Many datasets used in the social sciences have a hierarchical structure, where lower units of aggregation are ‘nested’ in higher units. In many disciplines, such data are analyzed using multilevel modeling (MLM, also known as hierarchical linear modeling). However, MLM as a framework is relatively unknown in economics. Instead, economists use a range of separate econometric methods, including cluster-robust standard errors, fixed effects models, models with cross-level interactions, and estimated dependent variable models. Relying on an extensive literature review, this paper describes this methodological divide and provides a detailed comparison between MLM and ‘economic methods’ in their abilities to deal with three methodological challenges inherent in multilevel data ‒ clustering, omitted variables, and coefficients' heterogeneity across groups. We unfold the comparative advantages of these two methodological approaches and provide practical recommendations about which of them should be used, why, and in what settings.

How are candidates without official party affiliation able to succeed in authoritarian elections? We analyzed 1,101 independents who took part in city council elections in Russia’s regional capitals between 2014 and 2018. We found that independent candidates’ electoral fortunes depended both on their personal resources enabling them to attract voters’ support and pre-electoral deals with the regime. We also discovered that the chances of being elected were higher for those formally independent candidates who were the regime’s hidden representatives. For the latter group, the chances to win the race were boosted mostly by pre-electoral deals, rather than their personal resources.

Emotions are linked to wide sets of action tendencies, and it can be difficult to predict which specific action tendency will be motivated or indulged in response to individual experiences of emotion. Building on a functional perspective of emotion, we investigate whether anger and shame connect to different behavioral intentions in dignity, face, and honor cultures. Using simple animations that showed perpetrators taking resources from victims, we conducted two studies across eleven countries investigating the extent to which participants expected victims to feel anger and shame, how they thought victims should respond to such violations, and how expectations of emotions were affected by enacted behavior. Across cultures, anger was associated with desires to reclaim resources or alert others to the violation. In face and honor cultures, but not dignity cultures, shame was associated with the desire for aggressive retaliation. However, we found that when victims indulged motivationally-relevant behavior, expected anger and shame were reduced, and satisfaction increased, in similar ways across cultures. Results suggest similarities and differences in expectations of how emotions functionally elicit behavioral responses across cultures.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of work values and socio-demographic characteristics upon the link between life satisfaction and job satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach

The European Values Study (EVS) 2008–2009 is used as the dataset. The sample is limited to those who have paid jobs (28,653 cases).

Findings

Socio-demographic characteristics matter more than work values in explaining the effect of job satisfaction on life satisfaction. The association between life satisfaction and job satisfaction is stronger for higher educated individuals and those who are self-employed and weaker for women, married individuals, religious individuals and those who are younger. Extrinsic and intrinsic work values significantly influence life satisfaction independent of the level of job satisfaction.

Practical implications

It is important to pay attention to the working conditions and well-being of the core of the labour force, in other words, of those who are ready to invest more in their jobs. Also, special attention should be given to self-employment.

Originality/value

The paper compares the roles of work values and of socio-demographic characteristics as predictors of the association between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. It shows that the role of job in person's life depends largely on demographic factors, religiosity and socio-economic factors.

This study investigated the role of basic human values in explaining academic dishonesty among undergraduate students in Russia (N=471) during the emergency online learning in 2020. It was hypothesized that higher levels of self-enhancement would be associated with higher levels of dishonest behavior and that values would partially explain the differences by field of study, controlling for gender, age, grade-point-average, and perceived severity of penalty. Descriptive analysis revealed high levels of two types of online academic dishonesty: using unauthorized sources at exams and allowing others to copy exam answers. Majors differed by how much they reported plagiarism and contract cheating. Students’ basic values were also different from the representative national sample. Regression analysis revealed that the effects of majors are not compensated fully by basic human values. Achievement and power values had an average predictive value for the types of dishonesty making up 24% of the explained variance. The results are discussed in terms of consistency and further use of results for curbing online academic dishonesty at university.

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to have paused the alliance of the Kremlin and the Russian Orthodox Church. When the government announced lockdown measures and demanded that all churches cease services with the public, not all priests agreed to comply. The church-state crisis manifested in two divisions: between the Church and the state, between pragmatists and fundamentalists. We argue that although these cleavages posed a threat to the Patriarchate’s power, the Church managed to maintain the loyalty of most believers. Using individual-level data from the Values in Crisis project, the authors show that the ROC proved its loyalty to the Kremlin.

An invariable characteristic of the Russian elections in the post-Soviet period is the relatively high turnout and electoral support of incumbents, which are demonstrated by many of the ethnic republics. The article is devoted to the study of the reasons for the relationship between the ethnic factor and the reproduction of political loyalty. Unlike most previous studies, the authors test existing theories on the basis of opinion polls data, rather than official electoral statistics. This makes it possible to include in the analysis the ethnic characteristics of voters at the individual, rather than regional or local levels. The statistical analysis is complemented by the study of qualitative data in the form of expert interviews and materials from three focus groups conducted in the villages of the Bashkortostan and Tatarstan. The results obtained make it possible to assert that the political loyalty of the Russian republics is determined not by cultural specifics, but by the nature of the settlement structure. Ethnic republics include a relatively high proportion of the agrarian population, a significant part of which is represented by ethnic minorities. This overlap of ethnic and rural segments determines the reproduction of the electoral super-majority. However, the nature of this phenomenon is explained not by the “patriarchal culture” of non-Russian ethnic groups, but by the institutional capabilities of the local administration to monitor and control the political behavior of rural voters. The study also made it possible to clarify the role of the ethnic factor in contemporary electoral processes, which also affects the reproduction of political loyalty not only to the heads of the republics, but also to non-ethnic federal political actors. However, its influence is also conditioned by the political and institutional characteristics of the ethnic republics, and not by the cultural characteristics of the titular ethnic groups.