This study investigates the determinants of research productivity in Uzbekistan’s public universities using a balanced panel of 15 institutions over 2010–2023. The analysis integrates three complementary dimensions: human capital, institutional efficiency, and macroeconomic conditions to explain why research output varies markedly across universities during a period of rapid reforms. A fixed-effects instrumental-variable model is employed to control for unobserved institutional characteristics and potential endogeneity in spending efficiency and economic indicators. The results show that academic staff capacity is the strongest predictor of research productivity, while GDP growth also contributes positively by creating more stable conditions for long-term academic development. Education spending efficiency has a meaningful effect, suggesting that governance and internal management shape how resources translate into research outcomes. These findings underscore the need to strengthen faculty development, improve institutional accountability, and align higher education policy with national economic priorities. Read more

Digital government transformation is reorganizing public-sector work at a pace that civil service institutions have struggled to keep pace with. This article examines whether digital upgrading in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan has produced a meaningful restructuring of the civil service workforce and why the translation of infrastructure investment into occupational change remains incomplete. The study draws on an asymmetric comparative design, combining shift-share occupational decomposition and vacancy-platform analysis for Kazakhstan with qualitative process tracing for Uzbekistan. In Kazakhstan, routine-intensive occupational shares declined over 2018-2024, yet persistent gaps in digital skill requirements and post-hire training suggest that formal restructuring has outpaced actual capability development. Uzbekistan shows a sharper version of the same pattern, where major digital and AI initiatives were launched before any consolidated reskilling architecture existed for the civil service core. These findings are captured through the concept of the reskilling paradox. Centralized personnel control, hierarchical information flows, and compliance-oriented organizational cultures act as friction coefficients that slow workforce adaptation regardless of how far digital platforms have advanced. Digital modernization, the evidence suggests, cannot be assessed solely through infrastructure. Read more