In this brief, Pamela Campa and co-author examine the EU commissions (EC) proposal and highlight its commendable aim of strengthening environmental regulation enforcement at the EU level. However, they also note its limitations in terms of the enforcement tools it encompasses. Their focus is on discussing the potential benefits of utilizing administrative law tools for enforcing environmental regulation, in contrast to the current emphasis on criminal law in the EC's approach.

In this brief, Jonathan Lehne and Maiting Zhuang examines the fragility of democratic institutions in Eastern Europe, comparing expert assessments and general population surveys. Experts' concerns have intensified, yet voters in almost all new EU member states and across age groups express growing satisfaction with their democracies. The study reveals a shift where people's perception of democracy is increasingly influenced by election outcomes rather than actual institutional change, even when media freedom or judicial independence is restricted by governments.

Several countries, including France, Canada, and Israel, have adopted the Nordic model of prostitution legislation to combat sexual exploitation. However, researchers from SITE highlight that these reforms might unintentionally increase sex tourism, necessitating comprehensive policy considerations.

In this policy brief, researchers from SITE explores the challenges of quantifying political discourse using 30 years of party manifestos. It analyzes the evolution of dominant topics in European politics, particularly in transition countries. The brief utilizes data from the Manifesto Project to describe the development of political discourse in Europe, emphasizing differences between Western European countries and Eastern European transition economies.

In this brief SITE researchers, Anna Anisimova and Cecilia Smitt Meyer, present a short overview of some of the most important statistics on Russia’s economic performance no longer publicly available. They also discuss some alternative measures to track the Russian economy which can be used to provide more accurate assessments of the effect of sanctions and thus reduce the impact of Russia’s data warfare.

In this policy brief, researchers Marcel Garz (Jönköping University) and Maiting Zhuang (SITE) illustrate the media's power to affect behavioural change, using the Swedish experience during Covid-19 as an example.

Throughout 2022, the reduction in Russian gas imports to the EU and the resilience of European energy markets have been subject of significant public discourse and policy-making. Of particular concern has been the EU’s ability to maintain its environmental goals. In this policy brief, researchers from SITE and the University of Pennsylvania aim to reevaluate the consequences from the loss of Russian gas and the EU’s response to it on greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

The post-war reconstruction of Ukraine will have to comprehensively address a number of objectives to set the country on a path of stable, sustainable and inclusive growth. In this policy paper, researchers from the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) and the Forum for Research on Gender Economics (FROGEE) together with other gender economics experts argue that the principles of “building-back better” need to take the gender dimension under consideration.

Did you miss the chance to attend the annual SITE 2022 Development Day conference? This policy brief shortly summarizes the presentations and discussions at the SITE Development Day Conference, held on December 6, 2022. The main focus of the conference was how to maintain and organize support for Ukraine in the short and long run, with the current situation in Belarus and the region and the ongoing energy crisis in Europe, also being addressed.

Is the Russian economy “surprisingly resilient” to sanctions and actions of the West? The short answer is no. In this policy brief, Maria Perrotta Berlin and Jesper Roine, researchers from Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE), discusses the bleak economic future of Russia.