Mission

ICSID’s main objective is to take advantage of diverse skills of our international team of researchers to develop a new scientific direction at the Higher School of Economics.  Our long-term goal is to become an established source of information on the relationship between institutions and economic development for both Russian and foreign scholars.  We are particularly interested in how institutions, both formal and informal, are created and sustained and how they shape economic and political outcomes. 

Current projects at ICSID are quite diverse. Some focus on the sources of bureaucratic capacity in Russia’s regions while others explore the determinants of trust or examine the impact of political turnover on economic policy.  All projects emphasize original data collection and the use of the latest methods in social science, including field experiments, lab experiments and observational studies.

While our main goal is to conduct basic research, we also recognize how our work relates to policy.  We hope that our research will not only deepen existing knowledge about economic development, but will also support federal, regional and local institutional reforms.

Our principal objectives:

• Use the latest research methods to generate new knowledge about economic development;
• increase the prestige of the HSE internationally;
• provide strategic advice to the Russian government and companies;
• help train a new generation of scholars at the HSE.