The preliminary defense of Research Assistant Ivan Makarov’s dissertation.
The School of Politics and Governance of HSE University’s Faculty of Social Sciences held a preliminary discussion of the PhD paper of the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation for Public Administration Research Assistant Ivan Makarov. He presented a dissertation research on the topic "Basic Socio-Economic Indices and Their Relationship to Public Administration Quality", which was carried out in the School of Politics and Governance under the academic supervision of Professor Alexey Barabashev with the support of the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation for Public Administration.
The discussion and evaluation of the study, chaired by Professor Andrey Klimenko, Head of the School of Politics and Governance. The meeting was attended by the International Laboratory for Digital Transformation for Public Administration Research staff members: Laboratory Head Evgeny Styrin, Leading Research Fellow Andrey Akhremenko, Senior Research Fellow Maria Yudina, and Research Fellow Aisylu Ataeva alongside representatives of School of Politics and Governance: Associate Professors Natalia Dmitrieva and Olga Lyutova.
Ivan Makarov's dissertation focuses on improving the tools for analyzing public administration in various areas with the use of indices. The study explores the theoretical and methodological foundations of the indicative approach to public administration. It examines one of the problems that limit the successful application of indices for public administration analysis: the problem of multicollinearity among some existing indices, which can lead to incorrect analytical results in certain situations. As a possible approach to overcoming this problem, the concept of "basic" indices, calculated with the use of principal component analysis, is proposed. This concept is demonstrated by extracting "basic" indices from three groups of correlated indices: the Worldwide Governance Indicators, a range of international indices that assess digital development, and indicators evaluating the development of Russian regions. The possibilities for applying these "basic" indices in research and governance practice are explored and demonstrated. Specifically, the study examines the problem of choosing a method for secondary aggregation of "basic" indices in cases where the task of indicative analysis requires a single variable. The concept of "indicative risk corridors" is proposed, which involves using "basic" indices to assess risk levels. Finally, an example of a possible approach to using "basic" indices to determine priority public policy directions and to develop and monitor governance measures is provided. This dissertation research presented by I. Makarov is intended to contribute to the development of the indicative approach to public administration as a form of data-driven governance.
During an active discussion of the content and results of the study and the text of the dissertation, a number of questions were raised. Reviewers Andrey Akhremenko and Natalia Dmitrieva provided a detailed assessment of the study, and valuable recommendations regarding ways to improve the dissertation were given. Following a vote by seven participants, the dissertation was unanimously recommended for further defense.