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Academics from Saint-Petersburg and Perm Shared Their Experience in Research

Big session of the GAMES research seminar took place at HSE-Perm. During one week academics from HSE-Perm and HSE-Saint-Petersburg shared their experience in research.

The seminars were open and they were attended by students and lecturers of Perm State University’s department of mathematical methods in economics.

Sergey Kokovin, Associate Professor of the HSE-Saint-Petersburg’s Department of Economics, leading research fellow of the Center for Market Studies and Spatial Economics, and doctoral students Sergey Onenko and Iakov Kuga who plan to study empirical methods, came to Perm from Saint-Petersburg.

Sergey Kokovin presented several papers. One of them was focused on price discrimination, which comes down to the fact that one and the same goods are often sold to customers at different prices. Different discount cards as well as product lines with price gradation are the examples of price discrimination.

Both shops and manufacturers face a topical problem, what optimal price should be established for this or that product of the line in order to keep different groups of customers. At the seminar, the researcher told how to find a formula for establishing such optimal price. For some people the price should be increased, for others – decreased. The researcher paid special attention to the fact that the quality of a product is decreased artificially along with the price, in order to prevent rich customers from buying a cheap product.

Another paper by Sergey Kokovin was dedicated to monopolistic competition. This topic is a “visiting card” of the Center for Market Studies and Spatial Economics. Theoretical models within this topic are developing quickly and they are at the cutting edge of the science. Sergey told about the basic principles of these models.

Oligopoly as it is presented to students at microeconomics lectures does not exist in the market. Rather monopolistic competition seems to be more realistic.

Sergey Kokovin 
leading research fellow of the Center for Market Studies and Spatial Economics


At the seminar, representatives of HSE-Perm told about current research of the Group for Applied Markets and Enterprises Studies and about the best methods of data research.

Dmitriy Potapov, Deputy Director of HSE-Perm, Associate Professor of the School of Economics and Finance, head of the Group for Applied Markets and Enterprises Studies, presented his paper “Demand in retail: the experience of research and topical tasks”. Dmitriy presented two researches dedicated to finding regularities of consumers’ behaviour in retail chains.

The first research was focused on finding a correlation of an influence of previous purchases on current choice. It was important for the Group members to learn how the influence of previous choice correlates with price elasticity and response to discounts. The second research tries to find out the attitude of people to SMS-messages about discounts and special offers and to assess the effectiveness of electronic communication for an offline brand.

Evgeniy Ozhegov, senior lecturer of the HSE-Perm’s School of Economics and Finance, research fellow of the Group for applied Markets and Enterprises Studies, presented several papers about the best empirical methods based on aggregated and individual data.

The purpose of the seminar is to acquaint with researches of each other and to exchange the experience. The Center for Market Studies and Spatial Economics is strong in theoretical models, while the GAMES research group – in empirical ones. The exchange with knowledge will allow two units to work on their projects jointly. Since a research where theory is connected with practice is a qualitatively new level.

The seminar was not limited by lectures and paper presentations. In one of the days the seminar participants visited Perm opera and ballet theatre which is a long-time partner of the GAMES group in research on cultural economics.