Abstract. Reforming higher education and science in the world is associated with the widespread introduction of the indicators aimed at promoting their sustainability, productivity, and efficiency. The introduction of new educational technologies and the development of networks in education allow us to speak about the effect of increasing returns and mostly positive feedback. The instability inherent in such processes is an important factor for institutional change. Higher education and the professions associated with it, become large-scaled, which determines the use of indicators in the management plan. Exogenously introduced target indicators of development negatively affect the existing academic freedom and values, as well as hinder their reproduction. This paper attempts to understand the limitations of quantitative indicators and their impact on the adaptive strategies of the actors achieving them. We think that it is necessary to pay more attention to the problems of academic culture and values as important factors in both economic and social performance. It should be considered that education as a specific type of activity and institution is associated with the production of public goods and trust, and performs an important social function. We scrutinize the system of higher education through the prism of applying development target indicators as a tool of public policy. Our results seem to justify the importance of integrating institutions, values and self-governance mechanisms that promote long-term sustainable development.

Education and science play an increasingly significant role in the development of modern society as well as the economy. The number of years people spend on education has been steadily increasing over the past century, and this phenomenon has become truly global. Thence, one would probably agree that education strengthens its importance in social and economic life, and its development becomes an important indicator of the economic well-being and sustainable development of any given country. Our paper scrutinizes the indicators of development and trust in eduction and science using a case study from Russian Federation, a country where education has a very important, yet a dubious and debatable significance. In Russian society, a paradoxical situation has developed in many ways with attitudes in society towards the state of the education system, which is reflected in the gap in the desire to give their children (or grandchildren for that matter) the highest level of education coupled with a very low rate of assessment of this very education. We measure and apply the indicators of growth of science and education based on the the level of trust which is taken as a proxy of the quality of social capital. We show that a high level of trust characterizes social capital, which contributes to the establishment of depersonalized (impersonal) social ties, both outside and inside organizations. On the other hand, the low level of trust causes a dysfunction of management and complicates the formation of social ties and is characterized by the dominance of institutions that limit the possibilities of social and professional mobility. Our results and outcomes can be useful for constructing economic and social measures for supporting the growth of science and education as well as for finding the most effective pathways for achieving the sustainable development of this field which leads to the increase in the economic competitiveness of a country.

The concept of precariat is becoming the increasingly important subject of interdisciplinary research that involves both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The formation of the precariat is associated with the neoliberal reforms carried out in the last decades, as well as significant institutional and technological changes. The process of precarisation is accompanied by an increase in insecurity, instability, and flexibility, which is most characteristic of informal and precarious work. Our paper analyzes the relationship between informal employment as a proxy precariat and unemployment rates, industrial production index and real wages using the structural VAR approach for monthly data in the period 2010-2018. The relationship between the variables is checked by imposing restrictions on the recursive scheme (Cholesky identification) as well as the recursive identification scheme (Cholesky decomposition) in the SVAR model. Our analysis of the impulse response caused by the positive shock of informal employment confirmed that in the short term, the increase in the share of people employed in the informal sector causes, above all, a decline in real wages. There are weak responses from the industrial production index, which leads to the conclusion about the leveling effect of institutions and institutions. In addition, the paper employs the process of modeling the development of informal employment using the ARIMA model. Our results showing the trends in the development of informal employment demonstrate the existence of cyclical resilience which negatively affects economic development and requires structural reforms.

Статья подготовлена при поддержке Российского фонда фундаментальных исследований, грант № 18-010-00581 «Институциональные ловушки оптимизации сферы образования и науки».

The paper proposes a conceptual framework for studying Russian innovation system through the lens of a narrative economics approach. Applied narrative analysis involves five stages: 1) defining the range of influential media sources; 2) highlighting relevant narratives; 3) measuring the virality of narratives and revealing their connection to certain rules and institutions; 4) identifying problem situations related to key research issues; 5) assessing the influence of narratives, ideas, rules and institutions on the problem situations. We conducted a literature review relying on the co-occurrence method, and compiled mental maps to identify three domains associated with narrative economics: financial markets; the institutional environment of economy; science and education. The narratives are proposed to be classified as a) the sources of qualitative data on certain behavioral patterns, and b) simplified models related to particular scholar traditions. The research findings show six key issues featuring Russian innovation system: public administration of innovation activities; the selection of research areas; demand-based innovation; institutional structure and competitive environment; personnel for research and innovation; human resources in research and development; intellectual property. We distinguish between two approaches that complement formal modeling. Within the ex ante approach, narrative analysis precedes modeling, allowing to make related assumptions. Ex post approach deals with the conclusions resulted from a particular model application. Relying on the research findings, we use relevant narratives to supplement the explanatory hypotheses and interpret the problem situation.