The document discusses the future of the Russian middle class. It analyzes the current state of the middle class in Russia based on interviews with 1,300 people. The middle class is defined based on material status, with an annual income per family member of 17,000-25,000 euros. The document forecasts that the middle class will continue growing and their lifestyle and consumption will change in the future. It also discusses opportunities for Finnish companies to engage with the evolving Russian middle class market.
This paper employs a standard Tobin-Markowitz framework to analyse the determinants of capital flows into the CIS countries. Using data from 1996-2006, we find that the Russian financial crisis of 1998 has had a profound impact on capital flows into the CIS (both directly and indirectly). Firstly, it introduced a structural shift in the investors' behaviour by shifting the focus from the external factors to the internal ones, e.g. domestic interest and GDP growth rates. Secondly, it also drastically changed the impact of a number of explanatory variables on capital flows into the CIS. Political risk was found to be the second most important determinant of capital flows into the CIS. Additionally, we report some strong evidence of co-movement between portfolio flows into the CIS and CEEC, coupled with strong complementarity between global stock market activity and portfolio inflows into the CIS. Interestingly, external factors tend to be of a higher significance than internal factors for the largest members (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) of the CIS; whereas domestic variables tend to have a greater impact on the capital flows into the smaller CIS countries.
Authored by: Oleksandr Lozovyi
Published in 2007
The paper discusses the role of regional public goods vs. global goods in influencing postcommunist transition in Central and Eastern Europe and former USSR with special attention given to three particular factors: (i) external anchoring of national reform process; (ii) international trade arrangements and (iii) international financial stability.
Authored by: Marek Dabrowski, Artur Radziwill
Published in 2007
Moldova unilaterally declares its EU membership aspirations and started the process of economic, legal and institutional approximation targeted at establishing free market economy, stable democratic institutions and sound legal system. In the paper the authors made an attempt to assess the competitive and institutional capacity of Moldova in the context of EU membership requirements. It presents Polish achievements in European integration process as a CEE successful way towards full membership. The paper is devoted to transfer know how on Polish experience in EU integration at first stages of the process, with the emphasis on assessment of fulfillment of Copenhagen criteria and the role of association stage in the integration process as a whole. Basing on Poland's example, it provides the recommendations for Moldova on possible ways of integration with the EU so that Moldovan economy and society would be able to benefit most from the process - in other words, to successfully conclude the transformation of economy and adjust law and state institutions to European standards.
The analysis does not cover the political aspects of Transdniestrian conflict as it is an important and broad issue that requires deep separate analysis. In the paper there is also no evaluation of cooperation within Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe since we consider Moldova as Eastern European country with clear geopolitical position neighboring Ukraine and Romania.
Authored by: Iurie Gotisan, Karina Kostrzewa, Eugen Osmochescu
Published in 2005
This work is done as contribution to the Regional Human Development Report 2004 section 3.7 on “Labor Markets”. The paper focuses on discussing peculiarities of the labor market transition in CIS countries, features of unemployment, labor legislation, and role of the trade unions.
The paper gathers information on the labor markets of CIS and Eastern European countries that was available by summer 2004, and draws policy recommendations based on comparison between these two groups of countries. The main conclusion is that the transformation of labor markets is not complete in any of the CIS countries; most of the problems that prevailed in the early 1990s remain. These include: centralized wage setting in five CIS countries – Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; extensive unemployment and underemployment, much of which is hidden; ineffective systems of labor relations and social protection; large mismatches between the labor market skills supplied and the skills demanded by new market economies; inadequate official labor market data.
Fortunately, the strong economic growth experienced by most CIS countries since 1999 has increased the demand for labor and is putting downward pressures on unemployment rates. This offers a window of opportunity for policy makers seeking to further transform labor markets, and to modernize labor relations and social protection systems. The above analysis suggests the policy recommendations to speed up further transformation.
Authored by: Olga Pavlova, Oleksandr Rohozynsky
Published in 2005
During the last two decades the CIS countries have received very significant amounts of technical assistance from international development organizations and bilateral donors. While this has played a positive and important role in the transformation of these societies, practically all stakeholders currently share the opinion that many problems have accumulated in the area of technical cooperation with CIS countries. This paper intends to outline these problems, analyze their underlying reasons - including the changing environment for technical cooperation in the CIS - and the interaction of the interests of beneficiaries, donors and providers in the process of implementing technical cooperation projects. The analysis suggests that a good understanding, recognition and coordination of the interests of all TC stakeholders and a reduction in the information gap between the various participants in the technical cooperation process are necessary for improving the effectiveness of technical cooperation.
Authored by: Aziz Atamanov, Roman Mogilevsky
Published in 2008
This paper employs a standard Tobin-Markowitz framework to analyse the determinants of capital flows into the CIS countries. Using data from 1996-2006, we find that the Russian financial crisis of 1998 has had a profound impact on capital flows into the CIS (both directly and indirectly). Firstly, it introduced a structural shift in the investors' behaviour by shifting the focus from the external factors to the internal ones, e.g. domestic interest and GDP growth rates. Secondly, it also drastically changed the impact of a number of explanatory variables on capital flows into the CIS. Political risk was found to be the second most important determinant of capital flows into the CIS. Additionally, we report some strong evidence of co-movement between portfolio flows into the CIS and CEEC, coupled with strong complementarity between global stock market activity and portfolio inflows into the CIS. Interestingly, external factors tend to be of a higher significance than internal factors for the largest members (Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) of the CIS; whereas domestic variables tend to have a greater impact on the capital flows into the smaller CIS countries.
Authored by: Oleksandr Lozovyi
Published in 2007
The paper discusses the role of regional public goods vs. global goods in influencing postcommunist transition in Central and Eastern Europe and former USSR with special attention given to three particular factors: (i) external anchoring of national reform process; (ii) international trade arrangements and (iii) international financial stability.
Authored by: Marek Dabrowski, Artur Radziwill
Published in 2007
Moldova unilaterally declares its EU membership aspirations and started the process of economic, legal and institutional approximation targeted at establishing free market economy, stable democratic institutions and sound legal system. In the paper the authors made an attempt to assess the competitive and institutional capacity of Moldova in the context of EU membership requirements. It presents Polish achievements in European integration process as a CEE successful way towards full membership. The paper is devoted to transfer know how on Polish experience in EU integration at first stages of the process, with the emphasis on assessment of fulfillment of Copenhagen criteria and the role of association stage in the integration process as a whole. Basing on Poland's example, it provides the recommendations for Moldova on possible ways of integration with the EU so that Moldovan economy and society would be able to benefit most from the process - in other words, to successfully conclude the transformation of economy and adjust law and state institutions to European standards.
The analysis does not cover the political aspects of Transdniestrian conflict as it is an important and broad issue that requires deep separate analysis. In the paper there is also no evaluation of cooperation within Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe since we consider Moldova as Eastern European country with clear geopolitical position neighboring Ukraine and Romania.
Authored by: Iurie Gotisan, Karina Kostrzewa, Eugen Osmochescu
Published in 2005
This work is done as contribution to the Regional Human Development Report 2004 section 3.7 on “Labor Markets”. The paper focuses on discussing peculiarities of the labor market transition in CIS countries, features of unemployment, labor legislation, and role of the trade unions.
The paper gathers information on the labor markets of CIS and Eastern European countries that was available by summer 2004, and draws policy recommendations based on comparison between these two groups of countries. The main conclusion is that the transformation of labor markets is not complete in any of the CIS countries; most of the problems that prevailed in the early 1990s remain. These include: centralized wage setting in five CIS countries – Belarus, Moldova, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan; extensive unemployment and underemployment, much of which is hidden; ineffective systems of labor relations and social protection; large mismatches between the labor market skills supplied and the skills demanded by new market economies; inadequate official labor market data.
Fortunately, the strong economic growth experienced by most CIS countries since 1999 has increased the demand for labor and is putting downward pressures on unemployment rates. This offers a window of opportunity for policy makers seeking to further transform labor markets, and to modernize labor relations and social protection systems. The above analysis suggests the policy recommendations to speed up further transformation.
Authored by: Olga Pavlova, Oleksandr Rohozynsky
Published in 2005
During the last two decades the CIS countries have received very significant amounts of technical assistance from international development organizations and bilateral donors. While this has played a positive and important role in the transformation of these societies, practically all stakeholders currently share the opinion that many problems have accumulated in the area of technical cooperation with CIS countries. This paper intends to outline these problems, analyze their underlying reasons - including the changing environment for technical cooperation in the CIS - and the interaction of the interests of beneficiaries, donors and providers in the process of implementing technical cooperation projects. The analysis suggests that a good understanding, recognition and coordination of the interests of all TC stakeholders and a reduction in the information gap between the various participants in the technical cooperation process are necessary for improving the effectiveness of technical cooperation.
Authored by: Aziz Atamanov, Roman Mogilevsky
Published in 2008
This paper focuses on roots of strain in the European Monetary Union (EMU). It argues that there is need for a thorough reform of the governance structure of the Union in conjunction with radical changes in the regulation and supervision of financial markets. Financial intermediation has gone astray in recent decades and entailed a big bubble in the industrialized world. Waves of financial deregulation have enhanced systemic risks, via speculative behavior and growing inter-connectedness. Moreover, the EMU was sub-optimal from its debut and competitiveness gaps did not diminish against the backdrop of its inadequate policy and institutional design. The euro zone crisis is not related to fiscal negligence only; over-borrowing by the private sector and poor lending by banks, as well as a one-sided monetary policy, also explain this debacle. The EMU needs to complement its common monetary policy with solid fiscal/budget underpinnings. Fiscal rules and sanctions are necessary, but not sufficient. A common treasury (a federal budget) is needed in order to help the EMU absorb shocks and forestall confidence crises. A joint system of regulation and supervision of financial markets should operate. Emergency measures have to be comprehensive and acknowledge the necessity of a lender of last resort; they have to combat vicious circles. Structural reforms and EMU level policies are needed to enhance competitiveness in various countries and foster convergence. The EU has to work closely with the US and other G20 members in order to achieve a less unstable global financial system.
Authored by: Daniel Daianu
Published in 2012
This paper describes the general framework of the EU’s emerging relationship with its new neighbours and investigates the potential economic impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), both for the EU itself and for its neighbours. In particular, it seeks to develop an answer to the question of whether the ENP is sufficiently attractive so as to induce the governments in neighbourhood countries to adopt (or accelerate the adoption of) the types of economic and governance reforms that were implemented in the new member states during their accession processes. Although the specifics of the ENP are still being developed, the lack of incentives as regards to unclear accession to the EU is identified as the main weakness of the ENP.
Economically, the ENP seeks to ease trade restrictions through the implementation of legislative approximation and convergence with EU standards, before accessing the EU’s single market can become a reality. Positively though, is that the access to the single market could improve significantly under the ENP. As experienced by the Central European states, FDI is instrumental to transform the economies of the Western CIS and the Caucasus. The ENP can be a supportive framework for improving investor confidence. Likewise, the new European Neighbourhood Instrument can add more coherence in technical assistance, and provide more financial support for creating capacities for trade infrastructures and institutional and private sector development. Finally, measures to promote increased labour migration between the new neighbours and the enlarged EU may be worth to put on the agenda for the future development and impact of the ENP.
Authored by: Susanne Milcher, Ben Slay
Published in 2005
The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic aspects of EU policy towards its Eastern neighbors in the former Soviet Union. For a long period of time, this region was considered as less important for the EU, as compared to Central and Eastern Europe, which was the subject of a far-reaching economic and political integration offer materialized in two rounds of EU Eastern Enlargements (2004, 2007). However, moving the EU's geographical frontier further to the East and Southeast increased the importance of the CIS region as a potential partner of the enlarged EU. In 2004, East European and Caucasus countries were invited to participate in the European Neighborhood Policy a new EU external policy framework also addressed to the Southern Mediterranean countries. Russia has been attempting to build a strategic political and economic partnership with the EU outside the ENP framework but the content of this relationship is, in fact, very similar to the ENP.
A general weakness of the ENP is that there is a lack of balance between farreaching expectations with respect to neighbors' policies and reforms, and limited and distant rewards that can potentially be offered. Thus, making this cooperation framework more effective requires a serious enhancement of the rewards using, to the extent possible, the positive experience of previous EU enlargements. The nature of contemporary economic relations in the globalized world calls for a more complex package-type approach to economic integration rather than just limiting cooperation to some narrow fields.
Authored by: Marek Dąbrowski
Published in 2007
An attempt is made to explore the basic implications of differences in productivity growth rates in countries within a monetary union and tailor them to the case of the EU new member countries running up to the EMU. By using the mathematical model of Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson effect and linking productivity and relative price dynamics with monetary policy, it is shown that: 1) productivity growth in faster-growing countries (FGC) leads to either inflation there, or union-wide exchange rate appreciation, or both in certain proportions, depending on the monetary policy stance taken by the union, but does not cause increase in inflation in slower-growing countries (SGC) by itself, unless the union’s monetary authorities take pro-inflationary policy; 2) because of presence of FGC, the SGC do not become less competitive in the world, and can benefit from increased export of their goods to FGC, provided their labour markets are flexible enough; 3) the real challenge for SGC posed by FGC is not inflation, but rather loss of jobs and export revenues, if their labour markets are not flexible enough to adjust under tight union-wide monetary policy aimed at keeping the union-wide overall price level unchanged, or the labour productivity increase in FGC is not met by adequate improvement in labour productivity in SGC. It should be noted, however, that this ‘adequate improvement’ is enough to constitute only a fraction of the productivity growth in FGC.
Authored by: Nikolai Zoubanov
Published in 2003
Demographic change (driven by the second demographic transition) led to an uncontrolled increase in scale of various social expenditure in the OECD area, especially in continental Europe. Costs of social transfers created fiscal pressure leading to the necessity of tax increases all over Europe, including the New Member States. Employment consequences of emerging higher tax wedge has become the topic of large body of research. However, surprisingly little evidence is known on distribution of that problem across workers. Is the effect of high tax wedge equally spread or certain groups of workers suffer more than others? More specifically, are low productivity workers exposed more to the problems caused by high tax wedge?
Authored by: Marek Gora, Artur Radziwill, Agnieszka Sowa, Mateusz Walewski
Published in 2006
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sources, economic and social characteristics, of growth recovery, which followed the first period of output decline in two transition countries – Poland and Russia. They represent two different groups of transition countries (new EU member states vs. CIS) in terms of adopted transition strategy and accomplished results. Generally, fast reformers succeeded and slow reformers experienced a lot of troubles. Although eventually all former communist countries entered the path of economic growth, those which moved slowly lost sometimes the whole decade. Social costs of slow reforms were also dramatic: income degradation and rising inequalities, high level of poverty and corruption, various social and institutional distortions and pathologies, violation of human rights and civil and economic liberties, attempts of authoritarian restoration, etc.
Authored by: Marek Dabrowski, Oleksandr Rohozynsky, Irina Sinitsina
Published in 2004
This paper analyses the impact of exchange rate regimes on the real sector. While most studies in this field have so far concentrated on aggregate variables, we pursue a sectoral approach distinguishing between the tradable and nontradable sectors. Firstly, we present a survey of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. This demonstrates that evaluations of exchange rate regimes and their impact on the real economy are largely dependant on specific assumptions concerning, in particular, the parameters of a utility function, the nature of the price adjustment process and the characteristics of analysed shocks. Secondly, we conduct an empirical analysis of the behaviour of the tradable and nontradable sectors under different exchange rate regimes for seven Central and Eastern European countries. We find no firm evidence of a differential impact of given exchange rate regimes on the dynamics of output and prices in the two sectors. We proffer a conceptual and technical interpretation of this.
Authored by: Przemyslaw Kowalski, Wojciech Paczynski, Łukasz Rawdanowicz
Published in 2003
The Eurozone crisis mobilises an appreciable amount of the attention of politicians and the public, with calls for a decisive defence of the euro, because the single currency’s demise is said to be the beginning of the end of the EU and Single European Market. In our view, preserving the euro may result in something completely different than expected: the disintegration of the EU and the Single European Market rather than their further strengthening. The fundamental problem with the common currency is individual countries’ inability to correct their external exchange rates, which normally constitutes a fast and efficient adjustment instrument, especially in crisis times.
Europe consists of nation states that constitute the major axes of national identity and major sources of government’s legitimisation. Staying within the euro zone may sentence some countries – which, for whatever reason, have lost or may lose competitiveness – to economic, social and civilizational degradation, and with no way out of this situation. This may disturb social and political cohesion in member countries, give birth to populist tendencies that endanger the democratic order, and hamper peaceful cooperation in Europe. The situation may get out of control and trigger a chaotic break-up of the euro zone,
threatening the future of the whole EU and Single European Market.
In order to return to the origins of European integration and avoid the chaotic break-up of the euro zone, the euro zone should be dismantled in a controlled manner. If a weak country were to leave the euro zone, it would entail panic and a banking system collapse. Therefore we opt for a different scenario, in which the euro area is slowly dismantled in such a way that the most competitive countries or group of such countries leave the euro zone. Such a step would create a new European currency regime based on national currencies or currencies serving groups of homogenous countries, and save EU institutions along with the Single European Market.
This paper has been also published in "German Economic Review" (Volume 14, Issue 1, pages 31–49, February 2013)
Authored by: Stefan Kawalec and Ernest Pytlarczyk
The paper examines the quality of the business climate in the group of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from the prospective of the level of development of entrepreneurship, and individual countries’ attractiveness to the foreign direct investments (FDI). The analysis suggests that the main obstacles for further improvements of the business climate in this group of countries are high level of corruption, inefficiency in the existing system of tax administration and regulation, discretionary implementation of custom and trade regulations, low level of property rights protection, and macroeconomic instability. Some explanations of the historical and institutional causes of these business impediments are provided.
Although the net FDI inflow to CIS countries has been substantially increased since the time they gained independence, it’s still well bellow than in Central & Eastern Europe Countries (CEE). The number of private enterprises per capita vastly varies within the CIS countries, with some of them approaching the OECD level, but some else lagging far behind. FDI stocks also unequally distribute within the CIS group. Fuel exporting countries are better off than fuel importing countries, although the individual country’s business climate within two groups does not differ significantly.
As a conclusion, paper suggests a number of concrete public policy recommendations aiming to improve business climate in the CIS region. This paper focuses on discussing the deep systemic causes of the existing business and investment climate in the CIS, its potential negative implications for economic growth and possible cures.
Authored by: Vladimir Dubrovskiy, Oleg Ustenko
Published in 2005
This paper quantifies transparency of monetary policy in the three EU New Member States that have adopted direct inflation targeting strategy. Two measures of transparency are applied. The institutional measure reflects the extent to which a central bank discloses information that is related to the policymaking process. The behavioural measure reflects the clarity among the financial market participants about the true course of monetary policy. The paper shows an ambiguous association between the two measures of transparency, which may be attributed to the active exchange rate management policy that undermines the actual transparency proxied by the behavioural measure.
Authored by: Mariusz Jarmuzek, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Artur Radziwill
Published in 2004
Internationalization of Russian Universities: The Chinese VectorRussian Council
This Report was prepared by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) as a part of the project “The Development of Russian—Chinese Relations”, based on research of the practical experience accumulated by several leading Russian universities. The Report contains a number of particular recommendations aimed at reinforcing Russia’s positions in the education market of China and the Asia-Pacific region in general, as well as developing Russia’s innovation potential through the expansion of mutually beneficial scientific and educational cooperation between the two countries.
Assisting Development in Central Asia: Strategic Horizons of Russian Engagem...Russian Council
Authors:
V.M. Sergeev, Dr. of History (Chairman); A.A. Kazantsev, Dr. of Political Science; V.I. Bartenev, Ph.D. in History
This working paper was prepared as part of the Russian International Affairs Council’s project The Situation in Central Asia after the Possible Withdrawal of the Coalition Forces from Afghanistan. It examines aspects of Russia’s participation in rendering assistance to the countries in the region. The authors identify drivers of instability in Central Asia, review the involvement of the main players and donors in assisting development in the region, and evaluate Russia’s role and capacity in this field with due account of its national interests. The authors offer a number of recommendations on increasing the efficiency of Russian aid to Central Asian countries.
The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of RIAC.
International conference on tourism in Vietnam 2017 Huyen Mecghi
In order to discuss and share expertises on the contemporary issues in tourism development in Vietnam, ASEAN and in the world, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality (National Economics University) holds The international conference on tourism in Vietnam: Tourism beyond borders. We would like to invite researchers, practitioners and policy makers to participate and contribute to the conference.
The The purpose of this paper is to analyze the various challenges facing European integration and the EU institutional architecture as result of the global financial crisis. The European integration process is not yet complete, both in terms of its content and geographical coverage. It can be viewed as a kind of intermediate hybrid between an international organization and a federation, subject to further evolution. This is also true of the Single European Market and the Economic and Monetary Union, which form the core of the EU economic architecture. Certain policy prerogatives (such as external trade, competition, and the Common Agriculture Policy) are delegated to the supranational level while others (such as financial supervision or fiscal policy) remain largely in the hands of national authorities.
Authored by: Marek Dąbrowski
Published in 2009
Latin America has been strongly affected by the international crisis and recession since late 2008. In comparison to historical experience, how has Latin America coped with the global crisis, which has been the role of different transmission mechanisms, and how have the region's structural and policy conditions affected its sensitivity to foreign shocks? Moreover, what policies can protect the region better from world crises and shocks, and to which extent should it rely on a strategy of close trade and financial integration into a world economy punctuated by shocks and crises? This paper addresses the latter questions in three steps. First, by assessing empirically the sensitivity of growth in the region's seven major economies during 1990-2009 to large number of structural and cyclical factors, based on high-frequency panel-data estimations. Second, by using the latter results to decompose the amplitude of GDP reductions in both recessions according to the individual and combined contribution of the different growth factors. Third, to derive the main implications of the results for the choice of macroeconomic regimes and development strategies.
Authored by: Vittorio Corbo and Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel
Published in 2011
This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish transition experience, and explore individuals' self-reported attitudes. Using unusually long and frequent (monthly) representative surveys of the population, carried out by the Polish poll institute (CBOS) from 1992 to 2005, we identify a structural break in the relationship between income inequality and subjective well-being. The downturn in the tolerance for inequality (1997) coincides with increasing distrust of political elites.
Authored by: Irena Grosfeld and Claudia Senik
Published in 2008
This paper focuses on roots of strain in the European Monetary Union (EMU). It argues that there is need for a thorough reform of the governance structure of the Union in conjunction with radical changes in the regulation and supervision of financial markets. Financial intermediation has gone astray in recent decades and entailed a big bubble in the industrialized world. Waves of financial deregulation have enhanced systemic risks, via speculative behavior and growing inter-connectedness. Moreover, the EMU was sub-optimal from its debut and competitiveness gaps did not diminish against the backdrop of its inadequate policy and institutional design. The euro zone crisis is not related to fiscal negligence only; over-borrowing by the private sector and poor lending by banks, as well as a one-sided monetary policy, also explain this debacle. The EMU needs to complement its common monetary policy with solid fiscal/budget underpinnings. Fiscal rules and sanctions are necessary, but not sufficient. A common treasury (a federal budget) is needed in order to help the EMU absorb shocks and forestall confidence crises. A joint system of regulation and supervision of financial markets should operate. Emergency measures have to be comprehensive and acknowledge the necessity of a lender of last resort; they have to combat vicious circles. Structural reforms and EMU level policies are needed to enhance competitiveness in various countries and foster convergence. The EU has to work closely with the US and other G20 members in order to achieve a less unstable global financial system.
Authored by: Daniel Daianu
Published in 2012
This paper describes the general framework of the EU’s emerging relationship with its new neighbours and investigates the potential economic impact of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), both for the EU itself and for its neighbours. In particular, it seeks to develop an answer to the question of whether the ENP is sufficiently attractive so as to induce the governments in neighbourhood countries to adopt (or accelerate the adoption of) the types of economic and governance reforms that were implemented in the new member states during their accession processes. Although the specifics of the ENP are still being developed, the lack of incentives as regards to unclear accession to the EU is identified as the main weakness of the ENP.
Economically, the ENP seeks to ease trade restrictions through the implementation of legislative approximation and convergence with EU standards, before accessing the EU’s single market can become a reality. Positively though, is that the access to the single market could improve significantly under the ENP. As experienced by the Central European states, FDI is instrumental to transform the economies of the Western CIS and the Caucasus. The ENP can be a supportive framework for improving investor confidence. Likewise, the new European Neighbourhood Instrument can add more coherence in technical assistance, and provide more financial support for creating capacities for trade infrastructures and institutional and private sector development. Finally, measures to promote increased labour migration between the new neighbours and the enlarged EU may be worth to put on the agenda for the future development and impact of the ENP.
Authored by: Susanne Milcher, Ben Slay
Published in 2005
The purpose of this paper is to examine the economic aspects of EU policy towards its Eastern neighbors in the former Soviet Union. For a long period of time, this region was considered as less important for the EU, as compared to Central and Eastern Europe, which was the subject of a far-reaching economic and political integration offer materialized in two rounds of EU Eastern Enlargements (2004, 2007). However, moving the EU's geographical frontier further to the East and Southeast increased the importance of the CIS region as a potential partner of the enlarged EU. In 2004, East European and Caucasus countries were invited to participate in the European Neighborhood Policy a new EU external policy framework also addressed to the Southern Mediterranean countries. Russia has been attempting to build a strategic political and economic partnership with the EU outside the ENP framework but the content of this relationship is, in fact, very similar to the ENP.
A general weakness of the ENP is that there is a lack of balance between farreaching expectations with respect to neighbors' policies and reforms, and limited and distant rewards that can potentially be offered. Thus, making this cooperation framework more effective requires a serious enhancement of the rewards using, to the extent possible, the positive experience of previous EU enlargements. The nature of contemporary economic relations in the globalized world calls for a more complex package-type approach to economic integration rather than just limiting cooperation to some narrow fields.
Authored by: Marek Dąbrowski
Published in 2007
An attempt is made to explore the basic implications of differences in productivity growth rates in countries within a monetary union and tailor them to the case of the EU new member countries running up to the EMU. By using the mathematical model of Harrod-Balassa-Samuelson effect and linking productivity and relative price dynamics with monetary policy, it is shown that: 1) productivity growth in faster-growing countries (FGC) leads to either inflation there, or union-wide exchange rate appreciation, or both in certain proportions, depending on the monetary policy stance taken by the union, but does not cause increase in inflation in slower-growing countries (SGC) by itself, unless the union’s monetary authorities take pro-inflationary policy; 2) because of presence of FGC, the SGC do not become less competitive in the world, and can benefit from increased export of their goods to FGC, provided their labour markets are flexible enough; 3) the real challenge for SGC posed by FGC is not inflation, but rather loss of jobs and export revenues, if their labour markets are not flexible enough to adjust under tight union-wide monetary policy aimed at keeping the union-wide overall price level unchanged, or the labour productivity increase in FGC is not met by adequate improvement in labour productivity in SGC. It should be noted, however, that this ‘adequate improvement’ is enough to constitute only a fraction of the productivity growth in FGC.
Authored by: Nikolai Zoubanov
Published in 2003
Demographic change (driven by the second demographic transition) led to an uncontrolled increase in scale of various social expenditure in the OECD area, especially in continental Europe. Costs of social transfers created fiscal pressure leading to the necessity of tax increases all over Europe, including the New Member States. Employment consequences of emerging higher tax wedge has become the topic of large body of research. However, surprisingly little evidence is known on distribution of that problem across workers. Is the effect of high tax wedge equally spread or certain groups of workers suffer more than others? More specifically, are low productivity workers exposed more to the problems caused by high tax wedge?
Authored by: Marek Gora, Artur Radziwill, Agnieszka Sowa, Mateusz Walewski
Published in 2006
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the sources, economic and social characteristics, of growth recovery, which followed the first period of output decline in two transition countries – Poland and Russia. They represent two different groups of transition countries (new EU member states vs. CIS) in terms of adopted transition strategy and accomplished results. Generally, fast reformers succeeded and slow reformers experienced a lot of troubles. Although eventually all former communist countries entered the path of economic growth, those which moved slowly lost sometimes the whole decade. Social costs of slow reforms were also dramatic: income degradation and rising inequalities, high level of poverty and corruption, various social and institutional distortions and pathologies, violation of human rights and civil and economic liberties, attempts of authoritarian restoration, etc.
Authored by: Marek Dabrowski, Oleksandr Rohozynsky, Irina Sinitsina
Published in 2004
This paper analyses the impact of exchange rate regimes on the real sector. While most studies in this field have so far concentrated on aggregate variables, we pursue a sectoral approach distinguishing between the tradable and nontradable sectors. Firstly, we present a survey of the relevant theoretical and empirical literature. This demonstrates that evaluations of exchange rate regimes and their impact on the real economy are largely dependant on specific assumptions concerning, in particular, the parameters of a utility function, the nature of the price adjustment process and the characteristics of analysed shocks. Secondly, we conduct an empirical analysis of the behaviour of the tradable and nontradable sectors under different exchange rate regimes for seven Central and Eastern European countries. We find no firm evidence of a differential impact of given exchange rate regimes on the dynamics of output and prices in the two sectors. We proffer a conceptual and technical interpretation of this.
Authored by: Przemyslaw Kowalski, Wojciech Paczynski, Łukasz Rawdanowicz
Published in 2003
The Eurozone crisis mobilises an appreciable amount of the attention of politicians and the public, with calls for a decisive defence of the euro, because the single currency’s demise is said to be the beginning of the end of the EU and Single European Market. In our view, preserving the euro may result in something completely different than expected: the disintegration of the EU and the Single European Market rather than their further strengthening. The fundamental problem with the common currency is individual countries’ inability to correct their external exchange rates, which normally constitutes a fast and efficient adjustment instrument, especially in crisis times.
Europe consists of nation states that constitute the major axes of national identity and major sources of government’s legitimisation. Staying within the euro zone may sentence some countries – which, for whatever reason, have lost or may lose competitiveness – to economic, social and civilizational degradation, and with no way out of this situation. This may disturb social and political cohesion in member countries, give birth to populist tendencies that endanger the democratic order, and hamper peaceful cooperation in Europe. The situation may get out of control and trigger a chaotic break-up of the euro zone,
threatening the future of the whole EU and Single European Market.
In order to return to the origins of European integration and avoid the chaotic break-up of the euro zone, the euro zone should be dismantled in a controlled manner. If a weak country were to leave the euro zone, it would entail panic and a banking system collapse. Therefore we opt for a different scenario, in which the euro area is slowly dismantled in such a way that the most competitive countries or group of such countries leave the euro zone. Such a step would create a new European currency regime based on national currencies or currencies serving groups of homogenous countries, and save EU institutions along with the Single European Market.
This paper has been also published in "German Economic Review" (Volume 14, Issue 1, pages 31–49, February 2013)
Authored by: Stefan Kawalec and Ernest Pytlarczyk
The paper examines the quality of the business climate in the group of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) from the prospective of the level of development of entrepreneurship, and individual countries’ attractiveness to the foreign direct investments (FDI). The analysis suggests that the main obstacles for further improvements of the business climate in this group of countries are high level of corruption, inefficiency in the existing system of tax administration and regulation, discretionary implementation of custom and trade regulations, low level of property rights protection, and macroeconomic instability. Some explanations of the historical and institutional causes of these business impediments are provided.
Although the net FDI inflow to CIS countries has been substantially increased since the time they gained independence, it’s still well bellow than in Central & Eastern Europe Countries (CEE). The number of private enterprises per capita vastly varies within the CIS countries, with some of them approaching the OECD level, but some else lagging far behind. FDI stocks also unequally distribute within the CIS group. Fuel exporting countries are better off than fuel importing countries, although the individual country’s business climate within two groups does not differ significantly.
As a conclusion, paper suggests a number of concrete public policy recommendations aiming to improve business climate in the CIS region. This paper focuses on discussing the deep systemic causes of the existing business and investment climate in the CIS, its potential negative implications for economic growth and possible cures.
Authored by: Vladimir Dubrovskiy, Oleg Ustenko
Published in 2005
This paper quantifies transparency of monetary policy in the three EU New Member States that have adopted direct inflation targeting strategy. Two measures of transparency are applied. The institutional measure reflects the extent to which a central bank discloses information that is related to the policymaking process. The behavioural measure reflects the clarity among the financial market participants about the true course of monetary policy. The paper shows an ambiguous association between the two measures of transparency, which may be attributed to the active exchange rate management policy that undermines the actual transparency proxied by the behavioural measure.
Authored by: Mariusz Jarmuzek, Lucjan T. Orlowski, Artur Radziwill
Published in 2004
Internationalization of Russian Universities: The Chinese VectorRussian Council
This Report was prepared by the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC) as a part of the project “The Development of Russian—Chinese Relations”, based on research of the practical experience accumulated by several leading Russian universities. The Report contains a number of particular recommendations aimed at reinforcing Russia’s positions in the education market of China and the Asia-Pacific region in general, as well as developing Russia’s innovation potential through the expansion of mutually beneficial scientific and educational cooperation between the two countries.
Assisting Development in Central Asia: Strategic Horizons of Russian Engagem...Russian Council
Authors:
V.M. Sergeev, Dr. of History (Chairman); A.A. Kazantsev, Dr. of Political Science; V.I. Bartenev, Ph.D. in History
This working paper was prepared as part of the Russian International Affairs Council’s project The Situation in Central Asia after the Possible Withdrawal of the Coalition Forces from Afghanistan. It examines aspects of Russia’s participation in rendering assistance to the countries in the region. The authors identify drivers of instability in Central Asia, review the involvement of the main players and donors in assisting development in the region, and evaluate Russia’s role and capacity in this field with due account of its national interests. The authors offer a number of recommendations on increasing the efficiency of Russian aid to Central Asian countries.
The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of RIAC.
International conference on tourism in Vietnam 2017 Huyen Mecghi
In order to discuss and share expertises on the contemporary issues in tourism development in Vietnam, ASEAN and in the world, Faculty of Tourism and Hospitality (National Economics University) holds The international conference on tourism in Vietnam: Tourism beyond borders. We would like to invite researchers, practitioners and policy makers to participate and contribute to the conference.
The The purpose of this paper is to analyze the various challenges facing European integration and the EU institutional architecture as result of the global financial crisis. The European integration process is not yet complete, both in terms of its content and geographical coverage. It can be viewed as a kind of intermediate hybrid between an international organization and a federation, subject to further evolution. This is also true of the Single European Market and the Economic and Monetary Union, which form the core of the EU economic architecture. Certain policy prerogatives (such as external trade, competition, and the Common Agriculture Policy) are delegated to the supranational level while others (such as financial supervision or fiscal policy) remain largely in the hands of national authorities.
Authored by: Marek Dąbrowski
Published in 2009
Latin America has been strongly affected by the international crisis and recession since late 2008. In comparison to historical experience, how has Latin America coped with the global crisis, which has been the role of different transmission mechanisms, and how have the region's structural and policy conditions affected its sensitivity to foreign shocks? Moreover, what policies can protect the region better from world crises and shocks, and to which extent should it rely on a strategy of close trade and financial integration into a world economy punctuated by shocks and crises? This paper addresses the latter questions in three steps. First, by assessing empirically the sensitivity of growth in the region's seven major economies during 1990-2009 to large number of structural and cyclical factors, based on high-frequency panel-data estimations. Second, by using the latter results to decompose the amplitude of GDP reductions in both recessions according to the individual and combined contribution of the different growth factors. Third, to derive the main implications of the results for the choice of macroeconomic regimes and development strategies.
Authored by: Vittorio Corbo and Klaus Schmidt-Hebbel
Published in 2011
This paper provides an illustration of the changing tolerance for inequality in a context of radical political and economic transformation and rapid economic growth. We focus on the Polish transition experience, and explore individuals' self-reported attitudes. Using unusually long and frequent (monthly) representative surveys of the population, carried out by the Polish poll institute (CBOS) from 1992 to 2005, we identify a structural break in the relationship between income inequality and subjective well-being. The downturn in the tolerance for inequality (1997) coincides with increasing distrust of political elites.
Authored by: Irena Grosfeld and Claudia Senik
Published in 2008
The article illustrates the results of the economic development of the first fifteen years of the XXI century under the conditions of unprecedented economic freedom, globalization and the appearance of new informational sectors up to and including the first attempts at revising liberalism. The analysis of statistical data demonstrates an obvious increase in the percentage of well-off people in many countries as well as the increased economic capabilities of small, medium and large businesses, whose assets are distributed among an ever-increasing number of owners. This provides the impetus to review our collective approach to liberalization and globalization, as well as to view its unexpected strong sides that make human progress possible.
This paper proposes a new method for measuring the degree to which the domestic capital stock is self-financed. The main idea is to use the national accounts to construct a self-financing ratio, indicating what would have been the autarky stock of tangible capital supported by actual past domestic past saving, relative to the actual stock of capital. We use the constructed measure of self-financing to evaluate the impact of the growing global financial integration on the sources of financing domestic capital stocks in developing countries. On average, 90% of the stock of capital in developing countries is self financed, and this fraction was surprisingly stable throughout the 1990s. The greater integration of financial markets has not changed the dispersion of self-financing rates, and the correlation between changes in de-facto financial integration and changes in self-financing ratios is statistically insignificant. There is no evidence of any "growth bonus" associated with increasing the financing share of foreign savings. In fact, the evidence suggests the opposite: throughout the 1990s, countries with higher self-financing ratios grew significantly faster than countries with low self-financing ratios. This result persists even after controlling growth for the quality of institutions. We also find that higher volatility of the self-financing ratios is associated with lower growth rates, and that better institutions are associated with lower volatility of the self-financing ratios. These findings are consistent with the notion that financial integration may have facilitated diversification of assets and liabilities, but failed to offer new net sources of financing capital in developing countries.
Authored by: Joshua Aizenman, Brian Pinto, Artur Radziwill
Published in 2004
One of the best ways to learn a concept is to teach a concept, and i.docxcarlibradley31429
One of the best ways to learn a concept is to teach a concept, and in this assignment it will be necessary for the learner to understand and explain the concepts from
Modules 1
and
2
in a 7–10-slide PowerPoint presentation. The Internet will be a great resource for completing this assignment because the learner can use keyword phrases to pull the specifics needed to cover the topics and complete the assignment.
You have been asked to create a PowerPoint presentation to train a group of new employees for Future Trends Financial Firm on key concepts of emerging markets. Include the following in your presentation:
Identify and explain key concepts of emerging technologies, highlighting their use and availability for emerging and developed markets.
Define and describe common industry concepts including: institutional voids, business groups, technological capabilities, changing income distribution, and bottom of the pyramid. Please be sure that the correlation between concepts and various markets is appropriate.
Develop a 7–10-slide presentation in PowerPoint format, utilizing at least two scholarly sources. Apply APA standards to the citation of sources.
Make sure you write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
Information from Module 1:
In
Module 1
, you will begin your journey into understanding the concept of EMs. This module’s discussion question and assignment are both designed to help in building the foundation knowledge of understanding EMs.
What is an EM? According to Investopedia (n.d.), an EM is, “A nation's economy that is progressing toward becoming advanced, as shown by some liquidity in local debt and equity markets and the existence of some form of market exchange and regulatory body” (para. 1).
EMs surfaced in the 1970s as
less developed economies
. Countries that are considered EMs possess certain distinguishing traits. Some of the common traits are:
Demanding culture
High rates of immigration
Fragmented market
Growing youthful population
Investors are shifting their investments to EMs because of their potential long-term growth rate (Johnston, 2011). One of the main reasons EMs are rapidly growing is due to the countries' visible economic advancements. According to EPFR Global, a fund tracking company, investors invested more than $50 billion into EMs in 2012 (Bloomberg Businessweek, 2013).
Investopedia. (n.d.).
Emerging market economy
. Retrieved from
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/emergingmarketeconomy.asp
Johnston, M. (2011, November 23).
5 factors to consider in choosing an emerging markets ETF
. Retrieved from
http://seekingalpha.com/article/309867-5-factors-to-consider-in-choosing-an-emerging-markets-etf
Bloomberg Businessweek. (2013, January 31).
The top 20 emerging markets
. Retrieved from
http://images.businessweek.com/slideshows/2013-01-31/the-top-20-emergi.
Labor migration from Eastern Europe and the member countries of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to the Western countries became an important socio-economic issue. Since political systems and the nature of border management in these regions, migrations turned out to be a very complex and unpredictable issue. The purpose of this study is to analyze the region specific actors, practices and policies of migration in the Eastern countries, the possible scenarios and demographic consequences of the future migration flows. In order to address this issue properly, some of the complexities of labor migration phenomenon in the region are uncovered.
Authored by: Xavier Chojnicki, Ainura Uzagalieva
Published in 2008
Labor migration from Eastern Europe and the member countries of Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) to the Western countries became an important socio-economic issue. Since political systems and the nature of border management in these regions, migrations turned out to be a very complex and unpredictable issue. The purpose of this study is to analyze the region specific actors, practices and policies of migration in the Eastern countries, the possible scenarios and demographic consequences of the future migration flows. In order to address this issue properly, some of the complexities of labor migration phenomenon in the region are uncovered.
Authored by: Xavier Chojnicki, Ainura Uzagalieva
Published in 2008
To build a tourism strategy that lasts and that works for all, you have to be realistic in analysing what works and what doesn’t. In the second of this ‘‘Uncovered’’ series of reports, experts at TOPOSOPHY lift the lid on tourism trends in Mexico and make an honest, frank assessment of the top priorities for government and business in the
country today.
Domestic and international tourism in Mexico is continuously growing. The tourism industry growth continues to ride higher than the average national GDP growth and investment in the tourism sector is pouring into the country as the main source market, the United States, recovers from the global financial crisis. Nevertheless image remains the main concern as incidents relating to organised crime continue to affect parts of the country and Mexican citizens have mobilized to demand more security as mid-term elections approach (Summer 2015).
As this report will explain, the media often reports a distorted view of the reality of daily life in Mexico. Furthermore, Mexicans’ views of their own country can often be subject to an inferiority complex or over-influenced by current events. Discover TOPOSOPHY’s take on the current state of Mexican Tourism in this candid report that aims to provide an external view and an independent perspective on how a tourism industry with high potential can deliver for the country in the future.
uDc 339.7.012professional papermIkI runtEV nEW trEn.docxmarilucorr
uDc 339.7.012
professional paper
mIkI runtEV *
nEW trEnDs anD fEaturEs of IntErnatIonal fInancIal
manaGEmEnt
abstract
The motive for writing a paper is to answer the question of whether and
how much international financial management affects positively the overall
socio-economic currency and financial relations in markets around the world
in the context of international economic relations. This paper links questions
about the relations between national economies and international financial
markets, on the one hand, and on the other hand, monitoring and analyzing
the movements of foreign exchange markets. The main research question
is what are the latest trends, challenges and characteristics of international
financial management after the turbulent conditions in the international
economy, finances and currencies. For this purpose, in general, the paper
has a section dedicated to theoretical and methodological studies. Therefore,
the role and problems in the functioning of the financial markets, currency
control, and their risks are described. In this context, the main characteristics
and peculiarities of the international economic environment, analysis of
globalization in the work and control of currency courses are revealed.
The research expects the following results: that international
management and market relations are more actively required for a more
comfortable economic environment on the development of international
financial management.
keywords: Financial Statistics, Monetary Policy, Monetary Data,
Currencies, (euro currency, euro-dollars), Financial Markets,
Economic and Financial relations.
JEL Classification: A10, F00, F02.
* PhD of economics, direction of international financial management, email: [email protected]
yahoo.com
250
Economic Development No. 3/2017 p.(249-261)
Introduction
Considering the movements of the international financial markets in
the last ten years. It became apparent that the transactions are more commonly
made in the Euro currency. Before the start of the recession, the income of
the american families were struck with inflation. The inflation was on a lower
level then the previous 10 years. America had created an amazing economical
machine, but apparently it only worked for the people on the top. As an
example, one of the greatest economies of the world, the USA left millions
unemployed. But even before the crisis, the US economy didn‘t deliver on
what it was promising. There was a rise in the GDP, but most of the people
felt as their living standards went down.
As a problem, due to the turbulences and risks, we single out the
unresponsible conduct of governments across the world. Especially with the
inequality of prices, and lack of control over currency markets. That was the
main reason that the central banks of Japan, USA and Europe, were pointing
out to the need for further lessening of the monetary policy in their countries.
Those activities would le ...
The current fiscal imbalances and fragilities in the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries (SEMC) are the result of decades of instability, but have become more visible since 2008, when a combination of adverse economic and political shocks (the global and European financial crises, Arab Spring) hit the region. In an environment of slower growth and higher public expenditure pressures, fiscal deficits and public debts have increased rapidly. This has led to the deterioration of current accounts, a depletion of official reserves, the depreciation of some currencies and higher inflationary pressure.
To avoid the danger of public debt and a balance-of-payment crisis, comprehensive economic reforms, including fiscal adjustment, are urgently needed. These reforms should involve eliminating energy and food subsidies and replacing them with targeted social assistance, reducing the oversized public administration and privatizing public sector enterprises, improving the business climate, increasing trade and investment openness, and sector diversification. The SEMC may also benefit from a peace dividend if the numerous internal and regional conflicts are resolved.
However, the success of economic reforms will depend on the results of the political transition, i.e., the ability to build stable democratic regimes which can resist populist temptations and rally political support for more rational economic policies.
Authored by: Marek Dąbrowski
Published in 2014
Implementation of the European internal market and East-West integration has been accompanied by dramatic change in the spatial distribution of economic activity, with higher growth west and east of a longitude degree through Germany and Italy. In the east, income growth has been accompanied by increasing regional disparities within countries. We examine theoretically and empirically whether European integration as such can explain these developments. Using a numerical simulation model with 9 countries and 90 regions, theoretical predictions are derived about how various patterns of integration may affect the income distribution. Comparing with reality, we find that a reduction in distance-related trade costs combined with east-west integration is best able to explain the actual changes in Europe's economic geography. This suggests that the implementation of the European internal market or the Euro has "made Europe smaller". In Central Europe, capital regions grow faster and there are few east-west growth differences inside countries. There is no convincing support for the hypothesis that European integration had adverse effects on non-members.
Authored by: Arne Melchior
Published in 2009
Age group is Adolescent 13-18The Integrating the Field of Develo.docxdaniahendric
Age group is Adolescent 13-18
The Integrating the Field of Developmental Psychology: A Review of the Literature
· Must be 8 to 10 double-spaced pages in length (not including title and references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center (Links to an external site.).
· Must include a separate title page with the following:
· Title of paper
· Student’s name
· Course name and number
· Instructor’s name
· Date submitted
· Must use at least five scholarly sources in addition to the course text.
· The Scholarly, Peer Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
· Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
· Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
You will then review the Developmental Psychology literature examining findings for that age group / developmental stage in terms of the physical, emotional, cognitive, social dimensions, and how they impact development and can best be used to meet developmental needs. Additionally, create a summary of the developmental stage as viewed through the lens of one developmental theory we have studied across the course (Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development, Freud’s Psychosexual Theory, Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory, etc.).
In your paper,
· Examine the physical changes associated with the selected developmental stage.
· Examine the cognitive changes associated with the selected developmental stage.
· Examine the emotional changes associated with the selected developmental stage.
· Examine the social changes associated with the selected developmental stage.
· Evaluate the developmental changes and appraise the effects of the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social environments.
· Integrate developmental and environmental factors into an assessment of developmental needs.
· Create a summary of the developmental stage as viewed through the lens of a selected developmental theory.
· Propose solutions for areas not addressed by the theory.
· Analyze the ethical considerations for research and practice with the selected developmental stage.
Public Administration and Information
Technology
Volume 10
Series Editor
Christopher G. Reddick
San Antonio, Texas, USA
[email protected]
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/10796
[email protected]
Marijn Janssen • Maria A. Wimmer
Ameneh Deljoo
Editors
Policy Practice and Digital
Science
Integrating Complex Systems, Social
Simulation and Public Administration
in Policy Research
2123
[email protected]
Editors
Marijn Janssen Ameneh Deljoo
Faculty of Technology, Policy, and F ...
Future Watch summary: Future growth opportunities in global biobanks marketTeam Finland Future Watch
This Future Watch report compares the current status of forerunning biobanks in Finland, Denmark, Sweden, UK and USA, analyze the needs and views of key biobank customer segments as well as offer key recommendations for Finnish biobank to gain a larger footprint in the biobank market.
ASEAN is increasingly becoming a vital economic force in Asia and a driver of global growth with a young, abundant workforce. Simultaneously, the region is witnessing significant productivity improvement in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, telecommunications and transportation.
The presentation is a summary presentation from a study Situational Awareness Solutions which collects together use cases for situational awareness capabilities and prioritizes these in context of user perception and readiness, availability and accessibility of technology, ease and likelihood of adoption, as well as regulations and competing substitutes. Finally it analyzes the relevance of assessed use cases to United States, Germany and Japan. The application areas discussed cover, amongst other, ecology and environment, disaster management, logistics and transport as well as critical infrastructure management.
Recent technology developments in the information technology space have opened new horizons for the maritime industry. "Digital ports" refers to application of digital technologies of digital technologies such as machine learning, data analytics, visualization, cloud and advanced wireless communications technology to the Port Ecosystem that are driving innovations and enabling business efficiency.
A recent Future Watch study on consumer trends in South Korea explores and analyzes key consumer trends that are shaping South Korean society and how these trends are likely to evolve over the next three to five years. The study is echoing future consumer trends not only in Asia but also in Europe. It is now clear that mobile and online shopping will become the main retail channel, and technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and big data are changing the retail landscape.
Healthcare as an industry is transforming. The concept of wellbeing is increasing in importance. Living environments are evolving, including smart homes, assisted living and robotics. Technologies and innovations are having major impacts to individual’s life. Individuals are taking more control and recognizing also their responsibility.
Business Finland and Future Watch commissioned a study on the landscape of developments that will impact the delivery of Health & Wellbeing, to better understand the anticipated transformations, impacts and opportunities to support its strategy for ensuring Finland is well positioned to take advantage of such trends and to help drive better decision making for all stakeholders in Finland. Results of the study are published and discussed with stakeholders and companies in Business Finland’s Smart Life Finland program webinars.
The Hong Kong government supports smart city operations and smart lamp post related actions. Smart lamp posts together with 5G can encompass various industries and thus can offer opportunities also for Finnish companies. Hong Kong aims to become a “world class smart city”. In ”Hong Kong Smart City Blueprint” smart lamp posts are mentioned as one action point and 50 smart lamp posts should be in use by the summer of 2019. The figure is set to rise to 400, and during 2019, a tender will likely be opened for the remaining 350 smart lamp posts. Smart lamp posts can serve several different functions and these are currently experimented in Science Park and the Smart City Pilot Area.
Japan is the second-largest retail market globally. For decades Japanese consumer’s preferences and cultural trends have been influential trend setting phenomenona. To understand how global consumer trends are transforming, it is important to look Japanese consumers behavior and attitudes towards consuming. Today we see behavior shifting. The change of Japanese consumers is not only about what people in Tokyo buy, but also how and what they think when they make decisions for purchases.
Future Watch report and analysis of consumer trends and lifestyles in Japan was done in collaboration with Euromonitor International’s Tokyo office researchers.
A new policy on energy transition was commenced in Taiwan to phase out nuclear power and to introduce substantial power generation capacity from renewable sources by 2025. This transition of energy source and structure represents not only great challenges for Taiwan but also immense business opportunities for industrial developed countries.
A recent Future Watch study identifies and describes future consumer trends in Mainland China and Hong Kong over the next 2-10 years. These trends are likely to impact the products and services these consumers buy and the marketing they respond to. It aims to identify significant trends that are specific to China’s unique market.
Central to the forecasting is identifying 12 consumer roles that represent key China trends. Each role has an accompanying case study which explains how brands are starting /planning to tap into these nascent trends.
Both India's Space and Cyber Defence areas contain gaps to keep up with global development. India’s space defence program is guided by policies to counter the capabilities of China and Pakistan. While India has made long strides with cost effective mission to Mars and a successfully launching record number of satellites, there are several gaps in its space defence. While in the space communication arena, at present, India has extremely limited space-based COMINT (Communications Intelligence) capabilities. Cyber security of satellite communications is another arena for potential collaboration between countries. Also, to achieve complete control of satellite communications & intelligence C4ISR, India needs to have a constellation of satellites in the space with extreme communication technology at disposal. In the Space Situational Awareness area India needs radar-independent tracking methods such as lasers, coherent infrared sensors and space systems with a sole purpose of tracking the functional capabilities of suspected/rogue satellites with military connect.
In cyber-security area, according to Gartner, cyber-security in India is growing to be a $1.5 bn market by 2019 & forecasted to grow over 19% during 2018-2023. Average spend on cyber security is currently at ~3% compared to a global average of 10-15% of the IT budget. India would need a trained pool of million professionals in cyber-security by 2025.
El Puerto de Algeciras continúa un año más como el más eficiente del continente europeo y vuelve a situarse en el “top ten” mundial, según el informe The Container Port Performance Index 2023 (CPPI), elaborado por el Banco Mundial y la consultora S&P Global.
El informe CPPI utiliza dos enfoques metodológicos diferentes para calcular la clasificación del índice: uno administrativo o técnico y otro estadístico, basado en análisis factorial (FA). Según los autores, esta dualidad pretende asegurar una clasificación que refleje con precisión el rendimiento real del puerto, a la vez que sea estadísticamente sólida. En esta edición del informe CPPI 2023, se han empleado los mismos enfoques metodológicos y se ha aplicado un método de agregación de clasificaciones para combinar los resultados de ambos enfoques y obtener una clasificación agregada.
An astonishing, first-of-its-kind, report by the NYT assessing damage in Ukraine. Even if the war ends tomorrow, in many places there will be nothing to go back to.
01062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
31052024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
03062024_First India Newspaper Jaipur.pdfFIRST INDIA
Find Latest India News and Breaking News these days from India on Politics, Business, Entertainment, Technology, Sports, Lifestyle and Coronavirus News in India and the world over that you can't miss. For real time update Visit our social media handle. Read First India NewsPaper in your morning replace. Visit First India.
CLICK:- https://firstindia.co.in/
#First_India_NewsPaper
‘वोटर्स विल मस्ट प्रीवेल’ (मतदाताओं को जीतना होगा) अभियान द्वारा जारी हेल्पलाइन नंबर, 4 जून को सुबह 7 बजे से दोपहर 12 बजे तक मतगणना प्रक्रिया में कहीं भी किसी भी तरह के उल्लंघन की रिपोर्ट करने के लिए खुला रहेगा।
2024 is the point of certainty. Forecast of UIF experts
Report: Future of Russian Middle Class
1. Future of Russian Middle Class
Tekes – teknologian ja innovaatioiden kehittämiskeskus
Tekes on tutkimus- ja kehitystyön ja innovaatiotoiminnan rahoittaja ja asiantuntija.
www.tekes.fi
2. Contents
Executive Summary .......................................................................................... 3
Background & objectives ................................................................................... 4
Russian middle class today ............................................................................... 5
Middle class definition for the purpose of current project ................................... 5
Characteristics of Middle Class in Russia .......................................................... 9
Middle class lifestyle in Russia and Finland ..................................................... 10
Free time of middle class................................................................................. 13
The future of Russian Middle Class ................................................................. 16
The most pronounced trends in Russian middle class lifestyle ........................ 16
Future changes in the Middle Class structure .................................................. 18
Future opportunities for Finnish companies ..................................................... 20
Concluding Words – Quo Vadis, Middle Class? .............................................. 24
Appendix 1. Middle class education and work ................................................. 26
Appendix 2. Middle class families .................................................................... 28
Appendix 3. LIFE INDEX - List of indicators and definitions............................. 30
Tekes – teknologian ja innovaatioiden kehittämiskeskus
Tekes on tutkimus- ja kehitystyön ja innovaatiotoiminnan rahoittaja ja asiantuntija.
www.tekes.fi
3. Executive Summary
The post-Soviet Russian middle class has become object of wide interest and
international research work due to its sudden and emerging purchasing power,
ambitious travel schemes and passion for luxury brands. This writing has been
composed with purpose to highlight such trends, phenomena and habits of
Russian middle class which should be considered by Finnish industries and
service providers when planning product offering for Russian clients.
Finnode team in Russia has approached the subject based on interviews of
1,300 persons, future sessions, internal workshops and debate. Foresight
work requires imagining possible and likely future but also considering
negative scenarios. The latter is usually more difficult. Also in this case our
assumption remains that the Russian middle class will continue its prosperous
path – provided that no major economic turbulence will hit Russian Federation
and its oil related income. For middle class’ sake, it is important that political
situation within the country remains peaceful and no ethnic conflict arises in
territory of Russia which would trigger chaos or international scandals. Being
already empowered by property and income, the middle class would like to
have impact and saying also in politics – time will tell how vocal it will become.
This study suggests that the current Russian middle class has high ambitions
related to the next generation: families are spending without regrets for
children’s education, additional language courses and hobbies in order to
provide them with opportunities abroad and to secure their access to
universities. Interviewees pointed out lack of free time and high stress level
which is one reason for investing into family holidays with leisure activities and
harmony. Traffic congestion is and will be a burden and time-killer in every
mega-city of Russia and there is not much relief to situation apart from onlineshopping, remote work and home entertainment. Maintenance of income level
requires hard working and employers do not compensate for sick leaves: with
help of medicines and means of phytotherapy, middle class citizens try to get
to work every day. Annual vacation is shorter than in EU countries and
Russians want to get value for the precious days – without traffic jams. If
holiday can be combined with health check and personal training program,
plastic surgery or English course for children, even better.
Russians are integrating with the global middle class community over
cyberspace and becoming more European as time goes. Social media has
suddenly become powerful tool of communication and marketing.
It should be highlighted that the middle class is on the move and emerging
rapidly: ‘new entrants’ explore opportunities that money can buy, are hungry
for luxury and travel. The ‘maturing middle class’ appreciates more
sustainable consumption and maintenance of health and wealth. From Finnish
viewpoint it is important to understand what makes middle class ‘tick’
tomorrow: will it be the flow of new entrants that continue travelling to Finland
for affordable tax-free shopping? Is it reasonable to expect that the maturing
wealthy middle class will appreciate Finnish food products also in the future?
Finnish business community needs to consider its position in relation to middle
class consumers, considering country-competitors across the EU zone and
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4. co-create services for Russians together with Russians. Finland’s export
opportunities of future may appear largely in cyber services, game industry or
leadership consulting. Future can be different than we think, but it might be
even more different if we thought about it in advance.
Background & objectives
The writing illustrates lifestyle of so called Russian middle class with purpose
to assist various Finnish stakeholders to understand needs and ambitions of
this powerful and emerging client segment today and tomorrow. Service
providers and producers from tourist industry to construction corporations and
retail chains will benefit from better understanding of Russian middle class
families’ daily challenges and desires.
The main objectives of the study were as follows:
• To describe and define the so called Russian middle class in general
figures (number of people, average income, age, family status, etc.) and
estimate its growth within next 3-5 years, including demographics.
• To identify existing and forecast most pronounced trends that will be
shaping Russian middle class lifestyle in the future To assess influence and
assumed changes of this life style on consumption behavior and sketch
potential new business opportunities for Finnish companies and industry
clusters.
• To summarize results in a report and disseminate findings via signal
session or seminar.
It was decided to focus at mega cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow which
are trend setting in many ways. The study was conducted using both primary
and secondary methods of research and consisted of following phases: desk
study, expert interviews, focus groups – finally data analysis and reporting.
Following sources of background material were used:
• Russia Mega Trends: Macro to Micro Implications for 2020
http://www.bmstu.ru/content/image/files/GIL%202012_Russia%20Mega%2
0Trends.pdf by Foster and Sullivan, 05/2012
• Levada Center Research: http://www.levada.ru/eng/research
• Consumer Speed Kings. Team Russia Leads the World by
Investment
Research,
http://slon.ru/images/doc/sberbank_consumer_speed_kings.pdf
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Sberbank
02/2013
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5. Russian middle class today
Middle class definition for the purpose of current project
There are numerous approaches and definitions of middle class in Russia
which has no longer than 20 years of Post-Soviet history behind it. Usually
three main items are mentioned as criteria – material status, social and
professional status and self-identification.
Material
status
Social and
professional
status
Selfidentification
In this study we have chosen to highlight material status as criteria and pay
special attention in expenditure of households with purpose to analyze and
forecast purchasing behavior of middle class. The following definition was
used:
Russian middle class are the people who have after Soviet Union managed to
adapt to conditions of modern market economy and provide appropriate
consumption level and lifestyle for their families.
By ‘appropriate consumption level’ we mean the following:
- family lives in an apartment (rented, acquired using mortgage lending or
inherited)
- at least one car in the family
- significant expenses are used for services – education, insurance,
entertainment
- savings exist
- vacation abroad 1-2 times per year
Let us see what this kind of lifestyle means in terms of annual income and
expenses. The estimations were made based on Finpro experts’ knowledge
regarding cost of living in Moscow and St. Petersburg. It was concluded that
the approximate monthly income per adult family member is about 60,000
Rubles in Moscow and about 50,000 Rubles in St. Petersburg (taken into
consideration that there is significant 20-%-difference in cost of living between
the two cities). Converting to Euros, the net income per family member
reaches 17,000 – 25,000 Euros annually. Income tax is not progressive but
uniform 13% in Russia. It is worth mentioning that the average mortgage of
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6. Russian banks had reached 16 - 18% in 2012, yet lending of households is
rapidly increasing.
TABLE. RUSSIAN MIDDLE CLASS FAMILY (2 ADULTS & 1 CHILD) IN MOSCOW
1
AND ST . PETERSBURG. COST OF LIVING
Item of expenditure
Apartment,
mortgage or rent
1 car per family,
insurance, fuel, and
maintenance
Annual cost, Russian
Roubles/Euros
540 000/ 13 500
150 000/ 3 750
300 000/ 7 500
Food
150 000/ 3 750
Vacation
Services,
fitness,
healthcare,
education,
telephone
1 Child – toys,
activities,
education,
babysitter
Entertainment
–
going
out
to
cinema,
theater,
restaurant, cafe
250 000/ 6 250
390 000/ 9 750
150 000/ 3 750
150 000/ 3 750
Savings
Total annual expenditure
Monthly net salary per 1 employed
family member
Income per family member given that
there is 1 child
2 080 000/ 52 000
86 600/ 2 165
57 800/ 1 445
For understanding and clarity, it was necessary to observe differences
between life styles of middle class in Finland and Russia. Based on income
statistics, we tried to identify group which corresponds to the earlier defined
Russian middle class.
We use Better Life Index comparison for comparison. “Better Life Index” is
designed to compare some of the key factors of life including education,
1
Source: Finpro experts’ estimations
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7. housing, environment which contribute to well-being in OECD countries. It’s an
interactive tool that allows to see how countries perform.2
We compared average values of Finland and Russian Federation. According
to Better Life Index in Finland, the average person earns 19 000 Euro,
compared to 10 700 Euro in Russia. The level of social payments and
benefits in Finland enables average Finn to feel secure and support similar
lifestyle (housing, car, vacation, level of service expenditure).
25000
20000
19 198,5
15000
10 700,8
10000
5000
0
Finland
Russian Federation
Households’ income
In terms of employment, 68% of people aged 15 to 64 in Finland have a paid
job, above the OECD employment average of 66%.
68%
68%
68%
68%
67%
67%
67%
67%
67%
66%
68%
67%
Finland
Russian Federation
Employment rate
The number of rooms in a dwelling, divided by the number of persons living
there, indicates whether residents are living in crowded conditions.
Overcrowded housing may have a negative impact on physical and mental
health, relations with others and the development of children. In addition,
dense living conditions are often a sign of inadequate water and sewage
supply. In the OECD, the average home contains 1.6 rooms per person
2
Information souce. OECD report http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/ The full list of index is in the attachment
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8. 2
1,9
1,5
1
0,8
0,5
0
Finland
Russian Federation
Rooms per person
Life expectancy is the most widely used measure of health, although it only
takes into account the length of people’s life and not their quality of life. In
Finland the life expectancy is 80 years compare to 69 years in Russia.
85
80
80
75
69
70
65
60
Finland
Russian Federation
Life expectancy
On average, 85% of people in OECD countries say they are satisfied with
water quality, so Finnish index is on the top (94%) compare to 51% in Russia.
100%
94%
80%
60%
51%
40%
20%
0%
Finland
Russian Federation
Water quality
Concerning the public sphere, there is a strong sense of community and high
levels of civic participation in Finland, where 94% of people believe that they
know someone they could rely on in time of need, higher than the OECD
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9. average of 91%. In Russia 88% of people believe that they know someone
they could rely on in time of need
In general, Finns are more satisfied with their lives than the OECD average,
with 82% of people saying they have more positive experiences in an average
day (feelings of rest, pride in accomplishment, enjoyment, etc) than negative
ones (pain, worry, sadness, boredom, etc). This figure is higher than the
OECD average of 80%. In general, Russians are less satisfied with their lives
than the OECD average, with 74% of people saying they have more positive
experiences in an average day.
Characteristics of Middle Class in Russia
For the quantitative research we selected interviewees according to following
criteria for identification of middle class:
- Living in Moscow and St. Petersburg and age group 18-54 (working
population)
- Moscow – monthly income per family member exceeding 60,000 Roubles.
- St. Petersburg – monthly income per family member exceeding 50,000
Roubles.
The interview research was carried out in spring, 2012. In total 1300 persons
were interviewed: 913 respondents in Moscow and 45 3 in St. Petersburg. Key
characteristics are described in below table.
TABLE. CHARACTERISTICS OF MIDDLE CLASS IN RUSSIA3
Еducation and employment
Family
1. Educated. Overwhelming majority
1. Most representatives of middle class
of middle class representatives
have a family and more and more
has higher education (more than
couples choose not to register their
80%).
relationships
officially
(see
2. Employed by the company or
appendix).
having their own business.
2. Most families (about 70%) have
Practically all representatives of
children (number includes also
middle class work (about 95%).
couples with adult children)
3. Most representatives of middle
3. Above 50% of middle class families
class work under job contract;
have children younger than 11 years
only 20% in Moscow and 24% in
old .
St. Petersburg have their own
4. Most representatives of middle class
businesses.
live in their own apartment, either a
4. As a rule, representatives of
privatized one or financed with
middle class work as specialists
mortgage lending and/or savings.
and department heads.
The findings of interview study seem to match with results of the recent
Sberbank research which is devoted to the consumer market development of
Russia 2013-2020.
3
Information source: Synovate Comcon. Wealthy Consumer Lifestyle
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10. Acording to Sberbank , “the average age at which Russians are marrying is
rising. Marriage is becoming less popular, and the tradition of staying with
one’s parents close to the point of marriage continues to break down.
Multigenerational and other combined living arrangements are leading to
shifting consumption patterns. Russian trends have diverged from the West,
where the ‘floating generation’ is increasingly either staying home or returning
home to save money, while peers and even separated couples are forced to
cohabit”4
Middle class lifestyle in Russia and Finland
Let us look at main differences of middle class in Russia (Moscow, St.
Petersburg) and Finland.
TABLE. DIFFERENCES IN MIDDLE CLASS LIFESTYLE
Finland Helsinki
City population
Helsinki – 1 mln
Working hours
8 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Approximate time
of leaving home
Approximate time
of returning home
Vacation
7 a.m.
Russia Moscow &
St. Petersburg
Moscow – about 10 mln
St. Petersburg – about 5
mln
9 a.m. – 6 p.m. (extra
working
hours
usual,
frequently finish work after
8 p.m.)
6.30 a.m.
About 5 p.m.
After 8 p.m.
30 days of annual leave
converts to 5 working
weeks of vacation.
In average 10 public
holidays annually.
Sick leave
2 months with retention of
salary
Payment
for
pharmaceuticals
80% by insurance (KELA),
20% by patient
28 days of annual leave
converts to 4 working
weeks of vacation (as Sat
& Sun are included).
In average 12 public
holidays per year
First day of sick leave with
retention
of
salary
(thereafter max 800 EUR
monthly
compensation
from public fund)
Usually 100% by patient
Some observations and key differences between life style of Finnish and
Russian middle class people should be considered
Information source: Consumer Speed Kings. Team Russia Leads the World. Sberbak Investment Research.
February 2013
4
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11. - Russians have much less free time during weekdays and parents get home
very late in evenings. Business life ‘wakes up’ typically after 10.00 am.
- To keep fit and retain working condition is extremely important. Unlike Finland,
sick leave days are immediately cut from salary in Russia. It is quite common
for an employee to go to work during sick leave or being ill. As a rule, this is
explained by heavy work load and employee’s fear to lose his job and income.
- Annual vacation is short compared to Finland and many other EU countries
but numerous public holidays allow people to take long weekend breaks in
connection to Women’s Day March 8th, 1st of May, Victory Day May 9th,
National Day and New Year’s celebration.
- Growing share of “virtual” space in middle class’s life: shift of communication
to mobile telephones, social networks. Almost all (more than 90%) middle
class representatives use the Internet. Almost half of middle class
representatives in St. Petersburg and Moscow use mobile Internet. The most
popular social networks VKontakte (eng. ‘in touch’) www.vk.com and
www.mail.ru have applications for mobile phones. VKontakte has layout very
similar to Facebook.
- People use a lot of time in commuting traffic. Mobile working, using tablets and
smart phones is common during subway trip, also during driving. Specifically
in Moscow, road traffic jam may stop anyone even for hours.
Let us look at the differences in the expenses breakdown of middle class in
Russia and Finland.
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12. CHART. MIDDLE CLASS EXPENSES BREAKDOWN 5
100 %
7,2 %
90 %
5,7 %
7,2 %
9,2 %
Savings
5,0 %
80 %
18,8 %
18,7 %
70 %
60 %
12,0 %
50 %
7,2 %
40 %
7,2 %
Child – toys, activities, education,
baby-sitter
14,4 %
30 %
Entertainment – going out to
cinema, theater, restaurant, cafe
6,4 %
17,0 %
11,0 %
Vacation
Food
Transport (1 car per family,
insurance, gas, repairs)
20 %
26,0 %
27,0 %
Russian middle class
10 %
Services, fitness, healthcare,
education, telephone
Average Finn
Flat, mortgage or rent
0%
1. Rather high expenses on children (toys, education, insurance, baby-sitter) are
explained by the low level of state support and high children-centeredness of
middle class families when both working parents try to invest into the child as
much as they can.
2. Rather low expenses on services. It is expected that with development of
middle class in Russia and growth of their income, the share of this type of
expenses will grow.
5
Information source: Statistics Finland. Finpro expert estimation.
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13. CHART. MIDDLE CLASS ONLINE SHOPPING 6
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
73
73
77
78
51
49
32
23
personal computer
laptop
Moscow
tablet
mobile
phone/smart
phone
St. Petersburg
It should be noted that more than 50% of middle class representatives in St.
Petersburg and Moscow already practice online shopping. Hectic lifestyle and
traffic congestion in mega-cities will contribute for growth of cyber shopping
and e-services in the future.
Sberbank report highlights this trend as well – «Internet retailing will be
boosted by growing PC, laptop and tablet ownership. More store based
retailers are launching online offers that are developing extremely rapidly»7
Free time of middle class
According to interview research of Finpro, middle class representatives spend
their free time in a rather traditional and urbanized manner i.e. they are
frequent visitors of theaters, museums, restaurants, bowling centers and
sports events. Families go to parks together or drive to the country-side at
weekends. It is worth mentioning that around 70% of adults in mega-cities go
to cinema every month.
Cultural activities
About 35-40% of middle class representatives visit theaters, museums,
galleries and concerts at least once a month. Approximately 30% of
interviewees informed to visit nightclubs occasionally. The survey shows that
citizens of Moscow and St. Petersburg visit cultural events more often than
Russians in general.
Information source: Synovate Comcon. Wealthy Consumer Lifestyle
Information source: Consumer Speed Kings. Team Russia Leads the World. Sberbak Investment Research.
February 2013
6
7
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14. CHART. FREE TIME. VISITED ONCE A MONTH OR MORE (% FROM POPULATION
8
OF EACH CITY )
80
69 68
70
60
50
40
40
41 40
37
41 40
34
27
30
20
10
0
cinema
theatre
museum
Moscow
concert
night club
St. Petersburg
On average, families spend 10-30% of their total budget on entertainment and
leisure. Several focus groups participants mentioned that they have money to
spend on entertainment but don’t have enough time.
Research participants consider that visiting cafes and restaurants is part of
their everyday lifestyle. Cafes and restaurants are convenient places for all
kinds of meetings (business meetings, meetings with friends or family
members) and popular for quick lunch or snack during the day.
CHART. EATING OUT. VISITED ONCE A MONTH OR MORE (% OF POPULATION )9
100
81 80
80
72
63
61
60
60 58
60 58
54 50
sushi bar
53
bar
restaurant
40
20
0
café
fast food
pizzeria
Moscow
St. Petersburg
77% of middle class representatives in large cities visit cafes as least once a
month; in Moscow with frequency 2.1 times a month. About 64% of middle
class representatives visit fast food restaurants, this share in Moscow is
8
9
Information source: Synovate Comcon. Wealthy Consumer Lifestyle
Information source: Synovate Comcon. Wealthy Consumer Lifestyle
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15. higher. Pizzerias come as number three in ranking. 58% of the population of
mega cities (+ 1mio) visit pizzerias at least once a month. In Moscow the
share of people fond of pizza restaurants is significantly higher than in other
cities. The share of sushi bar visitors coincides with the share of visitors of
pizzerias and bars. The average frequency of visits to pizzerias and bars in
cities 1mln.+ varies from 1.6 to 1.8 times a month.
According to Sberbank findings “Eating habits in Russia are changing: the
speeding pace of lifestyles has led to a desire to reducethe time spent
cooking. This has resulted in greater use of processed and precooked
foodstuffs, as well as a rise in snacking and eating out (including fastfood
restaurants)”10
Physical activities
Most middle class representatives try to lead an active lifestyle by visiting
swimming pools, saunas, fitness clubs and gyms.
CHART. VISITING FITNESS AND SPA CENTERS (% OF POPULATION )11
60
45
52
51 48
48 47
33 32
40
20
0
bath, sauna
swimming pool
Moscow
fitness-club
gym
St. Petersburg
Less than half of middle class representatives visit fitness clubs (in Moscow
the share is - 48%, and in St. Petersburg 47%) once a week. The number of
swimming pools visitors is roughly equal to the number of people visiting
fitness clubs. Muscovites visit swimming pools more frequently than residents
of other cities 1mln.+, about 2.3 times per month on average.
Approximately 50% of middle class representatives visit public baths and
saunas and 35% go to gym once a week. To keep fit and look good, middle
class representatives also visit hairdressers’, beauty parlors and beauticians’.
Russians appreciate sauna but it is not common to have home-sauna in a city
flat.
Younger Russian women already comprise a universe of consumers that
spend more of their disposable income on beauty treatments than most other
comparable nations. The desire for beauty and youthful looks shows little
signs of ending, as anti-aging cosmetics, Botox treatments and plastic surgery
procedures still command growth rates in the range of 15 - 20%12.
Information source: Consumer Speed Kings. Team Russia Leads the World. Sberbak Investment Research.
February 2013
11 Information source: Synovate Comcon. Wealthy Consumer Lifestyle
12 Information source: Consumer Speed Kings. Team Russia Leads the World. Sberbak Investment Research.
February 2013
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16. The future of Russian Middle Class
The most pronounced trends in Russian middle class lifestyle
'new entrants'
- middle class
is growing in
absolute
number
hectic pace of
life &
congestion demand for
services
time spent in
cyber space
mistrust in
Russian
service
providers
integration of
middle class
into world
community
New entrants and maturing middle class – middle class is growing in number
Share of middle class is growing in population structure and absolute poverty
is decreasing. According to Levada Center, growth rate of middle class is
about 1.5-2% per year. If rate remains the same, the share of middle class will
reach 16-20% by 2018. In terms of number of people, middle class will amount
to 20-26 million people in 2018 (taking into consideration the forecast of total
population of Russia 131 million). Approximately 50% of middle class will live
in the two Russian capitals – Moscow and St. Petersburg. The share of middle
class representatives in Novosibirsk and Yekaterinburg will increase up to 1015% of the total population by 2018. The layer of middle class will also grow in
other cities with more than 1 million people (Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov-on-Don,
Krasnodar, Samara, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, and Volgograd).
It should be considered, whether the ‘new entrants’ of the club require different
service offering hotels and restaurants compared to ‘the maturing’ middle
class members who already have history of travelling and more mileage
behind them. New entrants are probably more interested in catching up living
standard and material than applying ecological way of living? Some say, that
the ecological awareness is hitting middle class of Russia, but those who are
just about to get wealthy, would probably take care of their material ambitions
first.
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17. Hectic pace of life & demand for services
In future, the pace of life of middle class will become even more hectic and
active. We expect that in the future, distant working will increase and middle
class will work at least 20% of total working hours from home. The lack of free
time and its optimization will become even more burning issue for middle
class. Growing population of big cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) and
growing number of cars will make middle class search for new ways to
optimize working time and weekend-time. People are getting more anxious
about waiting times and traffic jams. We forecast that the value of services in
middle class expenditure pattern will grow approaching the European level
(from 10-12% to 18-20%). This means the market of services for middle class
will grow almost twice.
Mistrust in Russian service providers
Strong trend of mistrust in Russian service providers and products exist
specifically in communal sectors of education and health care. Middle class
consumers seem to trust foreign service providers and appreciate education
opportunities, medical treatment and diagnostics abroad better than home.
This creates a unique and fast-growing market of service industry outside of
Russia.
According Sberbank data “The incidence of adult and private education in
Russia is on the rise, and there are many more private schools and education
possibilities than ever before”13
Time spent in cyber space and virtual experiences
Due to hectic pace of life, middle class even now “lives” more and more in the
virtual space. It includes socializing with friends (social networks), finding
information about products and services, distance working, online shopping. In
the future most purchases will be made online. The Internet will be the main
information source for middle class. Besides, the Internet will expand the
choice for Russian buyers because the number of customers of foreign online
stores will grow very fast. It should be noted that the influence of social
networks as a marketing and sales tool will grow in 5 years.
Integration of Russian middle class into world community
Open borders, lower visa barriers, better knowledge of foreign languages and
increased leisure travelling abroad will make Russian middle class lifestyle
become closer to European one but national specifics will stay – Russian
cultural heritage and pride for should never be underestimated.
Signals of Europeanization came out from interviews:
• Long term love for luxury goods and visible ‘bling-bling’ is going out of fashion.
Maturing middle class Russians are becoming rational with their spending and
Information source: Consumer Speed Kings. Team Russia Leads the World. Sberbak Investment Research.
February 2013
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18. many are committed to years of mortgage. Jokes about ‘nouveau riche’
Russians are not that common compared to immediate post-Soviet years.
• Re-vitalizing. Increasing number of middle class professionals becomes food
conscious and sports-oriented. First signs of interest towards biologically pure
(bio) products appear even in big retail chains, where the first shelves with
"bio" goods were opened quite recently.
• Middle class Russians are becoming more ecologically conscious and
responsible. The ecology movement is a hot topic in Russia and its leaders
make up significant share of political opposition. Energy efficiency, renewable
energy and energy independency are fast growing trends among middle class
and upper-middle class Russians that live in their own houses.
Future changes in the Middle Class structure
Considering middle class as a group of people with common social and
economic features (level of income, education and professional status), we
suppose that in the future two subgroups will differentiate:
1. Those that currently belong to the middle class i.e. the maturing middle
class. For this group, investments will become priority rather than
consumption: investing in future, in extra sources of income and
development of next generation. Most desired services will be education
abroad, leisure for teenagers and family entertainment. As soon as the
representatives of this segment have already purchased real estate, they
will be primarily interested in home improvement, furniture, indoor design,
and countryside real estate and apartments for their growing children.
2. The ‘wanna-be’ middle class or new entrants. Those who currently cannot
qualify for the middle class due to early phase of career which is limiting
income today but who have good educational background combined with
ambition. Within soon they would need to solve the same challenges and
tasks as the "current middle class": finding a balance between work and
family leisure, lack of free time, allocating a part of family income for
investing in real estate and future of the family, finding products and
services of best quality for themselves and for children.
Above matches the usual middle class evolution but it seems that in Russia
the cycles are faster than average. Wide range of services will soon need to
be adjusted and focused on different age groups within middle class. In
general, it can be asserted that, despite their unevenness, the new and old
representatives of middle class will have similar problems, and their
expectations related to product and service market will be similar too. The key
thing is that middle class is emerging strongly during future years and new
members have a lot to catch up.
The income level of middle-class people will depend on inflation and can
increase annually by 10-15% at most. This huge consumer segment is by
large debt-free.
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19. The following current trends are assumed to continue or strengthen in the
future:
• rational consumption: gathering information about products and services in
advance, comparing cost with quality and advantages, quality over price
• increased online shopping of products and services and purchases abroad
• investing and purchasing real estate in Russia and abroad
• the desire to choose natural, healthy and clean food in Russia – respect for
best-before-dates
• careful attention to health, sports activities (at home or fitness-centers),
appearance, using services of beauty parlors
• use of private medical services due to mistrust in public health care
• increased attention to education and multi-focused development of
children, wider use of paid educational services and calculating options of
foreign education of children
• quality time with family: home and abroad
• more traveling - 'full-time' vacations and express weekend trips to
European countries, exotic experiences
• emigration is considered as realistic option - part of middle class is packing
• more vocal protests against misbehaviors of public authorities and
politicians; empowered by property, the middle class desires power in
politics, they also demand transparency and fair treatment or alternative
thinking
• middle class wants to interact with middle class: visible trend for separation
between Russians and immigrants from ex-Soviet territory.
Wild Cards - What could stop them?
The middle class will expand, unless some substantial negative changes
happen in the Russian political and economic environment. The growth of the
middle class can be constrained by legislation which prevents free business
development in Russia. The future of these people depends on the state
policy and whether citizens agree to it. International conflict or internal ruling
could prevent middle class from travelling and this would create unrest in
people. Currently the state policy can even provoke emigration and brain-drain
is a real risk for the future.
Anti-corruption measures of Kremlin are loud and visible across the local
national media but Russians are suspicious of any concrete results and doubt
that any significant change would take place in middle class citizens’ favor.
Time will tell.
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20. Future opportunities for Finnish companies
How will changes in the quantity, composition and lifestyle of Russian middle
class influence the opportunities for Finnish companies? In the course of the
project, four key sectors of interest were chosen to be examined more
carefully: well-being and health care, leisure travel, food & diet and education.
It seems that the Finnish offering is particularly strong in mentioned fields.
Some ideas have been listed in below chart and described underneath:
•health resorts and well-being
centers
•check-up and diagnostics
centers
•centers for future mothers
and mothers with babies
•family centers
•Nordic walking - how to do
wellbeing
&
healthcare
food &
diet
•tailor-made tours (hunting,
fishing, golf, tennis, sailing,
skating) for narrow audience
•Green card for new golfers
•honeymooners' weekends
•anniversary travel (photos)
•wine tastings
•mother & baby weekends
leisure &
travel
education
•baby food
•bio-products for children and
for mothers-to-be
•traffic snacks and survival
kits
•quick gourmet
• short-term educational
programmes for children
•further education for adults
•learn English in Finland
(Finglish for Russians!)
•100 words of English during
weekend
Well-being and healthcare
In 5-10 years the Russian middle class will be integrated with the global
middle class and familiar with lifestyle and life quality abroad. They will accept
and adapt some new values such as eco-lifestyle, sustainability and seek
harmony for their life. The lifestyle in big cities will still negatively influence
wellbeing of the middle class: traffic situation, ecology, long working week and
reduced vacation compared to EU countries. Middle class will need products
and services to be able to support or recover their health and well-being
quickly. Following ideas reflect local observations in Russia and interview
results:
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21. - Sanatorium concept could be re-vitalized and developed. This (Lat. sanare
– to heal, to cure) is a medical facility where means of natural healing are
used for treatment and prevention purposes (climate, mineral waters and
springs, etc), as well as physiotherapy, remedial gymnastics, healthy
food/diet therapy, and certain schedule providing full rest. Sanatoriums are
organized both at resorts and outside them – in the countryside, in the area
with favorable natural and sanitary-hygienic environment (local
sanatoriums).
- Health and medical tourism will become very popular. Express check-up
and diagnostics of health will be in high demand. Middle class is very busy
and the Russian health care cannot provide quick service. The trend of
health check-up/diagnostics abroad will be growing further and more
people learn about detox.
- The level of trust in Russian health care is rather low. Consequently foreign
clinics and sanatoriums/spa-centers in the territory of Russia will be popular
in the future. In our opinion, family doctor will become a more common
phenomenon in the middle class segment. Many foreign clinics have
already opened facilities in Moscow and St Petersburg.
- Care for future mothers, treatment of babies and small children are
‘forgotten segments’ when it comes to both medical services and wellbeing. Middle class parents are well aware of negative impact of pollution in
big cities on babies and children (for example, each 5th child in St.
Petersburg is diagnosed with respiratory disease, main cause of it being
environment, apart from heredity).
- Maturing middle class has grandparents and will be ageing: geriatric
treatments or rest and activities for senior citizens might provide
opportunities in Finland
- Short-term rehabilitation programs will be popular. Programs with
components of healthy and eco-friendly food, oxygen cocktails and mineral
waters as an idea.
- Family centers with leisure opportunities will be required. Multi-purpose
centers for weekend stay of families with package of services for all family
members from baby to grandfather.
- Programs for women and men including health and wellness, beauty
treatments will not go away from fashion
- Family leisure programs, entertainment centers for children like HopLop,
family swimming-pools and SPA centers
Leisure and Travel
Although in the future middle class will travel abroad more often, the total
number of vacation days abroad will remain the same but there will be more
business trips. Within 5-10 years Finland will find it hard to compete with such
countries as Italy, Spain and France where middle class representatives go for
beach vacation. Nevertheless, the “Land of a Thousand Lakes” can achieve
success in “niche” products, namely:
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22. - Tours intended for narrow target groups: music tourism and festival visits,
fishing and hunting tours.
- Medical tourism – tours with the purpose of disease diagnostics/check-up
and prevention, tours for after-surgery patients, rehabilitation, tours for
future mothers (preparation for labor and childbirth), tours for mothers with
babies;
- Individual tours with budget exceeding 1000 Euros per person.
- Educational trip packages for children: ‘Learn 100 words of English before
Sunday evening’, ‘Learn camping skills’,
- ‘Wanna-be-golfers’ would benefit from basic skills in order to survive in
‘pay-and-play’ environment to start with. Afterwards they might return to
play and then go for official Green Card.
We would like to emphasize that residents of St. Petersburg and the NorthWest region are well aware of touristic products offered by Finland. There is a
strong need to promote Finland in the Moscow region in the future. Moscow
residents should learn more about touristic offers. Needless to say that all
these services, options and packages, prices and features should be available
online in Russian language and just one click away. Russian tourists are of
interest to all EU countries due to growth.
Food & Diet
Middle class will gradually study international experience and its requirements
to food quality will become higher. Among well-off buyers whom we studied in
this project, the share of those who will fully shift to foreign food products/food
produced by foreign companies in Russia will grow. Middle class families buy
bottled water for drinking and cooking; there are special brands which are
marketed as specifically purified for children.
- The key dietary trend of the future will be ‘fast gourmet’ products, i.e. good,
healthy and easy-to-cook meals. Vacuum packed meat products which are
ready to be roasted in the oven, high quality vegetable mixes for soups and
new kind of instant meals would be of interest by busy but demanding
families with one or two careers.
- Middle class will pay a lot of attention to the country of origin and product
ingredients.
-
We believe that the Finnish food products including dairy products, baby
food, fish and meat (if not super food) will have excellent reputation also in
the future because of the country brand but there will need to be new
products to match interest and curiosity of people who can afford and will
pay premium for quality.
- Functional food products will be in high demand, for example products for
lower cholesterol or products for weight control. There will be more small
shops selling directly from farmers and middle class will appreciate clean
eco-apples, specifically for children.
- Food concept and brand for mothers-to-be which could be connected to
clean berries and eco-ingredients might be an idea. Concept could be
applied to detox-products for weight control or just well-being.
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23. Education
We have identified huge potential for Finnish companies in field of education
during the interviews with experts and middle class representatives. We think
the demand will be concentrated in the following segments:
- Language, sports and summer camps for school-children above 10 year of
age are very interesting for middle class families. Such camps are seen as
a chance to spend the vacation in a comfortable and safe environment, to
improve health and to learn a foreign language (mostly English).
- Short-term educational programs for children who come for vacation with
the family: classes for several hours per day aimed at training language or
sports skills. It is important that programs are adapted for Russian children.
- Higher educational programs in English that enable to get a degree in the
popular field.
- Internships or short-terms courses and programs for students and senior
school children in English.
It is worth mentioning that in the future Russian middle class will pay
increased attention to children-oriented services. The youngest family
members will have a significant influence on decisions regarding free time and
vacationing.
Russians won’t learn English from TV as long as all movies are dubbed into
Russian and language barrier exists between Russians and foreigners. The
maturing middle class will be travelling for many years and they are not going
to study new languages.
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24. Concluding Words – Quo Vadis, Middle
Class?
During this foresight project, it became clear that many challenges of today will
shape daily life of Russian middle class also tomorrow: congestion in traffic,
stress at work and social pressure will not fade away. Motivated Russian
consumers are eager to experiment with innovative services, time-savers and
new smart solutions in order to improve quality of life. Middle class in Moscow
are ‘New Yorkers’ of Russia – they happily pay for fast access to value adding
and smart service. They do and will appreciate good food but they don’t have
time to stop. Finland can be a place to stop – for a short while – but provided
that our country can offer smooth landing by air and smooth border crossing
by car. Shops will need to be open when middle class has time to go and
Russian public holidays will need to be taken into consideration in Finland.
Entire Eurozone is competing for attention of Russian consumers and
travelers which is the fastest growing tourist segment in Europe. Finland’s
opportunity must be easy access and great product offering, including global
luxury brands but also home-deliveries and online shopping. Russians are no
longer travelling in order to get access to the desired goods but rather in order
to experience ease of shopping, relaxation and to have fun or treat their
beauty and health. Easy access and fast track are the keys to success.
Sustainability and eco-life style have not touched many Russian souls yet, but
Russian media is already promoting environment-friendly solutions, idea of
recycling and ‘green city’ concept. The change will start from the current
middle class and their children. Finland is considered a role model in green
thinking and Finnish food products are considered clean and natural. Such
country image should be nursed and kept fresh as future will be greener in
Russia. Green thinking will attract tourists in the future and boost Finland’s
competitiveness. Food products should be modified for Russian consumers
with fresh and rich outlook, considering recyclable packaging – there is space
left for Finland as forerunner of green thinking. First steps of recycling are
taken at the moment and if masses of mega-cities vote for clean environment,
then change will be seen in consumer behavior of middle class.
Middle class parents want to spend quality time with children and invest in
their education. The special status of children in Russian families should not
be overlooked – and there is no place like Heureka in Russia yet. Families
listen to children when planning for holidays and try to make their dreams
come true. Parents spend more time in considering children’s education and
future career than Finnish parents. The mistrust and non-appreciation of
Russian education system will contribute for interest of private education of
adults as well: Finland should offer palette of educational programs in English
which would include both online and residential modules. Lack of sales
management training and customer service education is an opportunity.
Russians want their children to learn English.
Finland’s service offering should be visible and loud across the social media
which has become significant commercial platform for middle class
consumers. At the moment there is no one-stop-channel for virtual booking of
trip and stay, treatment and fun in Finland which could be paid electronically.
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25. Such platform of ‘My Finland Experience’ with link and access to all key
service providers across the country would be an asset and direct response to
the requirement of ‘easy access’ and customized holiday or tailor-made health
booster weekend.
Finland has a unique country brand in the eyes of middle class Russians
which should be developed further: Russian food supermarket with ‘Little
Finland’-corner has not been seen yet. A small country and its business
community would benefit from joint effort and collaboration against competitive
offering of other countries.
Foresight work is a never ending process: this project will be continued by
workshops and active debate in Finland across stakeholders of different
industries. The power question is: which opportunities are open for us in
Finland in any given future scenario of the Russian middle class?
In St Petersburg 15th March, 2013
Finpro Team:
Daria Ivanova
Ekaterina Malevskaya-Malevich
Elisa Karvonen
Kirsi-Maarit Poljatschenko
Ekaterina Reizman
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26. Appendix 1. Middle class education and
work
Table. Middle class education
120
100
80
PhD
60
Higher
83
84
Higher, not finished
40
College
20
0
Moscow
St. Petersburg
Table. Middle class work
120
100
80
Do not work
60
94
94
Moscow
40
Work
St. Petersburg
20
0
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27. Table. Middle class occupation
120
100
20
24
80
Own business
60
Employed
40
80
76
Moscow
St. Petersburg
20
0
Table. Positions held by middle class representatives
120
Other
100
80
Specialist without higher
education
60
Specialist with higher
education
Head of department
40
Deputy Director, key
specialist
20
Head (Director, CEO)
0
Moscow
St. Petersburg
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28. Appendix 2. Middle class families
Diagram. Marital status of middle class
120
100
No answer
80
Widowed
Divorced
60
Single
40
Couple, unmarried
Married
20
0
Moscow
St. Petersburg
Diagram. Children
120
100
80
30
31
No kids
60
Kids in the family
40
70
69
Moscow
St. Petersburg
20
0
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29. Diagram. Children’s age
160
140
120
100
26
15-18 y.o.
15
15
16
80
60
40
20
19 y.o. and older
29
12-14 y.o.
13
14
9-11 y.o.
18
19
6-8 y.o.
16
19
3-5 y.o.
19
30
22
Moscow
under 2 y.o.
St. Petersburg
0
Diagram. Housing of middle class
120
100
80
2
10
7
3
10
5
60
40
Rented appartment
Apartment from
government
74
77
20
Private apartment
Private house
7
5
Moscow
0
Room in the apartment
St. Petersburg
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30. Appendix 3. LIFE INDEX - List of indicators
and definitions
TOPICS
INDICATORS
Rooms per person
Housing expenditure
Housing
Dwelling with basic facilities
Household disposable
income
Income
Household financial wealth
Employment rate
Jobs
Long-term unemployment
rate
Personal earnings
Job security
Community
Quality of support network
Educational attainment
Education
Years in education
DEFINITIONS
SOURCES
It signals whether the persons occupying a
dwelling are living in crowded conditions. It is
measured as the number of rooms in a dwelling
divided by the number of persons living in the
dwelling.
it is calculated by dividing the final consumption
expenditure of households in housing and
maintenance of the house by the net adjusted
disposable income of the households.
It provides an assessment of the potential deficits
and shortcomings of accommodation focusing on
facilities for personal hygiene. One basic facility is
considered here: a lack of indoor flushing toilet
(measured as the percentage of dwellings not
having indoor flushing toilet for the sole use of
their household).
EU-SILC for European
countries and from
comparable national surveys
for non-EU countries
It includes income from work, property, imputed
rents attributed to home owners and social
benefits in cash, net of direct taxes and social
security contributions paid by households; it also
includes the social transfers in kind, such as
education and health care, that households
receive from governments. Income is measured
net of the depreciation of capital goods that
households use in production.
It consists of various financial assets owned by
households (e.g. cash, bonds and shares) net of
all types of financial liabilities.
It is the share of the working age population
(people aged from 15 to 64 in most OECD
countries) who are currently employed in a paid
job. Employed persons are those aged 15 and
over who declare having worked in gainful
employment for at least one hour in the previous
week, following the standard ILO definition.
It is the number of persons who have been
unemployed for one year or more as a share of the
labour force. Unemployed persons are those who
are currently not working but are willing to do so
and actively searching for jobs.
it shows the average annual earnings per full-time
employee
it is the share of dependent employment with job
tenure of less than 6 months.
It shows the proportion of the population reporting
that they have relatives, friends, or neighbours
they can count on to help if they were in trouble.
It profiles the education of the adult population as
captured through formal educational qualifications.
Educational attainment is measured as the
percentage of the adult population (25 to 64 years
of age) holding at least an upper secondary
degree, as defined by the OECD-ISCED
classification.
it measures the average duration of formal
education in which a five-year old child can expect
to enrol during his/her lifetime.
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OECD National Accounts
database
European Union Statistics
on Income and Living
Conditions (EU-SILC) and
national statistical offices of
Brazil, Canada, Chile,
Japan, Korea, Mexico,
Turkey and the United
States.
OECD National Accounts at
a Glance
OECD National Accounts at
a Glance
OECD Employment Outlook
OECD Employment Outlook
OECD Employment Outlook
OECD Factbook
OECD Education at a
Glance
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31. Students skills in maths,
reading and science
Air pollution
Environment
Water quality
Voter turnout
Civic
engagement
Consultation on rule-making
Life expectancy
Health
Self-reported health
Life Satisfaction
Safety
Life Satisfaction
Homicide rate
It measures the capacity of students near the end
of compulsory education. Studentswere tested on
their reading ability, skills in maths and level in
sciences . This indicator comes from the 2009
edition of OECD’s Programme for International
Student Assessment (PISA), which focused on
reading.
It refers to the population-weighted average
concentrations of fine particles (PM10) in the air
we breathe (measured in micro grams per cubic
meter); data refer to residential areas of cities
larger than 100,000 inhabitants. Particulate
matters consist of small liquid and solid particles
floating in the air, and include sulphate, nitrate,
elemental carbon, organic carbon matter, sodium
and ammonium ions in varying concentrations. Of
greatest concern to public health are the particles
small enough to be inhaled into the deepest parts
of the lung: these particles are less than 10
microns in diameter (PM10). PM10 also includes
fine particulate matter known as PM 2.5.
it shows the percentage of people reporting to be
satisfied with the quality of local water
It measures the extent of electoral participation in
major national elections. Only the number of votes
casted over the population registered to vote are
considered. The voting-age population is generally
defined as the population aged 18 or more, while
the registered population refers to the population
listed on the voters' register. The number of votes
casted are gathered from national statistics offices
and national electoral management bodies.
It describes the extent to which formal consultation
processes are built-in at key stages of the design
of regulatory proposals, and whether mechanisms
exist for the outcome of that consultation to
influence the preparation of draft primary laws and
subordinate regulations. This indicator is a
composite index aggregating various information
on the openness and transparency of the
consultation process used when designing
regulations.
It is the standard measure of the length of people’s
life. Life-expectancy measures how long on
average people could expect to live based on the
age specific mortality rates currently prevailing.
Life-expectancy can be computed at birth and at
various ages.
It is based on questions of the type: “How is your
health in general?”. Data are based on general
household surveys or on more detailed Health
Interviews undertaken as part of the official
surveys in various countries.
It measures overall life satisfaction as perceived by
individuals. Life satisfaction measures how people
evaluate their life as a whole rather than their
current feelings. It is measured via the Cantril
Ladder (also referred to as the Self-Anchoring
Striving Scale), which asks people to rate how they
value their life in terms of the best possible life (10)
through to the worst possible life (0). The score for
each country is calculated as the mean value of
responses to the Cantril Ladder for that country.
It measures the number of police-reported
intentional homicides reported each year, per
100,000 people. The data come from the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and
are based on national data collected from law
enforcement, prosecutor offices, and ministries of
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OECD PISA Results
OECD Environmental
Outlook
OECD Society at a Glance
OECD Regulatory
Management Systems’
Indicators Surveys 2005,
2008 and 2009, OECD,
Paris
OECD Health Database
OECD Health Database
OECD Society at a Glance
UNODC
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32. interior and justice, as well as Interpol, Eurostat
and regional crime prevention observatories.
Assault rate
Employees working very long
hours
Work-life balance
Time devoted to leisure and
personal care
It is based on the percentage of people who
declare that they have been victim of an assault
crime in the last 12 months. The data presented
here are drawn from the Gallup World Poll.
It shows the proportion of employees who usually
work for pay for more than 50 hours per week. The
data exclude self-employed workers who are likely
to chose deliberately to work long hours.
It presents data from national time use surveys on
the hours devoted to leisure and personal care in a
typical day.
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OECD Labour Force
Statistics
OECD Time Use Survey
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