Research & Expertise news at HSE University

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2023 to Claudia Goldin (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA), ‘for having advanced our understanding of women’s labour market outcomes.’ According to the Nobel committee, Professor Goldin has uncovered key factors that determine gender differences in the labour market.

Cognitive dissonance is a complex and multifaceted psychological phenomenon that arises in challenging decision-making scenarios. Multiple regions of the brain participate in its occurrence, yet the neurodynamics of underlying cognitive mechanisms remain a subject of debate. Researchers from the HSE Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience have proposed the use of online transcranial magnetic stimulation applied to participants as they were actively engaged in tasks, to pinpoint the moment of cognitive dissonance resolution. Their findings have been published in a review paper in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

A group of specialists from the HSE Institute for Cultural Studies, Vitaly Kurennoy, Alexander Suvalko and Maria Figura, have determined two main trends that are actively shaping the image of the creative economy and culture in 2021-2023: the creator economy and the maker economy.

A university education is a highly sought-after commodity in Russia, yet the quality of universities and their programmes varies significantly. This gives rise to risks of inequality, both in the realm of education and in the labour market, and subsequently impacts the returns on higher education, which are manifested in the salaries earned by graduates. According to a study by Ilya Prakhov, Assistant Professor of the HSE Faculty of Economic Sciences, graduates from Russia’s top-tier universities enjoy a distinct advantage. The paper has been published in the International Journal of Educational Development.

Today, we can make a telephone call to anyone, anywhere in the world—but this was not always the case. In this series of columns on IQ.HSE, Anton Basov, HSE Faculty of Computer Science editor, discusses how telephones have become an integral part of our everyday life. The third episode focuses on the evolution of telephone connections, the first subscribers, and the history of the telephone directory.

The all-Russia prize ‘For Loyalty to Science’ is awarded annually for outstanding achievements in the fields of science communication, science popularisation, and enhancing the prestige of the activities of scientists and engineers in Russia. The prize is held as part of the Decade of Science and Technology and is organised by the Russian Ministry of Education and Science.

A team of researchers from HSE University, the RAS Research Centre for Medical Genetics, and the Moscow State University Institute of Anthropology have examined the impact of the human genotype on the production of trehalase, an enzyme responsible for metabolising 'mushroom sugar'. The researchers examined 1,068 DNA samples collected from inhabitants of northern and Arctic regions of Russia and found that the overall risk of trehalase deficiency in certain indigenous northern populations can be as high as 60–70%. The paper has been published in Problems of Nutrition.

The Russian-African Competence Transfer Programme in the Field of Public Administration Digitalisation in African Countries, which is being implemented by HSE University's Centre for African Studies, will be partially state-financed. The subsidy will be provided by the Russian government in accordance with the corresponding order signed on September 21.