National Research University – Higher School of Economics

About: National Research University – Higher School of Economics is a education organization based out in Moscow, Russia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Politics. The organization has 12873 authors who have published 23376 publications receiving 256396 citations.

The ASEP and determinantal point processes

Abstract: We introduce a family of discrete determinantal point processes related to orthogonal polynomials on the real line, with correlation kernels defined via spectral projections for the associated Jacobi matrices. For classical weights, we show how such ensembles arise as limits of various hypergeometric orthogonal polynomials ensembles. We then prove that the q-Laplace transform of the height function of the ASEP with step initial condition is equal to the expectation of a simple multiplicative functional on a discrete Laguerre ensemble --- a member of the new family. This allows us to obtain the large time asymptotics of the ASEP in three limit regimes: (a) for finitely many rightmost particles; (b) GUE Tracy-Widom asymptotics of the height function; (c) KPZ asymptotics of the height function for the ASEP with weak asymmetry. We also give similar results for two instances of the stochastic six vertex model in a quadrant. The proofs are based on limit transitions for the corresponding determinantal point processes.

Supra-glacial debris cover changes in the Greater Caucasus from 1986 to 2014

Abstract: . Knowledge of supra-glacial debris cover and its changes remain incomplete in the Greater Caucasus, in spite of recent glacier studies. Here we present data of supra-glacial debris cover for 659 glaciers across the Greater Caucasus based on Landsat and SPOT images from the years 1986, 2000 and 2014. We combined semi-automated methods for mapping the clean ice with manual digitization of debris-covered glacier parts and calculated supra-glacial debris-covered area as the residual between these two maps. The accuracy of the results was assessed by using high-resolution Google Earth imagery and GPS data for selected glaciers. From 1986 to 2014, the total glacier area decreased from 691.5±29.0 to 590.0±25.8 km 2 ( 15.8±4.1 %, or ∼0.52 % yr −1 ), while the clean-ice area reduced from 643.2±25.9 to 511.0±20.9 km 2 ( 20.1±4.0 %, or ∼0.73 % yr −1 ). In contrast supra-glacial debris cover increased from 7.0±6.4 %, or 48.3±3.1 km 2 , in 1986 to 13.4±6.2 % ( ∼0.22 % yr −1 ), or 79.0±4.9 km 2 , in 2014. Debris-free glaciers exhibited higher area and length reductions than debris-covered glaciers. The distribution of the supra-glacial debris cover differs between the northern and southern and between the western, central and eastern Greater Caucasus. The observed increase in supra-glacial debris cover is significantly stronger on the northern slopes. Overall, we have observed up-glacier average migration of supra-glacial debris cover from about 3015 to 3130 m a.s.l. (metres above sea level) during the investigated period.

Country-level correlates of the Dark Triad traits in 49 countries.

Abstract: Objectives: The Dark Triad traits (i.e., narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism) capture individual differences in aversive aspects of personality to compliment work on the other taxonomies such as the Big Five traits. However, most studies on the Dark Triad traits rely on samples from English-speaking countries that are relatively advanced in socio-political development (e.g., Westernized).Method: We drew on data from 49 countries (N = 11,723; 65.8% female; AgeMean = 21.53) to examine how a wide net of country-level variables in economic status (e.g., Human Development Index), social relations (e.g., gender equality), political orientations (e.g., democracy), and cultural values (e.g., embeddedness) relate to country-level rates of the Dark Triad traits and variance in the magnitude of sex differences in them.Results: Narcissism was especially sensitive to country-level factors. Countries that had less advanced systems, with more embedded and hierarchical cultural systems, were more narcissistic as a population. Sex differences in narcissism were larger in more advanced societies, because women were less likely to be narcissistic in advanced as opposed to less advanced countries.Conclusions: We discuss the results using evolutionary and social role models of personality and sex differences. In particular, higher nation-level narcissism was more common in “less advanced” places and sex differences in narcissism were larger in “more advanced” places which is more consistent with evolutionary than social role models.

Entrepreneurial universities and regional contribution

Abstract: For the past few decades, higher education institutions (HEIs) have been evolving into full-fledged managerial entities preoccupied with generating profits and creating an economic impact on local, regional and national scales. Taking cues from the international trend, numerous political initiatives in Russia have emphasized government support for innovative and entrepreneurial activities at regional universities. This study attempts to define the dimensions of entrepreneurial universities and determine to what extent this definition is applicable to the regional context in Russia. Using data from HEIs’ efficiency monitoring conducted by the Ministry of Education and the Science of Russian Federation, we analyze the scientific and research productivity metrics and the funding structure of 20 universities located in the Saint Petersburg region, and we investigate the entrepreneurial activities undertaken by different types of universities. While policymakers and universities tend to employ mostly quantitative quality performance indicators (QPIs) to capture scientific productivity and commercial outcomes, the findings suggest that the regionalized impact of universities extends far beyond technology transfer and tangible outputs (in terms of human capital attraction and detention, formation of entrepreneurship capital, informal networks, new ideas, etc.). This study furthers the knowledge about the heterogeneous nature of entrepreneurialism at Russian universities and provides useful insights for policymaking and managerial practice. The transformation of a university into a local entrepreneurial fulcrum demands massive government funding during the initial stages and coordinated policy measures to foster the innovative activities of the university without compromising its traditional teaching and research functions.

Copulae and Operational Risks

Abstract: The management of Operational Risks has always been difficult due to the high number of variables to work with and their complex multivariate distribution. A Copula is a statistic tool which has been recently used in finance and engineering to build flexible joint distributions in order to model a high number of variables. The goal of this paper is to propose its use to model Operational Risks, by showing its benefits with an empirical example.