‘We Live in a World with Imperfect Information. Network Theory Can Help’

Mariya Teteryatnikova, Associate Professor at the Department of Theoretical Economics at the Faculty of Economic Sciences (FES), talks about building an academic career in economics, European students and teaching in Vienna, the role of network theory in different contexts, international recruiting and more.

— Does a student’s choice of PhD specialisation affect their employment opportunities outside of academia?

— To some extent, of course, it does. If you choose pure microeconomic theory, then you are probably more likely to find something in academia. Outside of academia, you can get a job, for example, in consulting companies. They also need theoretical microeconomists. But if you want to look for a job outside of academia, then it is better to choose empirical research topics in the fields of finance, macroeconomics, etc, because then more opportunities arise for working in banks, financial and international organisations. So specialisation does matter to some extent, but even if you choose microeconomics, as I did, you still have opportunities outside of academia. Often, companies just need good economists. They need to know that you have obtained a PhD and have a solid knowledge base from a good university; they don't really care what topic you’ve specialised in.

— Did you have to learn Italian or German to study in Florence and work in Austria?

— No, everything was in English. I learned a little of Italian and German, but for work I needed only English. Both colleagues and students communicated in English.

— Have you noticed any differences between Russian and European students?

— I think the main difference is that in Europe, students have a more negative attitude towards cheating and dishonesty. In our country, unfortunately, it is considered almost normal that students plagiarise, cheat in exams and so on, but in Europe this is not the case. There is cheating, of course, but it is far from being as common as it is here.

In general, students are the same everywhere, I think. There are good and bad students everywhere. We have very good students at HSE—they are maybe even more mathematically savvy than students in the West. Although my personal experience at the University of Vienna was also very positive. There were also many strong students, who then remained to get PhDs.

— At HSE, students write a thesis to obtain a bachelor's or master's degree. Is it the same system in Europe?

— Yes, it's the same there. They write either a term paper or a thesis. Everything is the same.

— Have you worked as a thesis supervisor in Europe?

— Yes, I have, and now I continue to work as a supervisor with students at HSE. As far as I remember, in my position in Vienna, I was only allowed to supervise bachelor's theses. In principle, the supervision is organised in the same way. I periodically met with the student and discussed progress in his or her work. At the end, the student submitted the work, and I read and evaluated it.

— Tell us about your research.

— My interests include game theory and network theory. In economics, networks represent relationships between economic agents, such as people, firms, countries, and so on. They can be used to model friendships between people, the spread of viruses, trade and political relations between countries, the exchange of R&D ideas between firms, or lending relationships between banks. Networks influence how people take decisions—whether to work or not, whether to become a criminal or not, what kind of education to get, how much effort to put into a certain activity, etc.

I'm working on a paper about the concept of network stability when people don't have perfect information about each other. I’m interested in what kind of structure will be stable under such conditions, what structure we expect to see most often. This is important because the structure of the network has a major impact on the type of interaction between agents. There are serious gaps in the literature on stability concepts, particularly for situations where agents connected by the network have no information about each other. This is a serious omission, because we live in a world with very imperfect information.

I am writing another article with Anastasia Antsygina, my FES colleague, on support networks in contests. Throughout our life, we all face different competitive situations. In academia, we compete for places on PhD programmes, look for jobs and apply for positions at universities, apply for grants, etc. These are all competitive situations. People often seek help from third parties who are not directly involved in the competition, but with whom they have a stable friendship or other relationship. Typically, such links are formed before a competitive situation arises, before we know who our competitor is and who will provide support. In our work, we are trying to understand what structure of connections will be observed in such conditions and what effect it will have on the nature of subsequent competitive interaction.

— Tell us about your article on information disclosure in contests, co-authored with your HSE colleague Anastasia Antsygina.

— Take a contest with two competitors and one prize. The value of this prize is unknown to the players and may be different for each of them, but the contest designer has more information. A designer who wants to maximise the players’ efforts needs to decide whether to provide information to the players and in what form. We built a model and found that the optimal approach is to tell each player separately how valuable their prize is without disclosing the value of the competitor's prize. If a competitor knows that their prize value is high, then they will assume that the value of the competitor’s prize is most likely the same. The players will exert more effort, which is exactly what the designer needs.

— You have been a member of the Scientific Committee at the Department of Theoretical Economics since 2020. What does this mean?

— It is an administrative duty. For example, if colleagues from our faculty want to go to some conference or workshop, they apply to receive funds for this trip. The committee must assess whether spending funds for this trip is justified. We review applications and approve them or not. In addition, there is competition for mega-allowances. There are colleagues whose works were published well, and such publications should be encouraged. As a scientific committee, we decide who is worthy of such a mega-allowance.

— Do you have hobbies?

— I really like traveling—it's addictive! I also love cooking, especially baking, and especially if I’m cooking for friends and relatives.

Interview and text by Olga Krylova, intern at the International Office of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, third-year student of the HSE and NES Joint Programme in Economics