Publications

We consider a game in extensive form recurrently played by agents who are randomly drawn from large populations and matched. We assume that preferences over actions at any information set admit a smooth-ambiguity representation in the sense of Klibanoff, Marinacci, and Mukerji (Econometrica, 2005), which may induce dynamic inconsistencies. We take this into account in our analysis of self-confirming equilibrium (SCE) given players' feedback about the path of play. Battigalli, Cerreia-Vioglio, Maccheroni, and Marinacci (Amer. Econ. Rev., 2015) show that the set of SCE's of a simultaneous-move game with feedback expands as ambiguity aversion increases. We show by example that SCE in a sequential game is not equivalent to SCE applied to the strategic form of such game, and that the previous monotonicity result does not extend to general sequential games. Still, we provide sufficient conditions under which the monotonicity result holds for SCE.

The purpose of this book is to develop academic skills of writing an extended essay. The process of developing this skill consists of six steps: title analysis, writing an introduction, main part paragraph development and writing a conclusion. Two lessons are devoted to writing an abstract and a summary. The last step is compiling bibliography. During this course attention is given to ways of avoiding plagiarism and punctuation issues.

The book contains Appendix with sample essays written by ICEF and School of Design students (National Research University Higher School of Economics). It is meant for classroom work but can be used for self-study, too. 

 

At the beginning of a dynamic game, players may have exogenous theories about how the opponents will play. If these theories are commonly known, players will refine their first-order beliefs and challenge their own theories through strategic reasoning. I propose a new solution concept, Selective Rationalizability, which captures the following hypothesis: when the observed behavior is not compatible with the beliefs in rationality and in the theories of all orders, players keep the beliefs in rationality that are compatible with the observed behavior, and drop the incompatible beliefs in the theories. Thus, Selective Rationalizability captures Common Strong Belief in Rationality (Battigalli and Siniscalchi, 2002) and refines Extensive-Form Rationalizability (Pearce, 1984, Battigalli, 1996), whereas Strong-Δ-Rationalizability (Battigalli, 2003, Battigalli and Siniscalchi, 2003) captures the opposite epistemic priority choice. Selective Rationalizability is extended to encompass richer epistemic priority orderings among different theories of opponents' behavior. This allows to shed some new light on strategic stability (Kohlberg and Mertens, 1986).

The manual was compiled in accordance with the Program of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, designed for students under the Master's program. The manual contains a set of teaching materials with basic concepts, sample tasks, tests, practical situations for conducting seminars, as well as for independent work of students. For students, graduate students and teachers of economic universities and faculties, all interested in topical issues of institutional science.

The monograph is written based on materials held in September 2017. at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation of the conference dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the publication of the first volume of Capital by Karl Marx. The monograph analyzes the methodology of Capital, its place in the history of economic thought and current issues through the prism of time. Particular attention is paid to the development of the ideas of "Capital" in the postmodern era. Special sections are devoted to the spread of Marxist ideas in Russia and the problems of modernizing Russia in the light of the ideas of Capital.

For students, graduate students and teachers of economic universities and faculties, all interested in current issues of modern economics.

The textbook in 2 parts 

The textbook contains a course of macroeconomic theory of introductory and intermediate levels and includes a standard set of topics studied in the baccalaureate of economic universities. In an understandable way it expounds the fundamentals of macroeconomic theory and macroeconomic policy: presents the definitions of the basic concepts and terms; outlines the key formulas; provides the thorough explanation and interpretation of macroeconomic relations and of the mechanisms of macroeconomic processes. The textbook gives the comprehensive analysis of the most important macroeconomic models, including dynamic ones, which apparatus is provided in the form accessible to readers with different levels of mathematical background. The analysis of various options for macroeconomic policy includes a detailed intuitive description of the mechanisms and consequences of each policy in the closed and in the open economies, and for different time periods: short-run, medium-run and long-run. For clarity and visibility, the theoretical statements are illustrated by logical chains, diagrams, tables, numerous graphs and statistical data, most of which relate to the Russian economy. The theory is accompanied by numerical problems with solutions, explanations and comments that not only gives insight of what formulas and how are to be used for solving typical tasks, but also contributes to deeper understanding of the theoretical material.

The textbook consists of two parts. Part I includes eight chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 have an overview character; they provide an idea about the subject and the methods of macroeconomic analysis and the key macroeconomic variables. Chapters 3–8 are devoted to the theory of aggregate demand; they deal with the models of the goods and money markets and describe the consequences of macroeconomic policy in the closed economy in the short run.

Part II included nine chapters. Chapter 9 addresses the labor market in order to derive aggregate supply. Chapter 10 describes the model of aggregate demand and aggregate supply and analyzes the consequences of exogenous shocks in the short run and in the medium run. Chapters 11–13 focus on the problems of macroeconomic instability — unemployment and inflation. Chapter 14 considers the factors and models of the long-run economic growth. Chapters 15–17 contain the theory of the open economy and examine the implications of the stabilization policies in the open economy.

This book is intended for undergraduate students of economic faculties; students of non-economic specialties, studying macroeconomics; macroeconomic theory teachers; applicants of master's programs of economic universities; attendees of professional retraining courses and further training faculties, as well as for all who are interested in macroeconomic theory and macroeconomic policy.  

This monograph is devoted to the institutional analysis of informal employment in the modern world. The development of views on the institute of informal employment is considered, global trends in the development of the shadow economy at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries are shown. The advantage of the monograph is a detailed analysis of Russian practice. The author studies the sources of informal employment in modern Russia, reveals the content and main forms, as well as development prospects in our country. The authors show that the reduction in transaction costs is the main direction of reducing informal employment in Russia. In the design of the book used photos of the authors. Designed for teachers of economic universities and faculties, graduate students and undergraduates, as well as all interested in topical issues of modern economics.

This paper studies the organisational structure of contracting out transportation operations to a vertical partnership between local authorities and a vertically integrated monopoly. Pricing decisions are delegated to the partnership operating in the downstream market as a socially concerned firm that maximises a weighted sum of social welfare and profits. The price for essential input required to produce each unit of the transportation service is determined by the monopoly in the upstream market for rolling stock and crew leasing. A forward ownership interest in the vertical partnership held by the monopoly yields a partial rebate of the downstream margin. In turn, the local authorities can extract the upstream monopoly rent via a franchise fee which can be determined ex post. Our theoretical model predicts that local authorities with a relatively high share in the partnership should decrease the net transfer from the budget by increasing the franchise fees if the upstream profit margins are high. The empirical evidence for the impact of the ownership structure on contractual regime is found in the panel data for 25 suburban passenger companies in Russia in 2011-2015, where partial cost recovery and inappropriate compensation plays the role of pseudo-franchising contracts

We investigate the consequences of excessive international debt overhang as they relate to both debtor and creditor countries. In particular, we assess the impact of monetary policy on financial stability and how it can be used to smooth borrowers, as well as creditors, consumption over the business cycle. Based on [Goodhart, Peiris, Tsomocos, 2018], we establish that an independent countercyclical monetary policy, that contracts liquidity whenever debt grows whereas it expands it when default rises, reduces volatility of consumption. In effect, monetary policy provides an extra degree of freedom to the policymaker. We implement our approach to the Czech and Eurozone area economies during the 1990s. In our model, we introduce endogenous default ά la [Shubik, Wilson, 1977], whereby debtors incur a welfare cost in renegotiating their contractual debt obligations that is commensurate to the level of default. However, this cost depends explicitly on the business cycle and it should be countercyclical. Hence, contractionary monetary policy reduces the volume of trade and efficiency, thus increasing default. This occurs as the default cost increases the associated default accelerator channel engenders higher default rates. On the other hand, lower interest rates increase trade efficiency and, consequently, reduce the amplitude of the business cycle and benefit financial stability. In sum, the appropriate design of monetary policy complements financial stability policy. The modeling of endogenous default allows us to study the interaction of monetary and macroprudential policy.

Most discussions of the Greek debt overhang have focussed on the implications for Greece. We show that when additional funds released to the debtor (Greece), via debt restructuring, are used efficiently in pursuit of a practicable business plan, then both debtor and creditor can benefit. We examine a dynamic two country model calibrated to Greek and German economies and support two-steady states, one with endogenous default and one without, depending on creditors expectations. In the default steady state, debt forgiveness lowers the volatility of both German and Greek consumption whereas demanding higher recovery rates has the opposite effect.

Innovation infrastructure plays a crucial role in the establishment of links among knowledge producers, intermediaries, and exploiters to deal with socio-economic challenges. Traditionally, the representatives of the public sector, business and academia have been considered as the key stakeholders; however today there is a shift of interest towards end users or consumers of products and services. Users, especially citizens, are able to bring new insights into their experience while taking part in the testing and validation of innovative products and/or services. Hence, it is essential to decide, which forms of innovation infrastructure units enable the successful involvement of users in the design and innovation process. Since mid-2000, the European Union has successfully introduced a platform for testing and experimentation based on the users’ engagement – a living laboratory. The study investigates the features of living labs, including their possible business applications, and searching for the living labs’ analogous among the existing forms of innovation infrastructure units in Russia. Business Model Canvas and comparative analysis are employed to do the research. Taken together, our results support the idea that a living lab is a very special form of innovation infrastructure unit, since it brings a product, technology, or service closer to the market, based on the insights from the end users’ engagement in testing and experimentation.

Public procurement costs evaluation is important both for procurement optimization at the company level and for evaluating the public procurement regulation system. This paper presents a survey-based methodological approach to public procurement costs evaluation at the macro level. We have modified the PwC approach and developed an alternative public procurement cost evaluation methodology at the macro level. The PwC methodology was adapted to developing and transitional economies and piloted on Russian data. Average costs of each type of procurement procedures implemented in 2016 were evaluated. A regression analysis of factors impacting public procurement costs evaluation revealed considerable differences between respondents who have and do not have experience with complex procurement procedures. Although the average overall costs of public procurements in Russia amounted to about 1% of the total value of concluded contracts, the figure stands at 6.6–8.1% for small purchases. This exceeds the economy from price decrease and calls for a need to simplify regulation of such procurements.

This study is focused on gaps in the theory of capital structure research regarding the phenomenon of zero-debt behavior. On the sample of firms from 21 countries with emerging capital markets over the period of 2010–2015, we show that the zero-debt policy choice is firstly driven by financial flexibility motive, while financial constraints could be regarded as the second motive. We show that major determinants of the zero-leverage choice are growth opportunities, profitability, business risk and cash holdings. We find that all these firms are smaller, less profitable, riskier and possess high cash holdings. Moreover, we find that macroeconomic conditions have lower influence on the debt policy decision in comparison with corporate determinants.

Financial constraints reduce the lawyer's ability to file lawsuits and bring cases to trial. As a result, access to justice for victims, pretrial bargaining, and potential injurers' precaution might be affected. We study civil litigation using a model that allows for asymmetric information, financially-constrained lawyers, third-party lawyer lending, and a continuum of plaintiff's types. We contribute to the economic analysis of law by generalizing seminal models of litigation (Bebchuk, 1984, Bebchuk, 1988; Katz, 1990), offering the first formal definition of access to justice, and presenting comprehensive social welfare analysis of relevant public policy. We provide complete equilibrium characterization and identify necessary conditions for the existence of the mixed- and pure-strategy PBE. Access to justice is denied to some victims under the mixed-strategy equilibrium. We then study the social welfare effects of policies aimed at relaxing lawyers' financial constraints, and identify a necessary and sufficient condition for a welfare-enhancing effect.

Confidence and overconfidence are essential aspects of human nature, but measuring (over)confidence is not easy. Our approach is to consider students' forecasts of their exam grades. Part of a student's grade expectation is based on the student's previous academic achievements; what remains can be interpreted as (over)confidence. Our results are based on a sample of about five hundred second-year undergraduate students enrolled  in a statistics course in Moscow. The course contains three exams and each student  produces a forecast for each of the three exams. Our models allow us to estimate overconfidence quantitatively. Using these models we find that students' expectations are not rational  and that most students are overconfident, in agreement with the general literature. Less obvious is that overconfidence helps: given the same academic achievement students with larger confidence obtain higher exam grades. Female students are less overconfident  than male students, their forecasts are more rational, and they are also faster learners in the sense that they adjust their expectations more rapidly.  

In the late 2000s, a number of analysts were optimistic about Brazil’s future. Their expectant analyses did not bear out, however, as a political and economic crisis developed just as Brazil was gearing up to host two mega-events, the World Cup in 2014 and the Olympic Games in 2016. This paper has two aims. The first is to deepen our understanding of the crisis through examining one of the foremost civil society actors to emerge in this period: the Landless Workers’ Movement (Movimento de Trabalhadores Sem-Teto, MTST). The second is to use this case to consider the potential for the sociology of critical capacity - a field of theory that emerged out of the Political and Moral Sociology Research Group in Paris in the 1980s - to contribute to theorising the ‘justification work’ of social movements.

“Default is to macro-economics what sin is to theology: regrettable but central and essential”. The contemporaneous assessment of both liquidity and default within a framework of missing financial markets, multiple currencies, heterogeneous economic actors (i.e., investors, firms and intermediaries) and multiple externalities is warranted for analysing the interplay of financial and price stability. Thus, the complementarity and substitutability of regulatory and monetary policies can be identified and dissected. The optimal policy mix may be subsequently determined given the objectives of the fiscal and monetary authorities.

In both the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods, femininity and beauty were traits often attributed to the ideal working mother portrayed and promoted in state media. But with greater exposure to global beauty ideals in the post-communist era, the sexualized and beautified female body acquired a social value that was independent of its role in the reproductive process. In this paper, I analyse changes in the way care for the female body was represented in two Russian women’s magazines Rabotnitsa and Krest’yanka (1970s–1990s). Over this period, the ideal of the working mother figures less prominently and there is an increasing focus on the ways that women-consumers ought to work on their individual body-projects. This might appear to be a radical change. But by analysing the representations of women more carefully, I show that the move towards the privatization of the body project was already under way in the late Soviet period, but only for some categories of women. That is, non-Slavic women of various ages could be working mothers, but individual consumption was a realm reserved for their Slavic countrywomen.

Ambiguity attitudes have been prominently used in economic models, but we still know little about their demographic correlates or their generalizability beyond the West. We analyze the ambiguity attitudes of almost 3,000 students across thirty countries. For gains, we find ambiguity aversion everywhere, while ambiguity aversion is much weaker for losses. Ambiguity attitudes change systematically with probabilities for both gains and losses. Much of the between-country variation can be explained through a few macroeconomic characteristics. In contrast, we find massive unexplained variation at the individual level. We also find much unexplained heterogeneity in individual responses to different decision tasks.

he paper proposes a two-stage mixed duopoly model of exhaustible resource market where at the first stage the government decides on the degree of privatization of public firm and at the second stage the public and private firms decide simultaneously on the two-period extraction paths. It is demonstrated that if the two firms have symmetric technologies with increasing marginal extraction costs and the same resource stocks, then neither full nationalization of any of the two firms nor full privatization will be socially desirable. It is shown that the presence of a semi-public firm improves intertemporal allocation of the fixed resource stock. Thus, partial privatization is optimal even under exogenously fixed total outputs of each firm. For asymmetric cost case, when the public firm is less efficient than the private firm, we derive the conditions under which full nationalization or full privatization is optimal.