Open enrollment for collective research projects for students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences

Center for Institutional Studies opens an enrollment for research projects for students of the Faculty of Economic Sciences in key research areas. Please, see the projects below

Education:

University admission mechanisms and factors of student academic success

No. 13

Currently, the Unified State Exam (USE) is the main mechanism of applicants’ selection to higher education institutions (HEIs). Nevertheless, in addition to the USE, there are several alternative mechanisms for admission to the university, preserved from the selection system that existed before the introduction of the USE.  In recent years a number of the most selective (‘top’) universities had a lack of available tuition-free positions for the applicants on the USE basis, because almost the vast majority of those were taken by the winners of the Olympiads. In this case, the opportunities of being admitted to a selective university through USE mechanism were very limited. As a result, such HEIs report very high average scores among those who were admitted on the USE basis, which means that a certain share of bright youth is ‘overboard’ universities that offer high-quality programs. The mechanism of applicants’ selection should provide a match between the requirements (‘quality’) of the university and the student’s abilities. Unobservable abilities of the applicant upon admission to the university can be expressed in the individual USE results and/or in the results of the Olympiads. Given that the Olympiad is the most preferable way to enter selective universities, it is necessary to evaluate the efficiency of the existing selection mechanisms. In other words, what is the impact of the selection mechanism and the USE results in various subjects on current academic performance and dropouts?

 

Language: English or Russian (depending on whether there are foreign students who do not speak Russian participating)

Supervisor: Ilya Prakhov (Department of Applied Economics, iprahov@hse.ru)

Educational preferences of individuals in the digital age

No. 22

Education market nowadays is comprised of a number of different options. Individuals can pursue classic university degree of different levels (undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate), select professional education (e.g., MBA, DBA or college) and complete additional non-degree courses (e.g., in MOOC format or within EdTech companies offerings). However, practices like adaptive learning, individualization of content, formats and learning objectives go beyond simple selection of predetermined education programs. Even though we know some insights into why the individuals might behave differently in a controlled university setting, little is yet known when we talk about individual’s educational preferences in a wider setting of free & paid courses as well as full-time degree programs. Digital technologies made education market more flexible for the individuals (in terms of content, information delivery methods and formats, pace, scopes, etc). Yet, we have only selective evidence on what encompasses the scope of these changes and digital transformation of education market is yet in its early phase.  This project is aimed at studying why individuals behave differently in the education market through comprehensive study of the market’s digital transformation. The project concerns a few main areas, however, this list is not extensive and may be amended:

- Individual’s preferences in the education market towards formats, content and delivery methods

- Individual’s segments and prediction of these segments using observable data

- EdTech landscape in Russia and in the World - Adoption of EdTech projects in standard degree programs (university) setting

- The impact of digital transformation on education market.

 

Language: English or Russian (depending on whether there are foreign students who do not speak Russian participating)

Supervisor: Egor Krivosheya (Center for Institutional Studies, ICEF, egorkrivosheya@gmail.com)

Public procurement:

Public procurement: efficiency and barriers

No. 14

Project participants (i) familiarize themselves with the principles of the functioning of the public procurement system in Russia and key foreign countries with a focus on efficiency issues in their implementation; (ii) will learn to analyze available literature on research on the effectiveness of various public procurement management mechanisms; (iii) will master the methods of open data management in public procurement, will acquire the skills of creating databases from open sources as well as the skills of mini-project teamwork  (iv) will run empirical research on the analysis of the effectiveness and challenges of public procurement using the knowledge and skills gained.

 

Language: English or Russian (depending on whether there are foreign students who do not speak Russian participating)

Supervisor: Elena Podkolzina (Department of Applied Economics; Center for Institutional Studies, epodk@hse.ru)

Finance:

Tariffs in the digital platforms

No. 21

Digital platforms have become prevalent way of industrial organization for many markets. Most of these platforms are monetized by some form of tariffs either for the end-users or for the third parties (e.g., ad providers). There are different types of platforms or two-sided markets (e.g., 2-party schemes or marketplaces; 3-party schemes like search engines and 4-party schemes like payment systems). This also affects the structure of market formation and, hence, the nature of tariffs (e.g., subscription, usage fees and third-party fees). During the recent years many platform creators were criticized for setting inefficient tariffs and, hence, creating uneven welfare distribution across end-user groups. This attracted regulatory interest, which sometimes resulted in tariff caps (e.g., payments market, app stores) and/or decrease of market entry barriers. However, we still don’t know whether such interventions are effective. There is no comprehensive view on what affects tariffs efficiency in some markets and/or wether currently set tariffs at specific markets are efficient. Many platforms choose their tariffs based on accounting or the most basic economic principles that do not account for the institutional or industrial characteristics. This project is aimed at understanding formation principles & efficiency of the set markets as well as understanding the principles of effective regulation/market discipline.

Key project areas include:

- Regulatory landscape of digital platforms

- Principles of tariff formation in digital platforms

- Efficiency of currently set tariffs

- Strategies for effective platforms regulation & self-regulation.

 

Language: English or Russian (depending on whether there are foreign students who do not speak Russian participating)

Supervisor: Egor Krivosheya (Center for Institutional Studies, ICEF, egorkrivosheya@gmail.com)

Analysis of FinTech Ecosystems

No. 139

FinTech has become an important part of financial services market during last decade ever since the regulatory landscape shifted because of the global financial crisis and exponential growth of technologies adoption. Russian market is among the leaders in FinTech adoption, however, there are various cross-country differences in how FinTech develops and its effects. This project is aimed at comprehensive study of global and local FinTech ecosystems. This is a long-term project. The focus of this year is the analysis of post-COVID-19 and, especially, forced digital transformation/digitalization FinTech landscape across the globe and in Russia. Key project areas include: Analysis of local and global FinTech landscape Analysis of COVID-19/forced digitalization impact on global and local FinTech adoption FinTech and financial services (e.g., payment) preferences of Russian and foreign individuals Regulatory strategies for FinTech market.

 

Language: English or Russian (depending on whether there are foreign students who do not speak Russian participating)

Supervisor: Egor Krivosheya (Center for Institutional Studies, ICEF, egorkrivosheya@gmail.com)

Deadline: 7th June.
Application form:
https://economics.hse.ru/pro_fes

Find more about job opportunities for students at CInSt:
https://cinst.hse.ru/junior