IIASA researcher Sergei Scherbov will contribute to this year's Gaidar Forum in Moscow. The Forum is the major annual international scientific conference in the field of economics in Russia.

Sergei Scherbov, Pavel Kabat and Wolfgang Lutz at Gaidar Forum 2017 © Gaidar Forum

Traditionally at the beginning of the year, in Moscow, in the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), famous scientists, representatives of authorities, public and political figures, businessmen from different countries come together. The Gaidar Forum annually brings together all those, whose latest achievements have an impact on the social-and-economic development of regions and states.

In the Russian media, the Gaidar Forum has gained the unchallenged reputation of ‘the Russian Davos Forum’. For foreign visitors, the Forum is an important source of information on major trends in social-and-economic and political development, status of business environment and investment climate of Russia, while for domestic experts, the participation in the Forum makes it possible to determine the prospects for further economic growth and integration of Russia into the global economy.

World Population Program (POP) Deputy Director Sergei Scherbov will be one of the speakers at this event. In the last years, the Gaidar Forum was an important forum to share IIASA research on Russia with relevant policymakers. Whole sessions were dedicated to Russian Demographic Data Sheets (see box below) where experts discussed the comparison of regional demographic data with other countries; the possibility of using the Human Life Indicator, an alternative new measure to the Human Development Index that takes into account differences in life expectancy developed at IIASA; evaluation of regional demographic development; Russian regions’ population projection until 2050; and population differentiation of Russian regions.

This year will be a continuation of this tradition. Scherbov will be speaker during a session on population projections in Russia. He will discuss scientific and applied reporting with a regional perspective. The session is part of conference part 2, the scientific expert program and will take place on day 1, January 15, 2.30-4.30PM.

Russia is a founding member of IIASA with forty-five years of continuous intensive cooperation resulting in a range of academic and science to achievements (see box below for examples of recent collaborations). 

Russian Demographic Datasheet 2019

The Russian Demographic Datasheet 2019, a collaboration between POP at IIASA, RANEPA and the Russian Federal State Statistics Service (Rosstat) will be launched at the Gaidar Forum 2019. For the second time, key demographic indicators and main population trends for all subjects of the Russian Federation, including population projection for 2050 are comprehensively presented in one data sheet. Special attention is given to the importance of alternative indicators of population aging for the current and future population changes across Russia. 

This year, the data sheet is accompanied by an extended brochure, that shows key demographic indicators and main population trends for all Subjects of the Russian Federation, their rankings within Russia, and comparisons with those countries that have the closest value of each indicator. It features the Human Life Indicator (HLI), a new and simple measure for human wellbeing across countries, that takes inequality into account and could replace the commonly used but error-prone Human Development Index (HDI). The HLI was only recently introduced by Ghislandi, Sanderson and Scherbov in Population and Development Review.

For many years IIASA researchers Scherbov and Warren Sanderson have developed new measures of age and aging in demographic research. They suggest to broaden research methods to account for significant increases in life expectancy, as the focus on chronological age of people alone provides a limited picture of the process, one that is often not appropriate for either scientific study or policy analysis. Their groundbreaking results have been published in Nature and Science and other high level journals. Scherbov is also PI of the Reassessing Aging from a Population Perspective (Re-Aging) project at IIASA that, among other things, ascertains the extent to which advanced societies are actually aging in multiple dimensions, including health, cognitive abilities, and longevity.

Collaborations between IIASA and the Russian Federation

Russia is a founding member of IIASA with forty-five years of continuous intensive cooperation resulting in a range of academic and science to policy achievements. Through this strategic partnership IIASA has helped Russia to find solutions to complex global challenges; develop its research base for systems analysis, and establish new multilateral scientific relationships.

Since 2008, IIASA has intensified its collaborations with the Russian Federation (Russia), leading to new joint research projects, increased interactions with Russian policymakers, significant scientific exchange through people, and a highly productive publication record.

Current projects include exploring the challenges and opportunities of Eurasian economic integration, how to minimize wildfires, population aging in Russia, and advancing the methods of systems analysis. Interactions now take place regularly between IIASA and representatives from Russian Ministries and the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. 

Knowledge transfer between IIASA and Russia is facilitated through multiple exchanges with Russian scientists who spend periods working in IIASA’s international and interdisciplinary research environment. The scientific output from these numerous formal and informal activities is highly productive, with almost 800 joint publications since 2008.

IIASA and Yegor Gaidar


Professor Yegor Gaidar, former Russian Prime Minister, considered by many to be the intellectual leader of Russia's economic reform in the early 1990s, made extended visits to IIASA when the institute was analyzing the issues of economic reform in the Soviet Union.