana Valley where the WUAs were created along the South Fergana Main Canal during the last 10 years. The farmers and the employees of 20 WUAs were questioned about the WUAs’ activities and the quantitative and qualitative data were obtained. This became a base for the calculation of 36 indicators divided into 6 groups: Water supply, technical conditions, economic conditions, social and cultural conditions, organizational conditions and information conditions. All the indicators assessed with a differentiated point system adjusted for subjectivity of several of them give the total maximal result for the associations of 250 point. The WUAs of the Fergana Valley showed the score between 145 and 219 points, what reflects a highly diverse level of the WUAs performance in the region. The analysis of the indicators revealed that the key points of the WUA’s success are the organizational and institutional conditions including the participatory factors and awareness of both the farmers and employees about the work of WUA. The research showed that the low performance of the WUAs is always explained by the low technical and economic conditions along with weak organization and information dissemination conditions. It is clear that it is complicated to improve technical and economic conditions immediately because they are cost-based and cost-induced. However, it is possible to improve the organizational conditions and to strengthen the institutional basis via formal and information institutions which will gradually lead to improvement of economic and technical conditions of WUAs. Farmers should be involved into the WUA Governance and into the process of making common decisions and solving common problems together via proper institutions. Their awareness can also be improved by leading additional trainings for increasing farmers’ agronomic and irrigation knowledge, teaching them water saving technologies and acquainting them with the use of water measuring equipment so it can bring reliable water supply, transparent budgeting and adequate as well as equitable water allocation to the water users.
    Keywords: Water users associations, Performance evaluation, Performance indexes, Water supply, Technology, Economic aspects, Sociocultural environment, Farmer participation, Organizational development, Valleys, Central Asia, Uzbekistan, Fergana Valley, Agribusiness, Farm Management, Financial Economics, Industrial Organization, International Development, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,
    Date: 2014
    URL: http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ags:iwmicp:208907&r=all

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