Alexander Auzan

16.06.2022

SPIEF 2022

Financial Wellness Culture Code: How Media Forms Behavioral Patterns

We have also worked on creating a sociocultural map of the country. We have conducted research in cooperation with the Russian Venture Company for five years. I’d say that 15–17 regions have been covered. Our findings were that, first of all, we are one nation <...> but there are significant variations. We can capitalize on these to explore the incredible development opportunities that exist. We know how Yakutia’s creative industry operates: we have videogames, film-making, and so on. Basically, it’s possible to identify features of each region which can and should serve as areas of focus

16.06.2022

SPIEF 2022

Financial Wellness Culture Code: How Media Forms Behavioral Patterns

The creative industries will one day be a strong point for the Russian economy if we manage to transform our creative potential into tangible industries. By this I am referring to property turnover, copyright and related rights, trademarks, and branding. Note that while we do not have an over-accumulation of capital in a monetary sense, we do have an over-accumulation of human capital. So, we need to promote the sector by proceeding from this point. And I think that by combining the creative industries with expert knowledge and media exposure, we have a chance to take very precise steps forward in terms of values and behaviours

16.06.2022

SPIEF 2022

Financial Wellness Culture Code: How Media Forms Behavioral Patterns

In 1993 we began to look at financial services, fraud, and other areas as a confederation of consumers. Where has this evolution led us? It seems to me that together we have, in a global sense, built a huge and powerful financial education system. Does that mean that we have solved the problem? No. That’s because at a particular point it was discovered – and not only by us – that education was of course important, necessary, and beneficial, but that it does not necessarily change how a person behaves. A person may know that a particular thing shouldn’t be done, and that they should act a certain way instead. Regardless of that, however, they act according to their usual behaviour, because there are certain values attached to it. Values and behaviour also form culture in an economic sense

16.06.2022

SPIEF 2022

Financial Wellness Culture Code: How Media Forms Behavioral Patterns

What do we know about Russian culture? First of all, there is a duality at the core. The key characteristic is the contrast of individualism and collectivism. <...> We have both engines, but just think how differently people will react to something like risk. <...> I would like there to be an avoidance both of Russian roulette and the reluctance to invest anywhere other than state-owned bank deposits, which are now also struggling to understand what to do in this situation

16.06.2022

SPIEF 2022

Financial Wellness Culture Code: How Media Forms Behavioral Patterns

Let’s stop talking about financial literacy and instead talk about financial culture, because this is a much more serious, complex, and important phenomenon. We have already done the crash course, and are not in the first year of school any more, but in the eighth

04.06.2021

SPIEF 2021

Inheritance and Succession

It seems to me that the issue of a large family quarrel is a never-ending one in Russia. <…> I would like to find possible solutions which in Russia would not lead to a major conflict or revolution, because revolution strikes me as a kind of quarrel between children for their inheritance

04.06.2021

SPIEF 2021

Inheritance and Succession

Death is simply not an accepted topic for discussion in Russia. In Germany, they can have a talk about it with others round the table, but not in Russia. It is very much a taboo subject, since it is so wrapped up in the sacred, in superstition. And yet, the concept of “burial money” is widespread in society – it is the original form of savings for the Russian population. So, people think about the topic, but there is no discussion of it, as a cultural wall has been put up. The culture can change, but only with sustained effort over the course of several generations

04.06.2021

SPIEF 2021

Inheritance and Succession

In 2011, we <...> researched modernization in East Asia. One of the main factors for success was that there had to be a patriotic elite able to take a 20-year perspective. <…> That’s why I’m concerned about how we acquire a long-term perspective. It definitely exists within a family unit. <…> And there are probably other grounds for having a long-term perspective outside of family considerations, such as spiritual and intellectual considerations. Schools of thought can, for example, take a long view; however, the concept of succession in a family is the most common and understandable one. If we want to adopt a long view in the country in order to address problems facing Russia and the world, we should probably grasp at that straw

06.06.2019

SPIEF 2019

Strategy for Integration of Science, Education, and Business

Where are our drivers?” And the answer is where there is global competitiveness. We have global state-owned companies such as Rosatom, Roscosmos and Rostec, and private companies such as Yandex, Kaspersky and Mail.ru, which are forced to adapt as the prevailing winds of the global economy change. We have twenty, maybe thirty globally competitive universities. <...> I would like to try to build a triangle so that global companies and global universities could be the drivers of our cultural competitiveness and our primary schools, otherwise it will soon be eroded by digitalization

06.06.2019

SPIEF 2019

Sochi (Russian-Austrian) dialogue. Economy of culture

The state is above all responsible for preserving self-identity. <…> But the state has to be responsible for development, thus the money that comes from the state has to go towards the growth of trust and self-fulfillment, not survival. You cannot measure that with a survey. Why does the business need it then? <…> In the past 50 years, the successful countries had patriotic elites thinking at least 20 years ahead

06.06.2019

SPIEF 2019

Sochi (Russian-Austrian) dialogue. Economy of culture

Being an economist, I belong to that strange group of people that believe culture is more important than economy. This current appeared a while back: there was a trend that appeared about fifteen years ago, it was called ‘culture matters’. A whole bunch of projects was launched that illustrated many things that happen (or do not happen) in the economy and how those things are connected with people’s values or behavioral patterns: in other words, with culture