In this study, we raise a simple question: do STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education and employment provide a monetary return to professionals with this specialization and holding STEM jobs? If yes, what is the premium across ages and cohorts? We compare wages of professionals with the STEM education and without it, holding STEM jobs and those working in alternative positions, and with various combinations of education and jobs. We estimate premiums for the whole sample as well as for different age groups and cohorts. For this, we use various large data sets with variables for college majors and occupational positions. The main conclusion is that the STEM specialization brings no significant benefits compared to non-STEM majors and jobs. The premium does not emerge over experience or age; moreover, older groups engaged in STEM-related work tend to experience a wage penalty. As we move from younger to older age cohorts, the wage growth declines which means that wages for younger age cohorts catch up and take over the older ones, even if they were initially lower. These results are reproduced on all available datasets.

The paper presents a wide set of estimates for returns to education in Russia, introducing a number of new sources of microdata that previosly remained unused by both Russian and foreign researchers. Until now virtually all available estimates for Russia were based on data from a single source — The Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey — Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE). According to these data, since the mid-2000s returns to education rapidly declined and have dropped to abnormally low levels. The paper tests the thesis of ultra-low economic value of Russian education using data from three alternative representative surveys regularly conducted by Rosstat. The analysis shows that currently returns to education in Russia reach 12—13%, which is much higher than the standard RLMS estimates. University-type tertiary education almost doubles earnings (its premium approaches to 100%), and even short-cycle tertiary education provides a premium of about 20—30%. Alternative sources also indicate that over the past 15 years, returns to education in Russia remained stable and, therefore, no decreasing trend in the economic value of education has been observed. This makes it possible to reject the currently popular thesis about abnormally low returns to education in Russia.

Though master’s programmes are rapidly gaining attention from students, evidence concerning the labor market returns to master’s degree remains scarce. There is a widespread opinion that Russian employers can barely distinguish between graduates with bachelor’s and master’s degree making it unreasonable to pursue a graduate degree. This paper contradicts this opinion. Based on a unique administrative dataset about employment of Russian HEI graduates in 2020, this study reveals a significantly positive association between master’s degree acquisition and labour market outcomes one year after graduation. Master’s degree increases probability of employment by 3—8% in male sample and by 10—16% in female sample, respectively. Moreover, graduate degree is associated with a wage premium of 5—21% for females and 2—11% for males. Despite a short period of time passed after the Bologna reform, Russian labour market encourages having a graduate degree, though the size of the premium varies drastically between fields of study and types of university.

This paper explores firm survival in Russian retail industry in cases of digital multi-sided platforms penetration such as aggregator Yandex.Market, marketplace Wildberries, electronic store Ozon and classified-ad service Avito. The panel data set of 130 thousand firms was analyzed using two methods: non-parametric Kaplan—Meier estimator and semi-parametric Cox proportional hazards model with time dependent covariates. Kaplan—Meier estimator calculates the survival function for censored data. Cox proportional hazards model examines the effect of platform penetration on hazard rates of differently sized firms in various industry spheres. Platforms-aggregators Yandex.Market and Wildberries have a strong positive impact on firm survival while platformsdisruptors Ozon and Avito increase likelihood of firm failure. The main results of platform influence in various industry spheres are as follows: the aggregator of price offers has a more positive impact on segments with high information asymmetry; and firms specialized on Wildberries key product categories enjoy lower hazard ratios of bankruptcy or liquidation. These hypotheses are not supported for Ozon and Avito platforms.

The article presents a classification of approaches to the analysis of sports activities at the individual level. Economists are interested in studying sports because of the growing importance of the sport industry in the economy. In this regard, it becomes an urgent task to identify motivations that encourage people to engage in sports. The main purpose of the paper is to discuss the differences in approaches to the study of sports activity of individuals depending on the dominant motives. The author considers the main motives for sports, such as professional activities, leisure, and investments in human capital. The article systematizes approaches to the analysis of people’s sports activities and offers a classification of approaches. The article discusses the relationship between motives and the problem of empirical assessment of individuals’ decision-making about sports from an economist’s point of view.

The crisis that the global economy faced in 2020 has no historical counterparts. However, this does not mean that the experience of overcoming previous economic cataclysms in the current situation is useless. History shows that a crisis can become a long stop on the path of economic development of a country or, on the contrary, give an impetus to its acceleration. Within the framework of the XXII April international academic conference of HSE University and Sberbank (Moscow, April 13—30, 2021), a roundtable was held on lessons in the field of economic, social, domestic, technological policy that can be learned from the crises of the past and are useful in the context of recovering from the current recession. The roundtable became a part of the project “The experience of overcoming the crises of the last century and its lessons for the present”, implemented by the Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs of HSE University in 2020—2021. Its participants were asked the following questions: which crises over the past century most resemble the current economic crisis; what lessons in the field of economic, social, domestic policy, institutional development can be learned from the crises of the past to overcome the current economic situation; can the crisis give the country an opportunity to move to a higher level of development?