7th Annual Conference of the International Center for the Study of Institutions and Development (ICSID) «Political Economy of Development: Historical and Contemporary Factors» took place at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow on June 7-9, 2018.

More than 40 Russian and foreign experts in the fields of political economy, and economic and institutional development presented their papers during the 2018 conference. Nan Jia (Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California), Steven Nafziger (Williams College) and Hilary Appel (Claremont McKenna College) were invited to give keynote speeches at the conference.

The researchers discussed a broad spectrum of issues in political science and economics mostly focusing on non-democratic regimes and transition economies. Topics varied from collective actions and the mass media in autocracies to corruption, human capital and historical legacies in postcommunist countries.

The EACES-HSE Workshop “Topics in Political Economy of Development” was held on the first day of the conference, June 7. The workshop featured presentations by PhD students and more senior scholars from prominent educational and research centers. The presentations were grouped into several parallel sessions, e.g. “Economics and Politics”, “Trade, Borders and Development”, “Informal Institutions”. Among the speakers were: Sarah Wilson Sokhey (University of Colorado, Boulder), Amanda Zadorian (New School for Social Research), Daniel Thomas (Columbia University), Sasha de Vogel (University of Michigan),Vasyl Kvartiuk (Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies), Sümeyra Atmaca (Ghent University), Maria Polugodina (Freie Universität Berlin), Sean Norton (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), Ekaterina Paustyan (Central European University). The full list of the workshop participants can be found in the attached conference program below.

The following two days of the conference included talks by the members of the ICSID team. For example, Andrei Yakovlev (HSE) presented his co-authored paper on the female factor in perception of corruption by bureaucrats; Thomas Remington (Emory University, HSE and Harvard University) offered a comparative analysis of inequality in Russia, China and the United States; David Szakonyi (George Washington University, HSE) looked into a strategic use of electoral fraud in Russia, while Israel Marques (HSE) discussed conditions of co-investments under weak institutions by examining public-private partnerships in the system of vocational education and training in the Russian regions. There was also a brief introduction to the Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, a project developed by Alena Ledeneva (University College London) together with her colleagues.

One of the highlights of the conference was a special HSE award presented to Timothy Frye, the ICSID director of research.  A Medal of Honor from HSE was presented personally by HSE Academic Supervisor Professor Evgeny Yasin for Tim Frye’s active involvement in the work of ICSID. Professor Yasin expressed his gratitude to Timothy Frye for his long-term cooperation with HSE and for the successful running of ICSID, and wished him all the best in his future work.