The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE Network) stands for peace, security and democracy and condemns Russia’s invasion of the independent and democratic nation of Ukraine and violation of international law.

Socioeconomic status and test scores are important predictors of educational attainment gaps in rich countries. Associate Professor Abhijeet Singh from the Economics Department of the Stockholm School of Economics and his co-authors present new evidence on inequalities in education in low and middle-income countries (LMIC).

The Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics together with the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA) and the FREE Network invite academic contributions focusing on economic and social context of domestic violence. Both applied and theoretical contributions are welcome. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2022.

In Ekonomisk Debatt, SITE researcher Anders Olofsgård sheds light into what we can learn about the effectiveness of development aid from literatures at the macro, micro and meso- levels. What are we talking about when we talk about development aid?

Policy brief: Most reports on the labor-market effects of the first wave of COVID-19 have pointed to women, low-skilled workers and other vulnerable groups being more affected. Research on the topic shows a more mixed picture. Researchers from the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE); Pamela Campa, Jesper Roine and Svante Strömberg explores the Swedish labor market during COVID-19 crisis.

Policy brief: Violence within the home is the most common form of interpersonal violence for women. While children and men are also victims of abuse of various kind within the family, intimate partner violence committed by men against women is generally the most common form of domestic violence. Has intimate partner violence increased in Sweden during the current COVID-19 pandemic?

Policy brief: Women are generally under-represented in political offices worldwide, and their under-representation becomes larger in more senior positions. This brief reviews some recent academic literature in economics and political science on the likely causes of women’s under-representation.

After having been relatively mildly affected in the first wave, Eastern Europe is currently in the midst of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic with much higher levels of infected and dead compared to the spring. This health crisis not only has economic consequences, but also has contributed to political instability in parts of the region. Learn more on the presentations and discussions held at the SITE Development Day conference 2020!

New research finds that female founders of entrepreneurial ventures raise significantly more funding when catering to female-dominated industries. Effectively, this means that men are afforded credibility across a broad range of industries, while women are confined to a less lucrative subset of the labor market.

As governments around the globe are continuing to enforce contagion management strategies to limit the spread of COVID-19, many experts are voicing their concerns about a different kind of pandemic. Alarming reports have surfaced from a wide range of countries suggesting significant increases in domestic violence, including one of its most prevalent forms – intimate partner violence.