History

The team of the Analytic Center, Inc. employees came to existence in January 1992, when the Information-Analytical Department was set up in Yaroslavl Regional Administration. After 5 years, having gone through a great number of transformations and having broadened the content and functional aspects of its activity, the Yaroslavl Region Governor’s Analytic Center, comprised 34 employees. Analytic Center carried out tasks in providing the Governor and the Regional Government with analytical and information data, worked out and made use of information systems, laws in drafts, prepared material for the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation, fulfilled the tasks in economic growth modeling of regional economical processes, carried out various research.

Creation and utilization of information systems with the aim of storing, producing, processing, visualization and delivery of information in electronic media. For example, a project of creating the System of up-to-date indices of social-economic development of the Yaroslavl Region was realized. The System represented a storage of information, which contained more than 4000 weekly, monthly, quarterly indices of state and non state statistics concerning different aspects of regional life. The System served as the principal source for the Center activity as well as for other institutions of state power and institutions of local government. The Center, using the System, produced the following materials:

Weekly report for the Yaroslavl Regional Government, which contained current analysis of economic process, financial indices, legal regulation activity, mass media reports and others done in form of PC presentation.

Monthly information-analytical bulletin «Provincial Chronicle» containing 130 pages, which was devoted to situation in economy, social life, ecology, public health, unemployment, law and order, state and municipal finances, social-economic policy of federal and local government bodies, public-political situation (the bulletin was published for 35 months).

Forecasts for the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation, reference, information and analytical materials for the Governor and the Regional Government.

These and other materials (weekly press reviews on regional problems, weekly review of federal normative acts) were issued in print form as well as placed into intranet-webs of Regional Administration. Some data can be accessed in the Internet - http://www.adm.yar.ru, http://www.nns.ru (in the section of «Joint projects»)

Preparation of law drafts, introduced on behalf of the Yaroslavl Region Governor. Almost all principal legislative acts of the Yaroslavl Region were worked out with direct participation of the Analytic Center employees. Among them are - Charter to the Yaroslavl Region, laws on elections, referendum and local referendum, institutions of local governing, budget process, state order, information supply of the government bodies, etc.

Sociological Monitoring. Beginning 1993 twice a year the following surveys have been carried out

living standards and life quality,
political consciousness of the region population,
mass-media audience.

Among the 2000 interviewees were city and county dwellers, representing both sexes, diversity of ages and locality. Proportional representation was observed in the region in which the survey took place.

The data for annual (1994-1996) survey of small business was collected by field methods. Five thousand companies and firms were analyzed being proportionally representative as per location and branches.

These surveys were carried out by means of personal interviews, the questionnaires comprised several hundred questions. Telephone public opinion polls were occasionally performed in the cities of Yaroslavl and Rybinsk (the second largest city in the region with the population of about 220 000 people. About 200 - 400 people were interviewed. Telephone public opinion polls mainly concerned politics, - for example, during governor, parliament and president elections.

Among the research programs it is necessary to point out experts polls. Thus in 1995-1996 research of the climate for investments in the region was done jointly with the Institute of Economy of the Russian Academy of Science upon orders of the Scientific Research Institute of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation. The specialists of the Center carried out field work as well as participated in developing of the method itself and preparing final reports.

While being part of the governmental structure, the Center cooperated with such research institutes as ROMIR-Gallup, Center for Study of Russian Regions, National News Service, and others. Upon request of ROMIR-Gallup the Center did field work, connected with mass media audience, consumer behavior.

The data received during field work was processed by the specialists of the Center with the help of computer technologies and advanced methods of statistics. In particular the SPSS package is being utilized. The fact that the Center participates in the program of data analysis of «Russia monitoring of economic situation and public health» carried out by the Institute of Sociology of the Russian Academy of Science, Institute of Nutrition of the Russian Academy of Medical Science, University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, State Committee on Statistics of the Russian Federation and the Center of Preventive Medicine of the Russian Academy of Medical Science with financial support of the Agency for International Development of the USA, the World Bank, the National Institute of Public Health of the USA and the SPSS software is an example of how deeply the Center has mastered the possibilities of statistics analysis.

In March 1997 our team decided to leave the civil service and set up an independent company.