News Archive

Europe Nighttime Light

What Nighttime Lights Can Tell Us About Economic Performance

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EconPol Forum
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The allocation of EU funding is accompanied by an increase in nighttime lights in the communities that receive it. For this article, the researchers were the first to merge satellite data with a funding database that listed individual projects as a way to measure the small-scale effects of EU regional funding at the community level. Their observations revealed that a 1 percent increase in funding during the 2007–2013 EU funding period was associated with 0.007 percent more lights at night in the receiving communities.

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EconPol Forum: School Mentoring

Mentoring Improves the School-to-work Transition of Disadvantaged Adolescents

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EconPol Forum
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Mentoring programs can strongly improve the transition from school to work for disadvantaged adolescents. This article evaluates the effectiveness of one of the largest mentoring programs for disadvantaged adolescents in Germany. Results indicate that mentoring markedly boosts school achievement, patience, and labor-market orientation of students from highly disadvantaged backgrounds. The effects on math grades and labor-market orientation extend beyond the end of the program.

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Impact of Sanctions on the Russian Economy

The Impact of Sanctions on the Russian Economy

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Policy Report
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Despite EU restrictions, only around one-third of pre-war exports to Russia are fully sanctioned; most trade remains unaffected or subject to numerous exemptions. While exports have decreased by 32%, imports have increased by 17% due to innovative ways to bypass trade sanctions. China is Russia’s most important alternative country of origin for products under sanction: 61 percent of all products subject to sanctions come from China. The Russian economy shows signs of recovery, driven by robust domestic demand from wartime fiscal stimulus, contributing about 10% to GDP in 2022-23.

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The Future of Defence Spending in Europe

Defence Spending in Europe

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Policy Report
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To improve defence capabilities, Europe has to increase defence spending immediately and also to create fiscal space for a permanent rise in defence spending. Many European countries have collected a considerable peace dividend since the end of the Cold War. In the same period, welfare states have expanded to a degree not backed by the general economic development. This Policy Report shows that if European NATO countries shifted around one percent of non-defence expenditure towards defence, this would be sufficient to meet the NATO 2%-target.

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EconPol Newsletter

EconPol Newsletter: Geoeconomics and the Green Transition

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Newsletter
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The last EconPol Newsletter of 2023 has just been published. This issue features a special Policy Report on Geoeconomics analyzing different scenarios for the EU's future trade policy, a review of our 2023 EconPol Annual Conference in Brussels, as well as the latest EconPol Forum on how to make the green transition finally happen.

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