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Best Teacher 2017 Award

Three weeks ago students of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Higher School of Economics elected me a Best Teacher 2017 at the Higher School of Economics in the annual Best Teachers competition. Thank you! This is a great honor for me as well as a strong motivation to continuously improve my teaching. Following the announcement of the results Anna Chernyakhovskaya from HSE’s media department asked me to share some experiences in an interview. Here is what I said; the interview is also available at https://www.hse.ru/en/news/campus/208020103.html

Anna Chernyakhovskaya: What have been some of the main ‚lessons learned‘ by each of you since you started teaching at HSE? 

I am enjoying being among students at HSE, both in terms of cultural diversity and creative intelligence. Students are very demanding while also very flexible. Students at HSE significantly differ from what I knew in Germany. They are flexible in identifying solutions towards a given problem and heavily motivated to reach goals. Given an instruction they exhibit a very high degree of creative intelligence. Networking is an essential part of students’ life; for example, second-year students exchange experiences with their peers from the third year.

What has served as a source of motivation in your profession? How can one become the best in a profession?

I am far away from being the best in my profession, but I would like to share three routines that peers may consider helpful.First I use LMS, HSE’s learning platform, to prepare and evaluate my teaching sessions afterwards, to manage performance assessments, as well as to provide students with learning materials. Any student is virtually online 24/7 nowadays, using smartphones both inside and outside the classroom. LMS allows me to post and distribute readings and worksheets in advance. Second, I prepare an action plan for each teaching session by splitting each session into five to ten parts or items. For each part I define a goal, like today I want to introduce the following terms, or deepen their understanding of the concept of XYZ. I define particular actions, or treatments to achieve this learning effect. I also allocate an amount of time for each of these actions. Third, I allocate clearly defined tasks to students, for example, as part of group work activities.

Did ever you meet any distinguished professors as a student? What do you remember impressing you most?

Tim Jaekel: Uwe Wagschal, now Professor for Public Policy at the University of Freiburg, Lars P. Feld, director of the Walter Eucken Institut, Professor for Economic Policy at the University of Freiburg, and a member of the German Council of Economic Experts, and Manfred G. Schmidt, Professor for Public Policy – all of them deeply and continuously inspired me when I was a student at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

(Pictured above: Ferris wheel „Star of Berlin“, Ahlbeck, Germany, 2017)

 

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On Public Polling, Plebiscitarism, and Max Weber

Public opinion polls are losing their ability to predict electoral outcomes. Even the latest polling wizardry failed to predict the 2016 Brexit vote in the UK, Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election race and the end of social democratic rule in Germany’s largest state last month. This is due to issues such as social desirability response biases, and low response rate among potential voters of non-mainstream parties, among others.

Yesterday (2017-06-19) Greg Yudin made me start thinking about the link between polling and Max Weber. Greg, who is a Professor for Political Philosophy at the Moscow School for Social Science delivered a talk at HSE’s monthly Public Administration Discussion meeting. In his talk he analyzed the role of public opinion polls in Russia as a Technology of governance.

I met Greg for the first time at the German Historical Institute (DHI) in Moscow, where he commented on a recent book on the life of Max Weber written by Max Kaube. Greg was the right person to do so, since he is an expert both in the field of sociology, as well as in political theory.

Public opinion polls in Russia distinguish from their counterparts in the OECD world in two ways: In Russia, as Greg described in his talk, public opinion polls serve additional purpose: Public polls substitute referenda. The outcomes of public polls legitimize crucial political decisions. As an example he referred to Crimea’s inclusion into the Russian Federation three or so years ago. Another example is the ongoing Renovation Project in Moscow. As Vladimir Putin put it in 2014, polls confirm the will of the people between elections. They serve as a benchmark of popular support.

A second distinct feature is framing of the interviewing situation. Greg outlined that respondents in interviews perceive the interviewers as representatives of and thus a channel toward central authorities. They partake in polls as a mean to report and complain about problems with local authorities. Like the famous direct (“Hot”) line to Vladimir Putin, a TV event where ordinary people a given an opportunity to address the president directly; the event is broadcasted once a year.

Now, if polls are losing their abilities to measure support or unrest among citizens – a paradox which Meyer and Gupta in 1993 already described for performance measures in general – what is the direction of travel? The direction of travel is the use of application based polling instruments which simultaneously serve as real-time feedback loops. Moscow’s active citizen application and its Smart City integrated mobile platform (IMP) may be taken as examples.

Referring to Max Weber Greg describes this situation as plebiscitarism, a term which suits reality better than the myriads of collocations already present in the literature.

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Sviyazhsk: The prefabricate fortress

The prefabricate house was invented in Russia. In 1550 Tsar Ivan the fourth, better known as Ivan the Terrible, repeatedly tried to conquer the City of Kazan, which was maintained by the Tatars at that time. Three times he failed, to do better this time he selected and designated Sviyazhsk (Свияжск), a small village some 30 kilometers west of Kazan, to serve as a fortress in order to orchestrate the fourth attack.

Instead of constructing all necessary buildings on-site, all elements of the fortress, including houses etc. were prefabricated in Uglich, which is 200 kilometers north of Moscow. At this point I think is worth mentioning that Kazan is some 800 east of Moscow. The prefabricate houses were then transported from Uglich on the River Volga upwards almost to Sviyazhsk. Ivan’s soldiers succeeded and conquered Kazan two years later.

And some parts of a wooden church in Sviyazhsk indeed date back to the 16th century.

The village also has been hosting two monasteries; the former fortress is located on a hill which is surrounded by two rivers. In 1955 Soviet engineers constructed a dam near Togliatti, as a result, the level of water raised and today Sviyazhsk looks like a Russian Mont Saint-Michel. Like in France there is a small road on a land tongue, and a parking slot at the foot of the fortress.

 

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The Moscow Renovation Program 2017: A call for behavioral administrative science

Most local authorities and government in the OECD world have withdrawn from housing activities over the last two decades. LADs in the UK have virtually stopped building new houses in the mid and late 1980ies facing a lack of funding from central government. In Germany local governments have been selling state-owned apartments and real estate since the early 2000ies to consolidate budgets. Berlin sold one of his residential building cooperative to a hedge fund in 2004. Dresden, another German city, did so in 2006. While Dresden got rid of his entire debts due to the deal, Berlin is still facing billions of liabilities due to its cold war legacy of overspending money earned elsewhere. Berlin is one of the fastest growing cities in Germany; real estate market is booming, but the increasing level of rents is also putting stronger pressure on low-income families. Having sold a large chunk of state-owned low price apartments decision makers are now facing a situation in which these low-income families struggle to make a living and to find an apartment. Berlin passed several local laws to stop the rise of rents, but these tools proofed to be ineffective.

Moscow’s city government takes another approach to public housing. In May 2017 “Moscow’s program for renovation” (Московская Программа Реновации) was launched. In short: Residents in a number of run down five-story buildings from the 1960ies, named after the back-then Secretary General of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Khrushchev, are offered apartments in brand-new apartment blocks in exchange for their current ones. The old buildings will be demolished and probably replaced by new buildings in the future. The new skyscrapers to accommodate residents do already exist (one of these new residential complex is pictured above, in the foreground you can see buildings from the 1960ies, they are somewhat similar the Khrushchev houses, but these ones will not be demolished).

So the idea is quite simple: New apartment and more live satisfaction for a significant number of Muscovites, a lot of them pensioners and low income families – for free! City planners in return receive the opportunity to replace run-down small-sized and low-quality buildings by different facilities. New houses are 20-storys apartment buildings, so 15 additional stories are left to be sold on the real estate market.

The program covers some 4,000 five-story buildings spread across all parts of the city. To close the deal two out of three owners in each five-story building have to agree. Non-decision will be counted as a “Yeah”. The exchange apartment has to be within walking distance, the program reads.

Sounds like a good deal at the expense of Moscow City government. But the large scale program has not come without critics. Two weeks ago (mid-May 2017) Moscow’s Prospekt Akadmika Sacharova, a four lane road in the city center, saw a gathering of some hundred protesters. They were holding posters reading “No to renovation” (Против Ренновацнн).

The Moscow Renovation Program 2017 is an excellent example that psychology is an essential feature of public administration. This is another call for behavioral administrative science. Public administration is as much about motivation, fear and psychology of stakeholders, citizens, public officials as it is about proper work sharing arrangements and organization charts.

The program addresses a very large number of stakeholders with very diverse and diffuse interests. Owners and residents affected by the program are afraid of two things: First they are afraid of losing their property. They ask for guarantees. The supersonic transformation from planning to market economy nullified social norms and the right of ownership. There is more than one story where old people were literally thrown out of their apartments in return for nothing in the 1990ies. Ownership on paper counts little. These experiences have been shaping post-soviet collective memory. Second they are afraid of uncertainty. They are used to their place of living, neighborhood, relatives, friends and the shop next door. Relocation even within walking distance will change this environment in the short term.

Generally speaking Moscow’s Renovation Program 2017 has to overcome a situation in which a significant share of stakeholders prefers short term stability and utility over improvements in the mid-and long term.

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Kazan: Tatarstan, founded 1005

I learned to judge only on things that I have seen with own eyes. What can I say about Kazan? The reason for coming there was the 25th NISPACee annual conference, that is, the annual meeting of academics doing research on public administration in Central and Eastern Europe. I will say something about the new evidence present at the event elsewhere. For the moment I would like to get a grip on the various impressions that I got over the last couple of days while being a guest in Kazan.

Kazan is the sport capital of Russia.

Kazan is a booming city

Kazan is an innovative city, in terms of its young entrepreneurs.

And Kazan can be proud of an excellent Federal university, I think.

Whatever  your favorite sporting activity is, you will have been recognizing that Kazan is seemingly a good place to do sports at, even if you have never been to Kazan yourself. Zenit Kazan, the city´s professional volleyball team won the Russian male championship earlier this month (May 2017). A significant share of the Russian volleyball national team is made of pros from this club accordingly. Rubin Kazan is a football club in the Russian premier league. (I am not able to comment on their performance  since I hardly follow soccer at all). Kazan hosted the FINA 2015 World Championships, that is, championship in swimming, diving, water polo and synchronized swimming; and I am entitled to comment on that fact since I have been a amateur swimmer for more than 25 years now. Apart from having it watched on TV I recently learned that this event was rated the best organized one in FINA´s history. Good job, Kazan. We can continue this list, but I will gloss over the city´s ice hockey, basketball, and tennis teams, the Universiade in 2013. You got the key message that Kazan is very good at creating a successful environment for top-performing professional team sports. Over the last days I took my chance to see all the related facilities with my own eyes. The city is full of them, that is, beyond the brand new Aquatics center located on the embankment of the river Kazanka, next to the multipurpose stadium that will co-host the FIFA Football Championships in 2018, or the Basketball Hall in the City Center, visitors will see various facilities for dozens of disciplines all over the city. In public policy terms accessibility for potential users is high. A major policy issue in promoting health related sporting activities apart from the gap between professional and amateur sport, both in terms of allocation of resources and political attention, is a bias in allocating money across disciplines. Research on local sport clubs in Greece has demonstrated that the overwhelming share of money flows into a handful of popular disciplines, including football, and handball, leaving little to nothing for the rest. Policy makers seem to do better in Kazan.

Kazan is a booming city. You won´t find anybody denying this statement including yourself once you had a view from the Kremlin onto the surrounding parts of the city. But it is not just the city center. The same goes for the suburbs. New infrastructure, business complexes and apartments everywhere and they keep going. And before you ask – for the moment it is not central government money that they are spending here.

Kazan is a hard working and rich city. Tatars are the protestants of the Muslim world. They are earning and spending their own money: Tatarstan has a relevant car and space industry, an innovation city (a small Silicon Valley), and its own oil and gas resources. They have a local understanding of what is good and what is not and allocate resources accordingly.

Kazan is an innovative city. Innovation means new ways of doing things. I enjoyed new ways of doing things and entrepreneurship for example in burger shop-start ups: The burger shops I visited were too small in size to have hygienic rooms we would expect them in any serious restaurant. And they do not need to have. The only thing I want to do before and after having a meal is washing my hands. Next to the entrance, instead of a regular washing bowl, I was able to use a regular water pipe embedded into a renovated oil bowl. (Pictured below). I have never experienced this in Moscow before, this innovative approach might be due to differences in local food regulations, differences in size, or entrepreneurial spirit among locals. Anyway, I appreciated it very much.

A forward looking mindset an a larger scale is evident in the city of Innopolis, a Tatarstan Silicon Valley, some 40km outside of Kazan.

By the way, Tatarstan, for those not used to Russian administrative details, is an autonomous Republic within the Russian Federation; and Kazan is the capital of Tatarstan. Tatarstan has 3m inhabitants, 1m of them living in Kazan, another million in the other five to six smaller cities in Tatarstan and the rest in Republic´s rural villages and settlements. About 50 percent of the 3m inhabitants are Ethnic Tatars, most of them Moslem.

Things in Kazan reportedly have significantly improved over the last two decades and within the last five years in particular. People how saw the city 20 years ago, like my colleague Alexey Barabashev from the Higher School of Economics, report that the city has completely changed to the better. Having asked regular people about their feelings and expectations I learned that for most of them it seems hard to enlist serious problems –I am not talking about everyday life and familiar issues, but concepts like life satisfaction – related to public administration as they have been living in an environment where the direction of travel has been improvement throughout the last years. Yes, some the best students still leave for Moscow upon graduation or even before, University professors told me; but some of them also do return. But students are as much aspiring in Kazan as they are in Moscow, at least according to my impressions.

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LoggedOut

In recent weeks and months I received a number of innvitations to connect on LinkedIn, a business-social network. However, I can neither accept nor visit the profiles of all these persons. Access to the LinkedIn website from Russian based IPs has been blocked for six months or so by government agencies responsible, seemingly due to LinkedIn’s failure or non-willingness to comply with Russian law which requires internet companies to store data from users based in Russia on servers located in the Russian Federation. Dull behavior; first why not protect Russian user data by openign servers in Russia? Second, instead of informing users about this obstacle, LinkedIn continues to send me invitations, and advertisments via email – including links which I can’t access anyways.

LinkedIn is simply loosing market shares and (my) trust.

More promisising and pictured above: Moscow’s City government is implementing a new integrated e-government system, and informs citizens about it using ads like this one seen near Park Voronzovskiy Prydi.

 

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Max Weber: Bureaucratic theory as part of a life between two epochs

Yesterday (2017-04-28) Jürgen Kaube presented the Russian translation of his recent biography of Max Weber in the German Historical Institut in Moskau (DHI Moskau). Jürgen Kaube is co-editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) a leading German daily newspaper.

His highly readable biography of Max Weber was initially published in German in 2014. In 2016 the publishing house of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA) delivered a Russian Translation of the strongly perceived book. Natalia Rostislavleva from Moscow’s University of the Humanities and Greg Yudin from the Higher School of Economics commented on the book and its Russian translation.

Jürgen Kaube. 2014. Max Weber. Ein Leben zwischen zwei Epochen. Reinbeck: Rowohlt.

Юрген Каубе. 2016. Макс Вебер: жизнь на рубеже эпох. Издательский дом «Дело» РАНХиГС.

Why bother about a German sociologist? Max Weber, born into a wealthy family of textile traders graduated with a degree in law, wrote his doctoral thesis about medieval trade organizations and published his habilitation on legal aspects of agriculture in ancient Rome. In 1905 he took a chair of economics at the University of Heidelberg, but soon had to pause for several years to cure severe nervous affection.

As Juergen Kaube writes Max Weber did not enjoy a happy life. After the recovered and returned to academic work he excessively conducted research on a wide range of topics, from agriculture and the history of music to economics and sociology.

And he worked on bureaucracy.

Max Weber’s life is worth having a look at for at least two reasons. First his personal impact on research in sociology, economic history and organizational theory. However, he wrote a lot but published little. Most of this relevant works were published only after his death in 1920 (he only became 56 years old). Second because he lived a life at the edge, or as the German title goes, between two epochs. You may put the transition between the two epochs at 1905, 1912 or 1918. In is essence it was when Max Weber recognized that the German bourgeoisie class , to which he belonged himself, did not managed to gain momentum in political affairs as they did in academic life and business affairs (as well as they would never not be able to do so). Instead mass movements like social democracy and their affiliated parties became relevant forces in the political and social sphere. Max Weber did not anticipate this development. This life between two epochs is what Jürgen Kauber’s book is mostly about.

I will focus on the work of Max Weber which is relevant for public administration researchers. Max Weber introduced a simple machine model of organizations. The best thing in Public Administration is hierarchy, according to Max Weber. Getting things done that require the physical and intellectual capacities of more than one individual is best achieved by clear top-down orders.

His description of Verwaltung became the reference model for civil servants and researchers for almost a century. Weber said that a bureaucracy has six properties: The first one is hierarchy. Hierarchy gives natural structure: There are superiors and subordinates. Command and control goes top-down. The other basic features of bureaucracy are: Rationality: Bureaucracy is a fixed area ordered by clear rules, laws, or regulations. Standard operating procedures are very important. Management relies on written files. Everything can be monitored, controlled, this makes actions reliable. Occupation is based on expertise and training. Full-time employment and payment of civil servants: The staff is employed full-time. Public officers may expect to make a career (just by being loyal and following the rules). Bureaucracy offers career-options based on the principle of seniority, which in turn enhances organizational identification, and loyalty.

This description of bureaucracy became the blueprint for ‘sound’ organizational structure for almost a century.

We know now that this simple machine’ model is elegant but flawed since ignores any unanticipated consequences of behavior in such an environment. Social and organizational psychology are absent in this model. This gave rise to behavioral public administration. In Weber’s simple machine model public servants have limited incentives to perform well, because they there are no competitors. Their behavior will be guided by the question: ‘Do I follow the rule?’ Today we would add: ‘Do I comply with our code of conduct?’. In the Weberian world hierarchy and SOPs decide about outcomes.

Interestingly, Max Weber was a severe critique of bureaucratic behavior and its negative effects for citizens, and community members. He disliked red tape and the need for community members to follow an often senseless rule of action. This critique of bureaucracy is a rare instance where Max Weber agreed with his younger brother, Alfred Weber, a famous economist. But Max Weber did not start his studies on bureaucracy as a critique of bureaucratic behavior. Against this background it is somewhat funny that Weber’s machine model has been serving as a positive role model for ‘sound administration’.

To close the story: in 1910 Alfred Weber published an article entitled “Der Beamte” (literally the civil servant, but the word beamter always has a more bureaucratic meaning), a description of bureaucratic interpersonal relations. Alfred Weber also was one of the reviewer of Franz Kafkas doctoral thesis. Franz Kafka also published the novel “Das Schloss”, The Castle. Linguists have demonstrated that the novel contains phrases borrowed from Alfred Weber’s text. The somewhat negative perception of bureaucratic action thus diffused into 20th -century literature.

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On doping and personnel management

Yesterday (2017-03-20) Ilya Akishin delivered an interesting talk at HSE’ School of Public Administration monthly Discussion meeting. Ilya is Deputy Director of the Institute for Public Administration and Governance / Center of Regional Programmes for Public Administration Improvement at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. https://ipag.hse.ru/en/

Ilya is not only a good researcher but he is also an excellent consultant. He has been counselling and advising about a dozen of Russian regions. 1. He developed models for regional development in the Far East, at Sakhalin. Just last week he returned from Tatarstan, where he advised government how to run and maintain a technological park. In Leningrad region he did extensive working time measurement to identify how many employees local civil service need to provide high quality public services. And the also conducted a project on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Sport. In his talk Ilya shared insights from his work on the staff size of public sport agencies in Russia.

Why do we talk about sport in a School of Public Administration? We do because society has a stake in healthy citizens. Do not get me wrong. Talking about public sport policy does not mean that I am advocating for nudging, vegetarian serfdom or other regulatory limitations of individual choice and freedom. It is an empirical fact that rich countries are facing problems of widespread obesity among citizens, especially among kids. Healthy behavior and it antipode directly link to the level public health care expenditures: Obesity among community members today means increasing expenditures to cure unhealthy lifestyle tomorrow. Accordingly public sport agencies administer a wide range of sport and recreation services (SRS), and health enhancing physical activities (HEPA).

But how many civil servants do we need to promote a healthy lifestyle? In his talk Ilya will present a management instrument to determine a satisficing or even optimal staff size.

The underlying research consists of three steps: desktop screening of all legislation in the sphere of sport yield a list of 100 functions for regional sport agencies. Sport agencies at the local level are responsible for another 66 functions. To get these jobs done 25 working processes do exist; while each function is clearly defined, processes may overlap in daily working routines.

Ilya and his team categorize 12 1st level functions, broad categories of daily operations conducted by the administrators within public sport agencies. 9 of them are policy related functions, and 3 categories cover administrative functions, from financial accounting over reporting to pure red-tape. (Recall OECD’s Classification of Function of government, COFOG; it is exactly the same logic.). Each 1st level functions captures dozens of more detailed 2nd and 3rd level activities. Examples of 1st level functions include sports-for-all development (1st level function 4); finance management (1st level function 11); general activities (1st level function 10).

In a second step Ilya and his colleagues conducted extensive field in the regions: How often functions are executed within one year? An average regional public sport agency in Russia has 45.5 civil servants. Field research reveals that more than 50 percent of overall working time (namely the working time of 33.8 civil servants) is spend on administrative functions, from accounting over reporting and various form of red-tape.

In a third step Ilya presented a formula to calculate an optimal staff size. Optimal staff size is a function of sporting objects, e.g. the number of sport clubs in a city, and legislative function. For a region with more than 2 million residents, optimal staff size varies from 54 to 64 civil servants; a region with 1-2 million residents should count between 27 and 32 administrators in its public sport agency; regions with less than 1 million inhabitants should employee between 21 and 29 civil servants.

Figure: Sports policy: Selected 1st level functions of regional sport agencies in Russia

Selected 1st level function of sports policy Optimal staff size
Development of relations with local sport clubs 1.4
Sports-for-all development 0.4
Finance management 17
General activities 13.6
Total staff size, units according to the model 79.2

 

According to the model an average public sport agency requires the capacity of 79.2 civil servants to carry out its 100 legislative functions.

A comparison of required staff size and actual staff size reveals that public sport agencies in most regions are understaffed. Public sport agencies in most Russian regions lack personnel resources to conduct all assigned functions in an efficient and effective manner. In Krasnodar region the actual staff size is 56, according to the model the workload requires 13 additional civil servants. In Sverdlovsk the gap between actual (48) and optimal staff size is 21 (additional 21 public officials are required); in the Republic of Mordovia the regional sport agency should count 29 instead of the current 11 civil servants.

The model provides an interesting management tool which links resource allocation to public service delivery. A striking example is the implementation of anti-doping regulations. Does doping occur more often in regions with understaffed public sport agencies? Anti-doping regulations do exist, but a lack of staffing may result in an inefficient control net.

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New working paper on sports-for-all policy

Last week I published a new working paper on public sport agencies.

To live a healthy lifestyle the World Health Organization recommends 30 minutes daily practice of sports five times a week. This ambitious recommendation comes along with the fact that developed countries in Northern America and Europe but also emerging economies like China are facing problems of widespread obesity among citizens, especially among kids. This has dramatic consequences both for individual and public health. In modern welfare states (un)healthy behavior directly links to the level public health care expenditures: Obesity among community members today means increasing expenditures to cure unhealthy lifestyle tomorrow. Society has a stake in healthy citizens; so public sport agencies administer a wide range of sport and recreation services (SRS).

Against this backdrop the working paper provides a collection and analysis of modern sports-for-all policies in Europe, North America, Australia and China. Promoting a healthy lifestyle among community members by providing easy access to sport facilities has been a traditional function of sport-for-all policies. Modern policy goals now also include promoting racial and gender equity and diversity, fighting doping, harassment and violence, in particular child abuse, and promoting tourism. Despite the different administrative contexts the implementation of policy goals heavily relies on volunteers and voluntary non-for profit organizations.

Two in-depth case studies on sport governing bodies in Germany and England exemplify common patterns in service delivery and how policy goals have shifted from maintaining sporting facilities to non-sporting objectives like job creation, stimulation of tourism and gender equity.

The paper identifies and discusses five challenges for modern sports-for-all policies: tracking the quality of public service delivery, the link between outcomes and impacts, goal ambiguity and complexity, staff size, and managing collaborations in a hyper-complex environment.

Jaekel, Tim. 2017. Modern sports-for-all policy: an international comparison of policy goals and models of service delivery. National Research University Higher School of Economics Working Paper Series: Public and Social Policy WP BRP 04/PSP/2017.

The full text of working paper BRP 04/PSP/2017 is available here:

– http://www.hse.ru/en/org/hse/wp/prepfr_all

– https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2928054

– https://wp.hse.ru/prepfr_PSP

– http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/higwpaper/default4.htm

 

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An optimal staff size for public sport agencies

11th Public Administration Discussion Meeting: Ilya Akishin

„How to determine the optimal staff size for public sport agencies: A methodology and its application to Russia“

National Research University Higher School of Economics: School of Public Administration

You are kindly invited to the upcoming Public Administration Discussion Meeting, which will take place in room 228, 20 Myasnitskaya ul., on Monday, 20th of March, 15:10.

At the meeting we will welcome Ilya Akishin, who will present insights from his work on the staff size of public sport agencies in Russia. Ilya is Deputy Director of the Institute for Public Administration and Governance / Center of Regional Programmes for Public Administration Improvement at the National Research University Higher School of Economics.

Society has a stake in healthy citizens; accordingly public sport agencies administer a wide range of sport and recreation services (SRS), and health enhancing physical activities (HEPA). In Russia regions and municipalities are responsible for sports-for-all policy. In his talk Ilya will present a new practice-oriented instrument to determine an optimal staff size for regional and local sport agencies. The methodology was developed for the Russian Federal Ministry of sport. Using individual level working time data from 21 Russian regions Ilya will demonstrate that a relevant number of public sport agencies in Russia do not have enough staff for fulfilling their functions efficiently.