Economics Research in Russia: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead

1
Economics Research in RussiaTaking Stock and
Looking Ahead

• Sergei Guriev
• New Economic School

2
Russian economics profession Taking Stock

• Quantity could not be better
• Economics is a blossoming field in post-Soviet
  Russia
• Quality very thin
• One institution of a truly European caliber
• A handful institutions that may reach that level
  in a few years
• but growing
• both at home
• and especially in the US and Europe

3
1992 Challenges and Potential

• Problems
• Ideological domination
• Isolation from the global profession
• No integration of teaching and research
• Universities vs Academy of Science
• Segmentation of subject and methodology
• Mathematics vs economics
• Potential
• Huge demand from society, govt, and (later) from
  private sector
• Solid mathematical training
• Great mathematical economists
• High concentration of excellence in
  research/teaching in Moscow, SPb, Novosibirsk
  great for critical mass building

4
Main economics institutions in modern Russia

• Academy of Science economics section
• 39 full and corresponding members
• 10 research institutes in Moscow and another 10
  outside Moscow
• Each has at least one academic journal
• The leading journal Voprosy Ekonomiki is
  non-refereed
• Ekonomika i Matematicheskie Metody is still
  translated into English (as Matekon) but has lost
  international prominence
• About 1000 researchers
• but virtually no publications in international
  refereed journals
• 600-900 economic departments in universities
• Produce 300,000 graduates every year compared to
  45,000 in Soviet Union
• But virtually no research

5
EDIRC/RePeC.org Economics Institutions in Russia

• 125 economic institutions (research institutes
  and universities) with active websites
• 29 of them have authors registered with RePeC
• Only 2 have publications
• NES
• CEFIR at NES
• But both are already top 100 in Europe
• Second only to CERGE-EI in postcommunist
  countries
• Rankings will improve in a year when recent
  papers get cited
• The best economist in Europe outside Western
  Europe is Ekaterina Zhuravskaya (NES/CEFIR)

6
International Associations
7
New Economic School

• Non-profit private graduate program in economics
  started in 1992
• In 1998 formed a strategic alliance with
  EU-funded Russian European Center for Economic
  Policy (to become an independent Center for
  Economic and Financial Research in 2000 and CEFIR
  at NES in 2004)
• Ambitious goals a top 20 European dept by 2010
• Started with visiting professors teaching Western
  curriculum
• Recruited best students
• Sent graduates to top PhD programs
• Some of them started to return in 1999 as
  tenure-track faculty
• The returnees remained part of the international
  economics profession publishing in the very top
  journals including AER, QJE, Econometrica
• Now a mature institution
• Critical mass of 12 full-time tenured and
  tenure-track faculty
• Modern governance structure
• Diversified funding
• First endowment contributions

8
The next tier

• Higher School of Economics
• Already started to hire in the international job
  market
• Has a clear strategic plan aiming at becoming a
  research university
• Private universities
• European University at SPb
• Think tanks
• Institute for Economy in Transition (Gaidar
  Institute)
• Traditional State Universities
• Novosibirsk State University
• Former Soviet Union
• EERC/Kiev-Mohyla

9
The best news Diaspora

• Now tens of Russians teaching in top schools
  around the world and publishing in top journals
• Across the fields, both in economics and finance
• The most cited economist in the world Andrei
  Shleifer (Harvard)
• Director of Stanford Institute for Theoretical
  Economics Ilya Segal
• Star of the 2004 job market Yuliy Sannikov
• MIT three professors of economics
• LBS three professors of finance
• Stanford three professors in economics/GSB
• Many maintain strong connections with Russia

10
The outlook for 2015-2020

• 1-3 international level graduate programs (Moscow
  and StPete)
• Integrated with think tank and research
  institutes
• Funded by govt/endowment, consulting projects,
  tuition
• 10-20 second-tier programs (Moscow and regions)
• Tuition, consulting
• Rest teaching universities
• Community
• Russian Economic Association
• Annual conference
• Competitive English language journal
• Data and library consortia
• A Russian Nobel prize nominee/winner (probably
  from diaspora)