Conferences, seminars
2015
December, 2 – Regular interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development"
On December, 2 in the series of interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development", held by Laboratory for Urban Studies, Laboratory for Urban Studies and Leontief Centre Interfaculty Base Department, Sascha Sardarvar, Assistant Professor from Vienna University of Economics and Business, gave lecture on: A model of interregional migration under the presence of natural resources: theory and evidence from Russia.
Annotation of the lecture:
This paper takes up the relationship between economic development and internal migration and features a new economic geography model of short term migration. The paper is motivated by the increasing shares of commodities both in Russia’s total production as well as in its exports, while descriptive statistics clearly display a negative correlation between regional sizes of the commodities sector and corresponding net-migration rates. In order to solve this puzzle, the paper’s theoretical part builds on Crozet (2004), who augments Krugman’s (1991a, 1991b) model by a services goods sector and extends it to a multi-regional framework. In his model, each potential migrant’s objective function is dependent on a destination region’s real wage, its employment probability, and the distance between source and destination regions. The real wage in turn depends on the sectoral structure, size, and location of a region.
The first aim of the present paper is to augment Crozet’s (2004) theoretical approach with three sectors by the commodities sector as a fourth sector. In the model, production of commodities is a function of external demand, therefore regional labour demand is shaped by international events. The theoretical model results in a migration equation in which the share of region’s emigrants who choose region as destination is positively dependent on region’s nominal wage-level, the size of its commodities sector, the size of its service goods sector as well as world-market price-changes for commodities, and negatively dependent on region’s price-level and its unemployment rate. In addition, the distance between and as well as not having a common border are expected to affect migration negatively.
The second aim of this paper is to transform the theoretical model into a testable econometric panel specification. The observation period covers the years 2004 to 2010, the observation area consists of 78 Russian regions. The empirical estimations of the model’s migration equation confirm the positive effect of the commodities sector and additionally display a positive effect of world-market price-changes for commodities. The other variables display the expected effects except for the regional price-level, which has a positive sign. In summary, the model is able to explain seemingly contradictorily observation that regional net-migration rates in Russia are negatively correlated with the regional sizes of the expanding commodities sector. The paper concludes that the observed high population losses in remote Russian regions during the observation period would have been even higher if regional commodities production hadn’t attracted internal migrants.
November, 20 – Regular interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development"
On November, 20 in the series of interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development", held by Laboratory for Urban Studies, Laboratory for Urban Studies and Leontief Centre Interfaculty Base Department, Christian Horn, Dipl.-Ing Architect, Rethink - office of the built environment, gave lecture on: Urban Mobility and Urban Space: Visions of a New Paradigm.
Annotation of the lecture:
If we look back on today’s’ successful and attractive cities in Europe, we realize that many of them have been precursor in working on transport issues through the encouragement of active mobility and public transport. It is not the only factor of city development and maybe not the main one, but it is undeniable that a healthy environment, a city of short distances, of social cohesion through contacts in public space and similar issues linked the active mobility have an essential impact on the quality of life in a city and finally on the choice of people and companies where to settle down. The return of investment in a diversification of means of mobility and the city of short distances should not be underestimated. The lecture is to be seen in the context of the work of the office Rethink (www.rethink.fr) and the Collaborative Urban Design Studio on the transformation of the southern industrial belt of St. Petersburg taking place in novembre 2015. A Urban Design Studio set up by the ITMO University of St. Petersburg, the Faculty of Architecture of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the National Superior School of Architecture of Strasbourg (ENSAS), where the Christian Horn is teaching.
November, 17 – Regular interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development"
On November, 17 in the series of interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development", held by Laboratory for Urban Studies, Laboratory for Urban Studies and Leontief Centre Interfaculty Base Department, Mikko Weckroth, Researcher from University of Helsinki, gave lecture on: Value based human capital” and a level of economic performance in European regions – comparing perspectives of spatial economics and economic geography.
Annotation of the lecture:
This study utilizes value orientations of “self-direction”, “achievement”, and “power” for estimating the level of economic performance (GDP) in 289 NUTS regions. Regional aggregates drawn from Schwartz´s Human Value Scale included in European Social Survey are treated as “motivation based human capital”.A spatial economics analysis shows that “self-direction”,indicating independent though, action, and creativity, is a strong predictor for regional GDP after controlling for spatial effects and including various control variables. However, including country specific fixed effects “motivation based human capital”variables become nonsignificant. An economic geography driven analysis implements welfare regimes as indicators of larger socio-historic structures. Finally, the spatial interdependence drawn from the global model is localized to the context of Eastern Europe whereas London in Anglo-Saxon context appears as an anomaly where high GDP is associated with “power” instead of “self-direction”. The study work as an example of interdisciplinary research applying an evolutionary-perspective to the analysis of economic landscape.
October, 16 – Regular interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development"
On October, 16 in the series of interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development", held by Laboratory for Urban Studies, Laboratory for Urban Studies and Leontief Centre Interfaculty Base Department, Dr. Konstantin Kholodilin, Research Associate from German Institute for Economic Research, gave lecture on: War, Housing Rents and Free Market: a Case of Berlin's Rental Housing Market during the World War I.
Annotation of the lecture:The presentation reports new archival evidence on housing rents in Berlin over 1909-1917. The data on asking rents and dwelling attributes are extracted from newspaper announcements and georeferenced. Using hedonic OLS and quantile regressions, monthly indices of quality-adjusted rents for the whole market and for its segments (cheap vs. expensive dwellings) are constructed. They are employed to analyze the dynamics of housing rent shortly before and during World War I, when German housing market experienced several violent shocks. The outbreak of the war led initially to a huge outflow of men from cities to the fronts. Toward the end of the war, the cessation of construction in combination with an inflow of workers and discharged soldiers resulted in an acute housing shortage. The analysis shows a decline of rents (particularly of cheap dwellings) during the first half of the war, followed by a moderate increase. Given a dramatic increase of prices for other consumer goods, by the end of the war, real rents in Berlin lost half of their value.
Konstantin_Kholodilin_Presentation
October, 13 – Regular interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development"
On October, 13 the first session of the interdisciplinary scientific seminar "City, Space and International Development" took place, which is organized by Laboratory for Urban Studies, Laboratory for Urban Studies and Leontief Centre Interfaculty Base Department. Jean-Philippe Platteau, professor from University of Namur, gave a lecture on: Innovation Adoption and Liquidity Constraint in the Presence of Grassroots Extension Agents: Evidence from the Peruvian Highlands.
Annotation of the lecture:
To what extent and in what sense can Islam, the religion of the Muslims, be considered responsible for the problems encountered by the countries in which it dominates? Foremost among such problems are a high political instability and the fact that social reforms conducive to long-term development (reform of the family code and measures to improve women’s status, for example) are difficult to achieve or easily reversed. The argument which we elaborate allows to explain their simultaneous presence in many Muslim countries. It rests on two propositions that contain answers to the above question. On the one hand, we disagree with the substantivist view according to which Islam is a major obstacle to modern development because it has always been associated with a merging of religion and the state, or a fusion between the spiritual and political spheres of life. But, on the other hand, we reckon that Islam possesses a special feature in the form of a highly decentralised structure. This characteristic tends to make politics comparatively unstable even though rulers can mitigate the risk of political instability yet at the cost of a reduced pace of institutional reforms or of back-pedaling on them.
Jean-Philippe Platteau_Presentation
June, 2 – Regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS
On the 2nd of June, Tuesday, 2015 The regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS was held in the conference hall of Leontief Centre.
Andrey Yakovlev, Director of the Institute for Industrial and Market Analysis, National Research University "Higher School of Economics", made a report on the theme "Evaluation of changes in the Business climate in 2012 – 2014 (according to a survey of Manufacturing Industry)".
Questions and comments were made by D. Travin V. Titov and the others.
May, 18 – Regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS
On the 18th of May, Monday, 2015 Within the regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St.Petersburg Institute of RAS one of activities of the Action Plan on implementation of the Tallinn Declaration VASAB was held in the conference hall of Leontief Centre.
Jacek Zauha, Professor of Economics at the University of Gdansk, Member of the Maritime Institute in Gdansk, made a report on the theme "Place-based Approach in Regional Policy of the EU and Poland".
Questions and comments were made by I. Karelina, B. Zhikharevich, L. Savulkin, V. Polishchuk.
May, 15 – Round table «New Competencies for Urbanism of the XXI Century»
On May, 15 the round table "New Competencies for Urbanism of the XXI Century" was held within the international conference "Education and global cities: prospects of BRICS". Organizers of the round table: ICSER Leonief centre, Laboratory for Urban Studies and Leontief Centre Interfaculty Base Department.
On the round table experts discussed the actual challenges of the city-planning, if educational standards in city-planning correspond to its current demands, use of information technologies, necessity of interdisciplinary approach to education of urbanists and etc.
Discussion was moderated by the Head of the Laboratory for Urban Studies, Professor of HSE Leonid Limonov. Heads and experts from leading institutes and educational programs from Moscow and St. Petesburg participated in the event, as well as international urbanists - professor Pedro Novais (Brasil), Iwao Ohashi (Japan) and Paulo Ferrao (Portugal).
April, 27 – Regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS
On the 27th of April, Monday, 2015 The regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS was held in the conference hall of Leontief Centre.
Leonid Polischuk, Professor at the National Research University "Higher School of Economics", Head of the Laboratory of Institution’s Applied Analysis and Social Capital, made a report on the theme "Measuring the Institutions in Russian regions".
Questions and comments were made by L. Savulkin, B. Zhikharevich, E. Baki-Borodov, T. Vlasova, P. Uschev, L. Limonov.
April, 3 – Regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS
On the 3d of April, Friday, 2015 the regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS was held in the conference hall of Leontief Centre.
Leonid Grigoryev, head, School of World Economy (Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs, HSE); top adviser of the head, Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation, made a report on the theme “World and Russian crisis”.
Questions and comments were made by P. Grebennikov, V. Titov, E. Baki-Borodov, L. Fridgant and others.February 2015 – Final seminar within the joint project with IWH
February 2015 the final seminar was held within the joint project with the Halle Institute for Economic Research (Germany) «Repositioning of Post-Socialist Cities (RePoCit)».
January, 20 – Regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS
On the 20th of January, Tuesday, 2015 The regular meeting of joint interdisciplinary seminar of Leontief Centre, Sociological Institute, HSE and St. Petersburg Institute of RAS was held in the conference hall of Leontief Centre.
Andrey Yakovlev, Director of Industrial and Market Analysis Institute, National Research University "Higher School of Economics", made a report on a theme "Incentives in the system of governance and economic growth".
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