How demographic shocks affected the productionfactor income and the institutional path of the Russian pre-industrial economy

The author considers several Russian cases of population-loss shocks in the 14th - 17th centuries and their consequences for the production-factor markets, comparing them with those in England. The article aims at verifying theoretical ideas and at tracing the institutional path of mediaeval Russia's development based on the empirical data represented in the research works, two chronicles and the legal act (Code of 1649). The author's review of narratives and statistical data contributes to the historical comparative studies of economic systems and of the path dependence in the institutional economic history. The article contributes to the explanation of the causes of the 'Little Divergence' between (North)western and (South)eastern Europe in the 15th - 19th centuries, and of the roots of the 'Great Divergence' between Europe and Asia in the 18th - 20th centuries. The author argues that the empirical evidence from the Soviet Marxist economic historiography is consistent with the recent findings of the neo-Malthusian structural-demographic theory supported by the Cliodynamics school of quantitative history. After the shocks, wages rose in Russia just as in England. The dynamics of the skill premia highlights the background for formation of human capital ingredients in the bowels of the pre-industrial societies. Contrary to England, serfdom, one of the most extractive institutions, remained in Russia as a response of landlords to the pressure from the disadvantageous combination of production-factor incomes, which led to an increase in land rent to wage ratio and to reliance on land-saving (versus labour-saving) technologies in agriculture

Capital formation and economic growth under central planning and transition: A theoretical and empirical analysis, ca. 1920–2008

According to the consensus view, it was primarily physical capital accumulation that drove economic growth during the early years of state socialism. Growth models incorporating both human and physical capital accumulation led to the conclusion that a high physical/human capital ratio can cause a lower economic growth in the long run, hence offering an explanation for the failure of socialist economies. In this paper, we show theoretically and empirically that according to the logic of the socialist planner, it was optimal to achieve a higher physical to human capital ratio in socialist countries than in the West. Using a VAR analysis, we find empirical confirmation that within the Material Product System of national accounting, the relative dominance of investment in physical capital accumulation relative to human capital was indeed more efficient than under the system of national accounts

Human capital in the regions of the Russian Empire and inequality in land distribution at the turn of the 20th century

This paper is an empirical test of what is called a unified theory of inequality and growth (Galor and Zeira, 1988, 1993; Galor and Moav, 2004; Galor, 2012) – in early stages of industrialization inequality enhanced the process of development by channeling resources towards individuals whose marginal propensity to save is higher, thus enhancing physical and human capital accumulation. In later stages of development, however, equality has stimulated human capital formation and growth and unequal distribution of income became a hurdle for economic development. A number of studies have found that human capital is higher and more evenly distributed in countries with lower income and wealth inequalities. In particular, Baten and Hippe (2018) argued that inequality in the distribution of land ownership in Europe (including Russia) in the 19th century had a negative impact on human capital formation (as measured by numeracy rate) as landowners did not have incentives to promote educational institutions or were not willing to pay the necessary taxes. In contrast, we find that in the regions of Russian Empire in 1897 uneven distribution of land was associated with higher levels of human capital (as measured by the average years of schooling and literacy rate), whereas the distribution of the human capital across the regional population (as measured by literacy and the proportions of inhabitants with higher, secondary and primary education) was more even. The difference in the results is caused by the different measurements of land inequality; our result is totally consistent with the unified theory of the inequality and growth

Social and medical aspects of elderly age: obesity and professional longevity

The article raises the problem of the population aging and the expected significant increase in the proportion of the elderly population in Russian in the next 10–15 years. Population aging will cause the need to attract additional financial resources for pensions to 12–14% of GDP, which is approximately 1.5 – 1.6 times more than is provided for by the program of the Government of Russia aimed at improving the pension System in the period until 2025. The existing pension system and social security system only partially takes into account the aging process. Mechanisms for adapting the elderly to work have not yet been created, a well-thought-out state policy in this area has yet to be developed. In addition, the aging of the population leads to an increase in the older age groups of the risks of diseases with severe and catastrophic consequences, to prevent and reduce which is the number one task before the social policy of the state for this population group. The costs of medical care and care help are exorbitant in scope for the vast majority of retirees, so the elderly remain virtually defenseless against the risks of old age. It is emphasized that before medicine the task is not simply to increase life expectancy, but to prolong the labor activity of a citizen. The article suggests measures to improve the policy of interaction between state institutions and civil society in overcoming the negative consequences of aging and social adaptation of older persons

Удельная проводимость композитов металл-полимер в СВЧ диапазоне

Досліджено залежність питомої провідності композитів метал-полімер від об'ємної частки дисперсної фази в діапазоні частот 8...12 ГГц. На основі рівнянь Максвелла-Гарнетта і Нільсена отримані моделі залежності питомої провідності структури. Виконано порівняння моделей. Наведено результати числового моделювання та експериментальні дані.The specific conductivity dependence of the metal-polymer composites on dispersed phase volume part in the frequency range 8...12 GHz are investigated. The models of the specific conductivity structure dependence based on equations of Maxwell-Garnett and Nielsen are obtained. The comparison of the models was performed. Results of the numerical modeling and experimental data are shown.Исследована зависимость удельной проводимости композитов металл-полимер от объемной доли дисперсной фазы в диапазоне частот 8...12 ГГц. На основе уравнений Максвелла-Гарнетта и Нильсена получены модели зависимости удельной проводимости структуры. Выполнено сравнение моделей. Приведены результаты численного моделирования и экспериментальные данные

Kimmeridgian-Tithonian sea-level fluctuations in the Uljanovsk-Saratov Basin (Russian Platform)

Abstract The Uljanovsk-Saratov Basin, located in the southeast of the Russian Platform, presents an intriguing record of the Kimmeridgian-Tithonian sea-level fluctuations. In the Late Jurassic, this basin was a trough within the Interior Russian Sea. The data available from both outcrops and boreholes have permitted outlining a number of lithostratigraphic units and regional hiatuses in the northeastern segment of the Uljanovsk-Saratov Basin, thus permitting a precise reconstruction of transgressions/regressions and deepenings/shallowings. In total, three transgressive-regressive cycles and two deepening pulses have been established. These regionally documented changes were both related in part to global eustatic changes, and they also corresponded in part to the regional sea-level changes in some basins of Western Europe and Northern Africa, but not to those of the Arabian Platform. Differences observed between the global and regional curves as well as rapid Tithonian sea-level oscillations are explained by the influences of tectonic activity. It is hypothesized that the regional Tithonian oxygen depletion might have been a consequence from the rapid flooding of a densely vegetated land

Physics case for an LHCb Upgrade II - Opportunities in flavour physics, and beyond, in the HL-LHC era

The LHCb Upgrade II will fully exploit the flavour-physics opportunities of the HL-LHC, and study additional physics topics that take advantage of the forward acceptance of the LHCb spectrometer. The LHCb Upgrade I will begin operation in 2020. Consolidation will occur, and modest enhancements of the Upgrade I detector will be installed, in Long Shutdown 3 of the LHC (2025) and these are discussed here. The main Upgrade II detector will be installed in long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2030) and will build on the strengths of the current LHCb experiment and the Upgrade I. It will operate at a luminosity up to 2×1034 cm−2s−1, ten times that of the Upgrade I detector. New detector components will improve the intrinsic performance of the experiment in certain key areas. An Expression Of Interest proposing Upgrade II was submitted in February 2017. The physics case for the Upgrade II is presented here in more depth. CP-violating phases will be measured with precisions unattainable at any other envisaged facility. The experiment will probe b → sl+l−and b → dl+l− transitions in both muon and electron decays in modes not accessible at Upgrade I. Minimal flavour violation will be tested with a precision measurement of the ratio of B(B0 → μ+μ−)/B(Bs → μ+μ−). Probing charm CP violation at the 10−5 level may result in its long sought discovery. Major advances in hadron spectroscopy will be possible, which will be powerful probes of low energy QCD. Upgrade II potentially will have the highest sensitivity of all the LHC experiments on the Higgs to charm-quark couplings. Generically, the new physics mass scale probed, for fixed couplings, will almost double compared with the pre-HL-LHC era; this extended reach for flavour physics is similar to that which would be achieved by the HE-LHC proposal for the energy frontier

LHCb upgrade software and computing : technical design report

This document reports the Research and Development activities that are carried out in the software and computing domains in view of the upgrade of the LHCb experiment. The implementation of a full software trigger implies major changes in the core software framework, in the event data model, and in the reconstruction algorithms. The increase of the data volumes for both real and simulated datasets requires a corresponding scaling of the distributed computing infrastructure. An implementation plan in both domains is presented, together with a risk assessment analysis