5th Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis (RSSIA 2011) “New Institutional Economics: Challenges and Opportunities”
Despite rainy weather in Moscow on July, 5th, it was warm and sunny in the Center for Institutional Studies, HSE, because the 5th Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis (RSSIA 2011) “New Institutional Economics: Challenges and Opportunities” began. All the organizers, experts and participants met each other by the Higher School of Economics, jumped into a comfortable bus and moved to Heliopark Thalasso hotel near Zvenigorod.
Despite rainy weather in Moscow on July, 5th, it was warm and sunny in the Center for Institutional Studies, HSE, because the 5th Russian Summer School on Institutional Analysis (RSSIA 2011) “New Institutional Economics: Challenges and Opportunities” began. All the organizers, experts and participants met each other by the Higher School of Economics, jumped into a comfortable bus and moved to Heliopark Thalasso hotel near Zvenigorod.
The first event of RSSIA was very informal: we got together and spent an evening introducing ourselves and knowing each other better. The organizers prepared some funny nominations and prizes for this evening. First of all, many participants came from different foreign countries. For instance, Dalson Britto and Dwi Rento Widiyanti had to overcome a lot of obstacles and approximately 9500 km to reach RSSIA. They received the prizes for their bravery and firmness. Another participant – Arkady Konovalov – was awarded for brilliant time-management: he was the first to apply for RSSIA 2011 participation. For three researchers - Olga Vasilyeva, Anna Panova and Ilya Prakhov - it’s the 3rd RSSIA they participate in (they were awarded as the most frequent RSSIA guests). What motivates them to do it again and again, may be they are addicted to it participation just became a routine? Actually the researchers believe that participation in the RSSIA is a great opportunity for everyone to discuss their projects with distinguished experts as well as with the other participants that may help a lot in future research. Meanwhile not all the participants are the PhD students or senior researchers. In fact the youngest participant is Elizaveta Konovalova who is just 20 years old – and she received the prize for that as well.
After welcome meeting, when everyone said a few words about themselves and their professional interests, the participants were divided into 3 groups – yellow, red and green – according to the topics of their research projects. Next day each researcher will have 5 minutes to present the basic ideas of their projects and receive some feedback from the experts on how to improve it before the final presentation.