Lossing Russia is easier than making it lose a war

Instead of solely draining Russia’s authoritarian institution, the current sanctions drain their democratic alternatives even more. As a result, after inevitably losing the war with Ukraine, Russia will become a poorer, more authoritarian, and hostile society united by an even stronger desire for retribution. To avert this outcome, there should be an acknowledgment that the unreformed Soviet institutions uphold Russia’s autocracy. I argue that the theories of economic transitions that guided the creation of the Russian modern private sector provide clear theoretical guidance on optimal sanctioning today. Russia’s state higher education and science is an excellent frontier where these optimal sanctions can be tested.

Доказательная государственная политика: опыт Австралии

Роль административных данных для проведения политики во всём мире трудно переоценить. Исследователи, получая данные по конкретному региону или сообществу, используют их, чтобы сделать жизнь конкретных людей лучше. Таким исследователем в Австралии работает Сергей Алексеев.

Australian alcohol tax system impedes public health policy

There is no effective policy tool to regulate drinking in Australia. Policymakers have to engage in politically expensive processes to regulate one product. Alcohol abuse imposes an enormous health burden on the community. The acute burden of abuse is felt mainly by the young, a disproportionate number of whom are killed through accident and misadventure. Getting alcohol policy right means getting the system of taxation right. While the complexity of the Australian system of taxation of alcohol has been criticized for decades, our new study shows that our tax system is incapable of delivering an effective policy response to the problem of alcohol use by young people.

COVID-19 Locking Australians into an Undetected Rental Trap

A noticeable increase in housing prices during COVID-19 would exacerbate the equality of opportunities, yet as standard measures of mobility ignore home ownership, this exacerbation will go undetected by both researchers and the Australian government. At the same time, higher-paid workers, those who did not lose their jobs during the lockdowns, and those with access to parental financial help, will concentrate home owners in their hands with a potential to extract rent from less fortunate but no less hard-working Australians