International Online Research Workshop at GSEM

16:05, April 22, 2020

The researchers discussed the issues of socioeconomic development modelling for Russian regions

On April 19th, GSEM Laboratory for International and Regional Economics held an international online research workshop «Modelling Balanced Technological and Socioeconomic Development in Russian Regions».

Due to the current epidemiological situation the workshop was organised fully online for the first time for our School. About 20 researchers from different cities and countries participated via video conference call. The participants were GSEM researchers working on the RSF grant №19-18-00262, as well as scholars from other UrFU institutes and foreign universities. Eight presentations were delivered: representatives of the University of Klagenfurt (Austria), Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and GSEM UrFU. They presented results of economic modelling based on open source data, as well as recent public opinion surveys. The methodology used by the researchers included widely recognised tools of econometric analysis, as well as tools for analysing constructed languages and methods for solving optimal regulation tasks and stochastic processes analysis.

«It is very important to support communication among researchers during these difficult times. On the one hand, our research work is less affected by the Coronavirus pandemic because often all you need to succeed is a pencil, some paper and a laptop connected to the Internet. However, creating new knowledge depends critically on the dialogue between people, on personal interaction opportunities and feedback from colleagues. This is why it is of vital importance that conferences are organised now and not postponed to the future, by going online. I believe our first experience to be a success, and we are already planning new workshops to organise soon.

I would like to stress also the value of communication among researchers working in different fields of science. Interdisciplinary fields allow for creating of the most interesting  research as these fields are underexplored and have the biggest potential to change our worldview today.  At our workshop, we explored the topics across economics, natural science and psychology (the issue of people’s response to public surveys and its influence on their position regarding new initiatives in the area of tax regulation or carbon emission), mathematics and economics (problems of optimising dynamic non-linear systems under rational expectations, analysis of systems behaviour in  non-equilibrium state), economics and computer linguistics (classifying the content of nationwide phone-ins with Vladimir Putin by subject and analysing how the prevalence of particular subjects influences the President’s ranking and vice versa)», — says Ivan Savin, Research Fellow at Autonomous University of Barcelona, Senior Researcher and Professor at GSEM UrFU, Head of the RSF grant.

Every report was followed by a detailed discussion featuring questions by students, young and experienced researchers working in the fields of economic modelling, econometrics and other areas.

«Holding the workshop online was an interesting solution forced by the current situation, — comments Dmitry Blüschke, Associate Professor of the University of Klagenfurt (Austria). — I have to admit that for me it was the first seminar in such a fully virtual format, and I was pleasantly surprised that it went very well. I heard a lot of interesting presentations and, what’s even more important, thorough discussions on different economic subjects. Young UrFU researchers now have a valuable experience, and all the participants have undoubtedly benefited from the seminar».

«The last workshop «Modelling of Balanced Technological and Socioeconomic Development in Russian Regions» of the Laboratory for International and Regional Economics had to be conducted online because of the Coronavirus, — says Hans Wiesmeth, Academic Head of the Laboratory and President of the Saxon Academy of Sciences. — It was an interesting experience that turned out to be surprisingly good. The workshop included presentations from various economic areas: econometric analyses as well as the evaluation of socioeconomic studies using sophisticated tools, and there were experienced researchers and younger colleagues, who prepared their career. Of course, one of the advantages of this online workshop was that colleagues from a variety of countries could participate without leaving home. So, in summary, it was a good experience, with interesting presentations and a lively discussion. Nevertheless, from time to time it seems to be necessary to meet all participants in person in order to establish and maintain contacts. So we are looking forward to holding offline workshops in the future».