This study examines the relationship between family and school characteristics, and student reading performance; and how these vary across countries with different levels of economic inequality and stratification. Economic inequality is measured with the Gini index and stratification by the...

Despite the growing influence of international surveys of student achievements such as PISA, TIMSS, and PIRLS on policy, there is currently no international baseline study of children’s development on starting school. As a result, nobody knows for sure the extent to which the differences in...

There are two different ways to deal with exceptions in Optimality Theory (OT): Co-phonology and Indexed Constraints. Several works compare the two approaches claiming that the Co-phonology approach is more formally parsimonious than Indexed Constraint approach. This paper presents an analysis...

The paper looks at the singular genre of Paul Claudel’s 1911 drama, which the author himself defined as a mystery play. This work is studied as a sort of genre experiment, which became possible in the early 20th century, owing to the blurring of borders typical for Symbolist theatre. One can...

The referential system of Middle Russian is notable for having in addition to the "standard" anaphoric devices—such as zero, pronominal, and nominal forms—devices that combine pronominal and nominal components, e.g. on knjaz' Mixajlo ‘he prince Mixajlo’, tot d'jakon Iov ‘that deacon...

What is the optimal way to seed a knock-out tournament in order to maximize the overall spectator interest in it? Seeding affects the set of matches being played in the tournament, while neutral spectators tend to prefer to watch (i) close and intense matches; (ii) matches that involve strong...

We analyze the impact of migration on wages, income and the unemployment rate. Using the official Russian statistical database from 1995 to 2010, we calculate a dynamic panel data model with spatial effects. There is a positive spatial effect for wages and unemployment. There is no significant...

This paper explores the competitive bidding process in eight regions of Russia where local governments entered into. The bidding documents have been analyzed in terms of the type of provider ownership, public or private, levels of nonprofit activity, and nonprofit competitiveness. The findings...

The research project aims to find link between genetic diversity and social change. Although some studies associate certain genes with prosocial behavior, it is hardly to say that any genetic polymorphisms are responsible for social change. We assume that some existing differences in particular...

This paper deals with factors determining work-related gender attitudes. With the spread of emancipative values the difference between gender roles is becoming more vague but is still strongly dependent upon country characteristics. While gender attitudes are usually regarded as factors...