About the Institute

The Institute for Industrial and Market Studies (IIMS) was founded in April 1997, and was one of the first research institutes established at the Higher School of Economics. The institute focuses on empirical analysis of organizational behavior, market development, competition, business climate and business - government relations.

The Institute specializes in academic and applied research projects, provides information and advisory support to major enterprises, federal ministries and their departments, regional organizations and leading Russian think tanks. IIMS projects are based on empirical data and combine both quantitative and qualitative research methods. Informal interviews with companies’ managers allow researchers to identify trends in firm behavior, and more formal surveys help test hypotheses by using econometric analysis.

IIMS main research areas include:

• market structure of Russian industries;
• organization and management of enterprises, including incentives for increasing efficiency and innovation activity;
• analysis of competition trends;
• property relations and corporate governance in transition economies;
• behavior of foreign investors;
• functioning of the public procurement system;
• incentives for bureaucrats and their impact on economic development;
• collective actions in business environment and professional communities;
• informal institutions, including cultural norms and trust, and their impact on social and economic development.

One of the most successful IIMS projects was the establishment of the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) in 2011. The center, one of the HSE international laboratories, focuses on the study of collective action, elites, social capital and economic history, and brings together Russian and foreign experts in the field of political economy.

The IIMS works closely with other HSE departments, Russian analytical centers and international associations:

• Center for strategic development;

• Interdepartmental analytical center, and others.

  One of the main advantages of the IIMS compared to traditional Russian research institutes is that it has created and keeps updating its extensive empirical databases based on the results of surveys of Russian firms. Some of the IIMS earlier databases are available in the HSE database archive.

Moreover, the IIMS successfully runs its Visiting researchers program.  More than 100 researchers from Japan, USA, Germany, Italy, Korea and other countries have visited the Institute for research purposes for a period from 2-3 weeks to one year.

The IIMS team members are professionally involved in different committees, working groups, and international associations. They are board members of the European Association for Comparative Economic Studies (EACES), The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), Association of Russian Economic Think Tanks (ARETT) and the Russian Association for Study in Public Economies (ASPE).

Besides, the IIMS researchers are on editorial boards of different economic journals, including Russian Management Journal, HSE Economic Journal, the Journal of the New Economic Association.

Many of the IIMS team members are also actively involved in the educational process - they teach at HSE and foreign universities, and supervise bachelor, master and PhD students in their research projects.