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Purpose: This paper aims to explore the existence of convergence in non-monetary working conditions in Europe resorting to widely used definitions of this phenomenon and composite indexes of job quality. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis relies on composite indexes, widely used in previous literature, for 207 regions in six different areas of job quality drawing on the microdata of the European Working Conditions Survey from 1995 to 2015. This study assesses the occurrence of convergence both in terms of dispersion of job quality outcomes (sigma-convergence) and, especially, regarding the existence of a catch-up process (beta-convergence). Findings: This study finds evidence of both types of convergences in all the domains, with the exception of skills and discretion and prospects dimensions according to the sigma-convergence approach. The results do not suggest substantial differences between the 15 European Union countries before the 2004 enlargement and the new Member States and are robust to a wide range of changes in the sample and different econometric specifications. Originality/value: Tot he best of the authors' knowledge, this paper represents the first rigorous and systematic attempt of addressing the existence of convergence in non-monetary working conditions, applying formal and widely accepted definitions of this phenomenon. It contributes to our knowledge on this topic providing strong evidence of convergence in job quality. Those results can be of interest for scholars in Economics and other Social Sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roma communities across Europe still remain a neglected population group by way of the social and economic disadvantage that largely characterizes their lives. Roma communities continue to experience structural socioeconomic health inequalities on the grounds of their ethnic origin, alarmingly unveiling a pattern of systematic discrimination and ethnic marginalization. Without any doubt, such a highly worrying situation calls for States to incorporate Roma health rights within their law and policy agendas in a manner consistent with right to health requirements. Against this background, this paper seeks to identify an operational human rights framework for States as a driver for better informed policies and implementation as well as for Roma engagement in the deliberations about their life prospects. The paper argues that continuing, concerted, and proactive State engagement is required for effectively addressing the structural obstacles impeding Roma socioeconomic health rights realization and maximizing Roma opportunities for well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Medical & Pharmaceutical Sciences is the property of Arab Journal of Sciences & Research Publishing (AJSRP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Russian-Ukrainian war is the gravest display of the global tension in the hybrid system where war and peace compete as dominant world orders. In view of this, the paper presents the key dimensions of warfare's societal consequences in the context of the Ukrainian situation. Notably, the ongoing full-scale military conflict has all the characteristics of a hybrid war, unprecedented in its scale in the contemporary history of Europe. In the context of creating a strategic vision of postwar recovery goals and long-term development of the Ukrainian state, the societal consequences of a hybrid war waged against Ukraine must be investigated. The example of Ukraine is used as a backdrop for a detailed assessment of societal consequences of a modern hybrid war in three dimensions - demographic, socio-economic, and macrofinancial aspects. Analysis results indicate the risks inherent in offsetting the societal consequences of the Russian invasion into Ukraine. It is concluded that societal methodology is suitable for exploring the current dynamic transformations in society and its integral structures, and that the application of this methodology should be popularized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of the public interest has often been revisited within theoretical debates related to the fields of politics, decision making, and planning. While it has been claimed that the public interest should serve as one of the main pillars for decision-making, various authors reject the possibility of its operationalization, describing it as a vague criterion for any empirical analysis. With that in mind, the main aim of this paper is to present the role of the public interest and its long lasting tradition in Serbian planning practice from socialism until today, as well as its operational dimensions in relation to the specific post-socialist planning context. This paper will first briefly discuss the nature of the public interest concept in relation to planning. It will go on to present some of the socio-economic aspects of Serbian socialist and post-socialist planning practice, so as to better understand the local context in which the public interest is framed. Finally, it will propose the dimensions of planning practice in which the public interest is articulated. The findings were derived from the analysis of the role of the public interest in planning theory, planning practice, and the Serbian legal planning framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on social innovation has gained momentum over the last decade, spurred notably by the growing interest in social issues related to policy making, public management and entrepreneurship in response to the wicked problems societies in Europe and worldwide face. Its popularity among academics and policy makers also marks a turning point in how innovations are thought of and what their role in economic development is. However, for social innovations to unfold their full potential for the beneficiaries and societies at large a better understanding of underlying mechanisms, processes and impacts is necessary. Focusing on 'the economics of social innovation', this special issue addresses a widely neglected topic in regional development. The contributions cover distinct but complementary and related aspects concerning the existing gap between the hitherto unexploited potential of social innovation in relation to the complex and interrelated socio-economic challenges regions across Europe and globally face. This editorial provides a brief introduction in the Special Issue's general theme followed by an overview of the lines of argumentation and main results of the contributions. It concludes with an outlook on future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unprecedented geopolitical shift resulting from Brexit reflects deep socioeconomic fault lines within and beyond the UK. In many ways foreshadowing the US presidential election of Donald Trump, Brexit brought to the surface and gave a public voice to socio-economic divisions that were deeply embedded, sometimes illogical, but until now had either been ignored or hushed out of 'respectable' public debate. This Discussion Forum emanates from a spontaneous seminar organized 2 days after the Brexit vote on June 25, 2016 as part of the SASE conference held in University of California-Berkeley and followed by an open call for papers by Socio-Economic Review. The papers here draw attention to the origins of the Brexit vote in deep-seated socio-economic divisions (O'Reilly), widening differences in economic performance across sectors and regions of the UK (Froud, Sukhdev and Williams) and the growth of poor quality jobs (Warhurst). Meanwhile, the political dynamics of the Brexit vote were also shaped by the fractured nature of UK business elites (Morgan), divisions between locals and cosmopolitans (Grey) and creative but muddled actions of elites that arguably generated consequences they themselves failed to fully anticipate (Wood and Wright). From the perspective of Europe, Brexit reflects a history of dysfunctional economic policy in Europe that prioritized market competition in ways that neglected and ultimately undermined solidarity (Boyer). Here, Brexit reflects a political strategy to both renationalize and recommodify solidarity in the face of fears over migration, and which are likely to have major consequences for social solidarity in Europe more generally (Frerichs and Sankari). However, Brexit is unlikely to provide a durable social and political solution to the wider tensions between globalization and democracy, which also affect all countries throughout Europe (Rona-Tas). Ultimately, the Brexit vote underlines social divisions that combine class inequalities with regional ones, not just in Britain but throughout Europe (Le Galés). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Reducing the number of early school leavers, those who quit education without at least a high school degree, is a key objective of educational policy throughout Europe. Previous research has shown that in particular youngsters from disadvantaged families face relatively high risks of school dropout. In this paper we use data from the 2009 ad hoc module of the Labour Force Survey to examine how macro-level determinants influence school dropout risks among different social groups. Our results indicate that both the design of the educational system (tracking age, extent of vocational education) and characteristics of the socioeconomic context (poverty rate, unemployment patterns) have an impact on the social distribution of school dropout risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper develops the first survival analysis of a large-scale mortality crisis caused by plague. For the time-to-event analyses we used the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Our case study is the town of Nonantola during the 1630 plague, which was probably the worst to affect Italy since the Black Death. Individual risk of death did not depend on sex, grew with age (peaking at ages 40-60 and then declining), was not affected by socio-economic status, and was positively associated with household size. We discuss these findings in light of the historical-demographic and palaeo-demographic literature on medieval and early modern plagues. Our results are compatible with the debated idea that ancient plague was able to spread directly from human to human. Our methods could be replicated in other studies of European plagues to nuance and integrate the findings of recent palaeo-biological and palaeo-demographic research on plague. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Integrated cross-sectoral impact assessments facilitate a comprehensive understanding of interdependencies and potential synergies, conflicts, and trade-offs between sectors under changing conditions. This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of a European integrated assessment model, the CLIMSAVE integrated assessment platform (IAP). The IAP incorporates important cross-sectoral linkages between six key European land- and water-based sectors: agriculture, biodiversity, flooding, forests, urban, and water. Using the IAP, we investigate the direct and indirect implications of a wide range of climatic and socio-economic drivers to identify: (1) those sectors and regions most sensitive to future changes, (2) the mechanisms and directions of sensitivity (direct/indirect and positive/negative), (3) the form and magnitudes of sensitivity (linear/non-linear and strong/weak/insignificant), and (4) the relative importance of the key drivers across sectors and regions. The results are complex. Most sectors are either directly or indirectly sensitive to a large number of drivers (more than 18 out of 24 drivers considered). Over twelve of these drivers have indirect impacts on biodiversity, forests, land use diversity, and water, while only four drivers have indirect effects on flooding. In contrast, for the urban sector all the drivers are direct. Moreover, most of the driver-indicator relationships are non-linear, and hence there is the potential for 'surprises'. This highlights the importance of considering cross-sectoral interactions in future impact assessments. Such systematic analysis provides improved information for decision-makers to formulate appropriate adaptation policies to maximise benefits and minimise unintended consequences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Romanian areas have suffered of an intense out emigration from rural areas. In order to reduce the socio-economic marginalization the European Union by the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has supported more initiatives aimed at implementing the diversification in rural areas. The aim of this paper was to assess by a quantitative approach in Romanian farms belonging to the FADN dataset some relationships among the financial subsidies allocated by the CAP and the level of wealth in rural areas. It has used in this research a dual and different methodology of investigation. It has employed in the first phase the multiple regression model and in the further step the Structural Equation Modeling aimed at estimating the cause effect relationships between all investigated variables over the time 2007-2015. Findings have pointed out as the level of wealth in rural areas has been influenced by the financial subsidies allocated by the Common Agricultural Policy and a positive impact has been also assessed focusing the attention on the total CAP payments towards the level of farmer's net income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Childbearing outside of marriage has increased drastically in recent decades. However, the existing explanations for this development are not coherent. Proponents of the Second Demographic Transition framework view the rise in nonmarital childbearing as part of a pattern of progress driven by processes such as emancipation from traditional social norms, whereas other scholars perceive this trend in the context of a “pattern of disadvantage,” as nonmarital births are often concentrated among lower socioeconomic groups. In this paper, we posit that the relevance of the aforementioned theoretical explanations might vary depending on the geographic scale at which variation occurs: that is, across nation states, subnational regions, or individuals. To explore this hypothesis, we analyse harmonised survey data from 16 European countries. We apply hierarchical models to study how the likelihood that a woman living in a couple will have her first child either within nonmarital cohabitation or within marriage is linked to national and subnational regional variation in socioeconomic conditions that are related to explanations based on the existing theoretical considerations. Our results suggest that the Second Demographic Transition framework is very important for understanding variation between countries, whereas arguments pointing to a pattern of disadvantage seem to be more relevant at the individual and subnational regional level. It thus appears that taking a multilevel perspective can help us better understand why the existing theoretical explanations are not fully coherent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the growing concerns in the current socio-economic context for obtaining more relevant and more „insuring" information on the quality of financial information provided by the financial statements of various companies, both practitioners and academics, but also regulators, are asking various questions on how external audits and audit reports are and should be looked at. Unfortunately, during the financial crisis in 2017-2018 we faced a continuous degradation of the audit image, and by default of that of financial auditors. This is due to scandals and bankruptcies of companies and financial institutions, where auditors have contributed more or less. All these led to intensified efforts of audit professional and regulatory bodies for analysing the causes of these phenomena in order to identify and impose a number of measures aimed to restore the lack of credibility occurring increasingly stronger in the results of auditors' work. Auditors and audit companies should not overlook the social importance of financial audits in recent years - a position obtained after an effort of hundreds of years - and eventually extend their responsibilities and seek for new methods or procedures compatible with current needs in order to support their work. Therefore, audit value must be continually tested against requirements of users and society. Accounting profession must build a solid case in favour of the benefits brought by audits to business, economy and society. Audits must evolve and expand to add more value for users. Especially for listed companies and even more in times of crisis, audits must be more than an opinion on historical financial statements. Over the last few decades audit quality has been investigated by many scholars, although it still hasn't been properly conceptualized and lacks one common definition. This may be explained by the constant shifting of audit theory and practice, and the complexity of the audit service. The objective of the paper is to investigate the existing definitions of audit quality, identify its main elements and provide a cristical observation on how the changes in the form and content of the auditor's report will affect the audit quality in an eventual sensitive socio-economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary objective of the paper is to assess the extent and exploitation of agricultural land in the CR and EU countries based on selected macro-socioeconomic indicators in order to determine the position of the CR and future desirable exploitation, protection and stabilisation of agricultural land in the CR. The following methods will be employed in order to meet the objective: (1) The Coefficient of Geographical Association (CGA) and my own modified coefficients of association reflecting the impact of exploitation of agricultural land on indicators of the country's economic level. (2) Comparison (shrinkage of agricultural land, workforce in agriculture and market price of agricultural land in selected countries). (3) The Coefficient of Ecological Stability to assess the extent of stable and unstable areas in EU-27 countries. The following data are used for calculations: Eurostat (2009, 2015), World Bank and FAOSTAT (1993-2014). The extent of agricultural land in the CR (2014/1993) has been decreasing more slowly than in the detailed comparison countries (5 countries with the lowest CGA). The price of the agricultural land (2014) is lower than in France, Germany and Poland; nevertheless, the actual price rates are not as contrasting against these countries if purchase parity is considered. The Coefficient of Ecological Stability ranks the Czech Republic in the second half of the list of EU-27 countries (22nd place). While the ecological stability of land has decreased slightly in Germany and France (2009-2015), an improvement has occurred in the CR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to structurally analyse the role of tourism in regional development processes in European cross-border regions with different historical development paths. Departing from an institutional perspective, the research is based on comparison of the position of tourism in region-building processes in the newly developing German–Czech cross-border region and the more ‘mature’ German–Belgian borderlands. Results indicate that the development of local cross-border tourism projects is no guarantee for positive destination-wide regional development impacts. In some cases, these projects may even reinforce asymmetrical socio-economic development directions of neighbouring borderlands. Rather, the socio-spatially equitable distribution of tourism benefits in cross-border contexts depends on several process-based aspects. These include the presence of ‘thick’ (cross-border) institutional arrangements, multi-scalar representation of tourism stakeholders in decision-making processes and a transversal position of tourism in regional development strategies. However, both with cross-border institutional ‘under-mobilization’ (Germany–Czech Republic) and with institutional ‘over-mobilization’ (Germany–Belgium), the informal network position of institutional brokers proved key for safeguarding the integrative character of tourism in the inevitably complex cross-border region-building process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After reviewing the theoretical underpinnings behind the ‘conventional wisdom’ that voters on the left abstain more, this article critically assesses the traditional approach of the so-called ideological bias on turnout. By compiling a new large dataset (197 country elections in Europe), this paper shows that centrist abstention is higher than leftist or rightist abstention. The analysis reveals that a society’s ideological turnout bias reflects its socioeconomic context (traditional explanation), but also that party strategies play a key role. Most importantly, results show that convergence towards the centre triggers a higher centrist abstention. Additionally, this article demonstrates that both socioeconomic and partisan factors have heterogeneous effects across ideological positions. These findings critically challenge prior understanding of the ideological bias on turnout and the impact of parties’ election strategies when pursuing the key centre voter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water deficits observed in many regions of the world make it necessary to implement measures intended to improve this situation. Poland is one of the countries with the poorest water resources in Europe due to its natural conditions and human impact. As a result of land reclamation carried out over decades, many elements of its hydrographic system have been changed, and some of them, like lakes, have disappeared altogether. In the days of the socio-economic transformation and more frequent extreme events, what seems worth considering is the renaturalisation of non-existing lakes, an idea presented in this paper on a selected example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is critical for the development of European farming. It has consequences in terms of changing roles for farm households and their capacity to develop new skills to be competitive, and also for the structures of governance required to support innovation and diversification. The innovative and diversification process is complex for farm households. It requires synergistic combinations of local and expert knowledge, capacity to build networks and extract value from those networks, and it requires personal motivation and resilience to achieve business objectives. This paper analyses a number of farm households in Co. Offaly and Co. Mayo, Ireland. Its focus is on household capacity for innovation across a wide range of socio-economic circumstances taking an individual ‘case study’ perspective through data collected on farms and with development agencies/extension services that support them. While innovation appears ‘natural’ to some households in both the agricultural and non-agricultural business sectors, the study also highlights that many farm households struggle to network and tend to rely heavily on the direction of policy actors, neighbours and friends. The paper considers innovation as a complex, territorially embedded process individual to each household and bound up with ideas of self, identity, and place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the relation between urban form and the socio-economic patterns of the resident population in three southern European cities ( Athens, Lisbon and Rome) featured by different processes of urban diffusion. The paper goes beyond the literature on sprawl focused on (residential, income and ethnic) segregation and the different features of the inhabitants of the suburbs and those of the inner cities residents. By integrating multivariate statistics and spatial analysis, a methodology is proposed, based on morphological and socio-economic indicators available at a fine geographical scale. Results show how urban diffusion processes vary widely according to the context, as does the socio-economic profile of the actors, stressing the need to think about different 'southern European alternatives' of sprawl. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses whether hosting the most prestigious European cultural event, the European Capital of Culture, has an impact on regional economic development and the life satisfaction of the local population. We show that European Capitals are hosted in regions with above-average GDP per capita, but do not causally affect the economic development in a significant way. Surprisingly, using difference-in-difference estimations, a negative effect on the wellbeing of the regional population is found during the event. Since no effect is found before the event, reverse causality and positive anticipation can be ruled out. The negative effect during the event might result from dissatisfaction with the high levels of public expenditure, transport disruptions, general overcrowding or an increase in housing prices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Studies of climate change impacts on agricultural land use generally consider sets of climates combined with fixed socio-economic scenarios, making it impossible to compare the impact of specific factors within these scenario sets. Analysis of the impact of specific scenario factors is extremely difficult due to prohibitively long run-times of the complex models. This study produces and combines metamodels of crop and forest yields and farm profit, derived from previously developed very complex models, to enable prediction of European land use under any set of climate and socio-economic data. Land use is predicted based on the profitability of the alternatives on every soil within every 10' grid across the EU. A clustering procedure reduces 23,871 grids with 20+ soils per grid to 6,714 clusters of common soil and climate. Combined these reduce runtime 100 thousand-fold. Profit thresholds define land as intensive agriculture (arable or grassland), extensive agriculture or managed forest, or finally unmanaged forest or abandoned land. The demand for food as a function of population, imports, food preferences and bioenergy, is a production constraint, as is irrigation water available. An iteration adjusts prices to meet these constraints. A range of measures are derived at 10' grid-level such as diversity as well as overall EU production. There are many ways to utilise this ability to do rapid What-If analysis of both impact and adaptations. The paper illustrates using two of the 5 different GCMs (CSMK3, HADGEM with contrasting precipitation and temperature) and two of the 4 different socio-economic scenarios ('We are the world', 'Should I stay or should I go' which have contrasting demands for land), exploring these using two of the 13 scenario parameters (crop breeding for yield and population) . In the first scenario, population can be increased by a large amount showing that food security is far from vulnerable. In the second scenario increasing crop yield shows that it improves the food security problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economics & Environment / Ekonomia i Środowisko is the property of Fundacja Ekonomistow Srodowiska i Zasobow Naturalnych and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Massive layoffs caused by the global economic crisis required the evaluation of the effectiveness of active measures to promote employability. The strategy "Europe 2020 for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth" became the expression of common European efforts to ensure jobs and reducing unemployment. In this context, there was an increased interest in the social economy, due to both the recognition of the limitations of traditional public and private sectors to meet the current challenges in the labor market and the quality and quantity of services of collective interest. In this paper, we propose an analysis at European level, of the inclusive effects of the support and development of social economy entities, the impact of support policies on the integration on the labor market of the persons considered socially vulnerable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economics & Environment / Ekonomia i Środowisko is the property of Fundacja Ekonomistow Srodowiska i Zasobow Naturalnych and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Building on a decade-long comparative database of the European Social Survey the present study targets general aspects of satisfaction across larger regions of Europe with special regard to the socioeconomic changes in the recent decades. Conventionally cultivated measures like central tendency are supplemented by structural parameters of distribution based on a conceptual scheme distinguishing consensus and tightness of opinions. Dispersion-like indicators point to a stronger polarization of public mood under worse off contexts and, to a certain degree, conditions of vulnerability to economic downturn. A more rigid juncture of various mood components is also observable under less favourable circumstances. Disparities of income position in the first place, but features of cultural and ideological-political differentiation as well are intertwined with satisfaction polarization in a kind of stress syndrome exhibiting substantial divergences in both the East/West and the North/South regards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of formal and informal care for the elderly depends on many factors: income, urban-rural environment, educational attainment, family composition (singles/multi-member family), age and severity of health complications. For this analysis, a pro-rich poverty model is used based on data from the latest (8th) edition of SHARE (Survey of Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe) to examine the impact of socioeconomic inequalities among older people in the use of home care in European Union. The main results indicate that the pro-poor distribution of long-term care prevails in most of the studied countries. At the same time, health variables contribute to pro-poor inequality in the use of long-term care, mainly in informal care. When it comes to formal care, most countries have pro-poor contributions. Formal care inequalities disappeared when adjusted for need factors, while informal care inequalities remained in most countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The notion that insurance can play a significant role in risk reduction has recently gained increasing attention in the wake of rising losses from natural disasters. While this notion is accepted in theory, we notice that, in practice, little is known about if and how insurance promotes efforts to lower the occurrence probabilities of an event or reduce its impacts. Direct linkages between risk reduction and insurance appear lacking in most existing insurance schemes, and the risk reduction potential is usually not a recognised aspect when designing or reforming insurance schemes. In response, multisectoral partnerships are being developed as innovative mechanisms to address this shortfall. Our analysis seeks to determine how the risk reduction linkages of insurance can be assessed and developed further in a multisector partnership (MSP) setting. We consider four methodologies applied in previous studies and explore them for several European examples of insurance development. While very different in scope and history, our examples share one common feature: they can all be considered as MSPs designed to foster greater collaboration between different stakeholders. We use those examples to act as testing grounds for the assessment of the risk reduction implications of insurance. Our findings show that the potential for risk reduction of new or reformed schemes could be strengthened through multisectoral partnerships. We conclude with a discussion of how the four methods could assist in the development of innovative responses to natural hazard insurance in a multisectoral partnership context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland abandonment in Europe is a major problem because of environmental, socioeconomic and landscape implications. In this paper, a general view of the extent of abandoned land, the stages of abandonment and the drivers that manage this process in Europe is presented. A scientific literature review shows an abandonment at the beginning of the 19th century, although the largest abandonment in terms of area took place in the mid-20th century. This abandonment had a far greater impact on mountain areas because of rural depopulation as well as biophysical constraints. Since the last decades of the 20th century, abandonment driven by the CAP in European Member States and by the end of the communist regime in Central and Eastern Europe has been taking place. This abandonment affects peripheral marginal areas due to biophysical or socioeconomic conditions. Semi-arid areas in Southern Europe have also seen an important extent of abandoned land over the last few decades. The literature draws on the ongoing abandonment from the following decades, and 3–4% of current farmland is considered to be affected. It is noted that, among the drivers, external factors (migration, socioeconomic model, public policies, etc.) act as enhancers that emphasize land abandonment. However, internal causes (agro-ecological and socioeconomic factors and also the features of agricultural holdings) control the dynamics and the extent of this phenomenon. The international literature about land abandonment in Europe is vast, and most of the specialized production is devoted to the effects of land abandonment, while few works determine the extent, stages and drivers of land abandonment. Finally, it is necessary to review the grey literature to obtain more quantitative information on the amount of abandoned land in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the factors that are associated with the probability for a student to be retained in primary school; understanding such phenomenon is very important, because the literature points at claiming that retention perpetrates socioeconomic and educational inequality, instead of reducing it. Empirically, we estimate a multivariate logistic regression with the aim of identifying cross-country determinants of grade retention using data about 16 European countries participating in PIRLS 2011 using data about entry age at school and grade enrollment to identify retained students. Our results highlight that socioeconomic background is not the only factor that plays a role. Early-acquired skills do reduce the probability for a child to become a repeater; thus, the policy-makers should devote their effort in helping families to undertake preschool activities that develop skills also before starting formal schooling. Later assistance with homework is helpful as well, but with a lower magnitude and effect, which is offset if early skills are properly accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The endless flow of migrants coming to Europe since 2014 and the virulent debates in the media dividing public opinions and politicians, raise the question of migrants? future inclusion in European countries of arrival and final destination. Different in each country, the integration process depends on several factors: the way the country defines itself as a Nation; its welcoming culture and welfare model; the political context and dialogue around socio-economic inclusion as well as civic and political rights for migrants. Nonetheless, integration has received minimal attention and its policies have not been considered as a research priority so far, hence this paper aims to highlight some important aspects of migrants inclusion process in Europe, in the context of the on-going crisis. More precisely, this article is offering an overview of the European Union integration policy and tools and of the structural measures put forward by three countries (Sweden, Germany, Italy) in order to integrate the migrants who have settled and continue to arrive on their territory with the purpose to reside. This panoramic perspective will allow us to pick up the main challenges European countries will have to face in terms of migrants? inclusion into the society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many countries, flood defense has historically formed the core of flood risk management but this strategy is now evolving with the changing approach to risk management. This paper focuses on the neglected analysis of institutional changes within the flood defense strategies formulated and implemented in six European countries (Belgium, England, France, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden). The evolutions within the defense strategy over the last 30 years have been analyzed with the help of three mainstream institutional theories: a policy dynamics-oriented framework, a structure-oriented institutional theory on path dependency, and a policy actors-oriented analysis called the advocacy coalitions framework. We characterize the stability and evolution of the trends that affect the defense strategy in the six countries through four dimensions of a policy arrangement approach: actors, rules, resources, and discourses. We ask whether the strategy itself is changing radically, i.e., toward a discontinuous situation, and whether the processes of change are more incremental or radical. Our findings indicate that in the European countries studied, the position of defense strategy is continuous, as the classical role of flood defense remains dominant. With changing approaches to risk, integrated risk management, climate change, urban growth, participation in governance, and socioeconomic challenges, the flood defense strategy is increasingly under pressure to change. However, these changes can be defined as part of an adaptation of the defense strategy rather than as a real change in the nature of flood risk management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The availability and accessibility of natural resources are fundamental for human well-being and the functioning of global economies. International policies have been developed with the aim to ensure resource efficiency and to respond to environmental and socio-economic concerns towards the sustainable management of natural resources. In fact, building effective resource policies requires solid methodologies and indicators for monitoring resource extraction and consumption by the economies as well as all its related environmental impacts. The present study focuses on the European context, assessing current methodologies for resources analysis towards identifying their strengths and weaknesses in supporting policies. The study analyses trends in material resource extraction within Europe and imports over the past 10 years. Three approaches are compared: (i) “mass”-based accounting (i.e. material flow analysis); (ii) “impact assessment”-based, founded on the life cycle assessment methodology, and (iii) “resource criticality”-based, building on assessment of critical raw materials for EU economy. The paper shows through some examples that this methodological choice has relevant repercussions in terms of resource prioritization. Hence, the choice of the accounting methodology and the setting of targets should be guided by the policy objective(s) (i.e. dematerialization, environmental impact reduction and security of resource supply), possibly complementing the different insights coming from the three approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a potential key-technology to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions as its use can lead to lower mitigation cost. However, research on other economic impacts of using CCS is scarce. In this paper, we look into economic upstream impacts of CCS use in terms of employment, Gross Value Added (GVA) and import dependency on the macro- and sector-level in Western Europe. We determine these impacts by a static comparison of two scenarios of power production with and without CCS (differences in energy efficiency investments between these scenarios were not accounted for). The two scenarios, both representing a stringent climate policy regime, were produced with the energy-system-simulation-model (TIMER) following the same emission profile until 2050. Data from the two scenarios were respectively implemented into a projected version of a global-multiregional IO-Model (EXIOBASE). Macro-level results suggest slightly higher gross employment, but lower Gross Value Added (GVA) (by 25%), and higher import dependency in the CCS-including scenario compared to the CCS-excluding scenario, given that biomass with CCS (BECCS) is available. Sector-level results show disproportionally higher differences between the scenarios in GVA and employment for some sectors compared to other sectors. Particularly, sectors providing fuels (here mostly bio-energy) have significantly higher GVA and employment in the CCS scenario. This study thus reveals interesting upstream economic effects, which can be linked to the technology choice. However, the exact quantitative results depend strongly on model assumptions. Results therefore need to be further explored in other models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sarno River trend analysis during the last 60 years was traced focusing on the socio-economic and environmental issues. The river, originally worshiped as a god by Romans, is affected by an extreme level of environmental degradation, being sadly reputed as the most polluted river in Europe. This is the “not to be followed” example of the worst way a European river can be managed. Data about water, sediment, soil, biota and air contamination were collected from scientific papers, monitoring surveys, and technical reports depicting a sick river. Originally, the river was reputed as a source of livelihood, now it is considered a direct threat for human health. Wastewater can still flow through the river partially or completely untreated, waste production associated with the manufacture of metal products and leather tanning continues to suffer from the historical inadequacy of regional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs), associated with the partial or no reuse of effluents. All efforts should be devoted to solving the lack of wastewater and waste management, the gap in land planning, improving the capacity of existing WWTPs also via the construction of new sewer sections, restoring Sarno River minimum vital-flow, keeping to a minimum uncontrolled discharges as well as supporting river contracts. The 2015 goal stated by the Water Framework Directive ( 2000/60/EC ) is still far to be reached. The lesson has not been learnt yet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This comparative study examines cross-national variation in gender differences in primary and specialized mental health care use in Europe. We investigate to what extent socioeconomic, family-related, and mental health factors explain the gender difference, and how the impact of these groups of determinants on gender differences in mental health care use varies between countries. Methods: Data from the Eurobarometer 248 (2005-2006) for 29 European countries is used and country-specific logistic regression analyses are performed. Results: Gender differences in professional care seeking are largely need based. In almost one-third of the countries examined, the gender difference is mainly attributable to women's poorer mental health status. However, in some countries, family and socioeconomic characteristics also have an independent contribution to the gender difference in mental health care use. Women's higher likelihood of a lower socioeconomic position, might partly explain their higher primary care use, while in some countries, it restricts their specialized care use. In addition, some social conditions, as having children and being widowed, seem to function in a few countries as suppressors of women's care use. Conclusions: Our study has shown that the gender difference in mental health care use, with women having a higher care use, is not a consistent European phenomenon and is dependent on the type of care provider, with greater gender inequity in the use of primary health care. The social roles adopted by men and women have in some countries on top of the mental health status a relevant influence on the greater tendency among women to contact a care provider. How the socioeconomic and family characteristics moderate the relation between gender and mental health care use is not straightforward and country dependent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work focuses on the duration of air connections in Europe and investigates the main factors affecting the probability that specific air routes survive over time. Socio-economic and geographical characteristics as well as modal competition, public subsidies and other airport/carrier-related factors are investigated. Moreover, we derive from our analysis the probabilities of connection dropouts to characterize European regions on the basis of their expected risks of increasing isolation. Our results might be of particular interest for policymakers and airport managers who intend to prevent their regions/airports from being affected by the negative consequences of increasing isolation. This is especially true in a context of expected increasing consolidation by major European network carriers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus, in many Western countries, there appears to be a considerable share of people questioning the existence and anthropogenic cause of climate change. Climate change disbelief includes the absolute rejection of the existence of anthropogenic climate change (climate change denial) as well as a lack of sureness about the anthropogenic cause of climate change (climate change uncertainty). Although considerable research on this phenomenon has been conducted, the roots of climate change disbelief are not yet fully understood. In this article, data from Round 8 of the European Social Survey are used to study the possible socioeconomic roots of climate change disbelief at the individual, regional, and country level. Results show that climate change denial is a marginal phenomenon among European populations but that a great share of people attributes climate change equally to human influences and natural processes. Thereby, it appears that the level of climate change disbelief varies between countries, and even more so between regions within countries. Results of various three-level multilevel models show that socioeconomic factors can partly explain this variation. Individuals who feel insecure about their economic future are significantly more likely to reject the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Furthermore, climate change denial and uncertainty are more common in more rural and less prosperous regions and in countries more economically dependent on fossil fuels. The results contribute to a deeper understanding of climate change disbelief among the European population and have important implications for climate change mitigation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the mid-1770s onwards there was a clear shift in perspective in the way European commentators looked at China, a subject that, especially in an era defined by Paul Hazard as the crisis of European consciousness, had long appealed to Western culture as both a cognitive and more generally an intellectual challenge. The contrast between sinophilic and sinophobic attitudes, which often characterized the evolution, even temporal, of the eighteenth-century perception of Chinese reality, cannot alone explain the shifts in interest and changes of opinion that occurred towards the end of the eighteenth century. What this contribution aims to highlight is how, in some key observers of and commentators on China between the end of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth century - from Adam Smith, Abbé Raynal and Denis Diderot, to Lord Macartney and John Barrow - one can detect perspectives and reflections that cannot be due to a simple descriptive register or to attempts at apologia or devaluation, but rather to approaches tending to include China in global comparative historical or socio-economic reasoning. And how, with that reasoning, the assumption of the superiority of the European model leads to China being seen no longer as a mere object of admiration or a source of inspiration, but as a new actor with a new role in global history. The discourse thus tends to take on, in various ways, prescriptive overtones, aimed at identifying the internal and external changes necessary for the part that, from a Western perspective, China could play in a connected world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite working life prolongation having been at the center of the policy agenda in Europe for the last two decades, organizations' engagement in formal age-management activities intended to strengthen older workers' motivation and work ability appears limited. Given policies to extend working lives, negotiated individualized work arrangements—often called idiosyncratic deals (I-deals)—can be an informal and complementary approach to formalized age-management practices, improving the person–job fit and helping older workers extend their working lives. Nevertheless, research on I-deals and retirement preferences remains scarce in the Nordic context, where collective agreements regulate conditions of employment and the employer–employee relationship. Using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling, this study examines five areas of I-deals (i.e. Task and Work Responsibilities , Workload Reduction , Schedule Flexibility , Location Flexibility , and Financial Incentives) and their relationships with retirement preferences among Swedish public-sector employees aged 55 years or older (n = 4,499). Findings show that I-deals are generally less prevalent among women and older employees, as well as among those with poor health, in lower socioeconomic positions, and with shorter organizational tenure. Regarding retirement preferences, we found Task and Work Responsibilities to be related to later preferred retirement age, while, surprisingly, the opposite was observed for Workload Reduction , probably because individuals who received workload reductions also reported poorer health. Comparatively, factors such as matching employees' competence, experience, and growth opportunities seem to be the most important for public-sector employees' retirement preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mobility of EU students and staff is threatened by Brexit, as the favourable conditions allowing for a frictionless cross-border academic learning and scientific research base are renegotiated at the highest political levels, including the pre-Brexit freedom of movement of persons and home fees for EU students. However, the UK higher education system is highly differentiated, and its hierarchical nature implies that criteria such as age, history, geographical location, economic resources, research activity, teaching quality, academic selectivity and socioeconomic student mix will have important ramifications when assessing the vulnerabilities of UK higher education institutions and the internationalisation of UK higher education should the UK leave the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to outline a theoretical framework for conceptualising higher education as a common good, as well as to reveal the empirical manifestations of this phenomenon. It argues that the extent to which higher education as a common good is accomplished in a given society/country reflects the accessibility, availability, and affordability of higher education, in addition to the commitment to this goal made by society and all its influential actors. Building on this conceptualisation and using data from various sources for 13 European countries, the authors develop a composite index which measures the extent to which higher education as a common good is implemented in a given country. The results indicate substantial cross-country differences, with Northern Europe scoring most highly. They also demonstrate that higher education as a common good is a complex phenomenon with differences within the country ranks, as well, depending on the varying dimensions considered. Finally, by applying cluster analysis, the article identifies four distinctive clusters of countries with regard to the accomplishment of higher education as a common good, designated as reality, feasible, ambiguous, and problematic. The index developed here can be used to assess the effectiveness of national policies in the sphere of higher education across Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This review focuses on the widening disparities in death rates by socioeconomic class. In recent years, there has been a major increase in the availability of data linking mortality risk and measures of socioeconomic status. The result has been a virtual explosion of new empirical research showing not only the existence of large inequities in the risk of death between those at the top and those at the bottom of the socioeconomic distribution, but also that the gaps have been growing. This assessment of the empirical research finds a consistent pattern of growing disparities within the United States. However, this widening gap in death rates does appear to be a uniquely American phenomenon, as the disparities by socioeconomic class appear to be stable or even declining in Europe and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on populist parties - or 'supply-side populism' more generally - are numerous. Nevertheless, the connection with demand-side dynamics, and particularly the populist characteristics or tendencies of the electorate, requires more scholarly attention. This article examines in more detail the conditions underlying the support for populist parties, and in particular the role of populist attitudes amongst citizens. It asks two core questions: (1) are populist party supporters characterised by stronger populist attitudes than other party supporters, and (2) to what extent do populist (and other) attitudes contribute to their party preference? The analysis uses fixed effect models and relies on a cross-sectional research design that uses unique survey data from 2015 and includes nine European countries. The results are threefold. First, in line with single-country studies, populist attitudes are prominent among supporters of left- and right-wing populist parties in particular. Second, populist attitudes are important predictors of populist party support in addition to left-wing socioeconomic issue positions for left-wing populist parties, and authoritarian and anti-immigration issue positions for right-wing populist parties. Third, populist attitudes moderate the effect of issue positions on the support for populist parties, particularly for individuals whose positions are further removed from the extreme ends of the economic or cultural policy scale. These findings suggest that strong populist attitudes may encourage some voters to support a populist party whose issue positions are incongruous with their own policy-related preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several health researchers have emphasised the effects of socio-economic factors on population health outcomes. Many studies have been demonstrating the relationship between socio-economic conditions and individual health, as they have stated that deprived population are more likely to have a higher rate of morbidity and mortality due to different diseases. This study examines the association between socioeconomic deprivation and health outcomes among the population from urban and rural communities in Ialomiţa County (Romania). The research is based on statistical and spatial analysis, using indicators related to socio-economic deprivation (economic status index, housing endowment index, education level index and) and indicators related to health outcomes. Preliminary results showed the expansion of deprived areas, overlapping areas with precarious population health, generally areas with high incidence of respiratory and digestive diseases, high mortality due to infectious diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on Europe, this article aims to disentangle the patterns of cultural clustering and to throw more light on concepts such as 'civilizations' and 'cultural zones.' Cross- cultural analyses unanimously find that various historical background and socioeconomic indicators are strongly correlated to societal values, however, a systematic investigation on what makes societal cultures similar and different hasn't been conducted. The author first outlines the factors and mechanisms that may explain value similarities, then the author tests their importance using dyadic data on 40 countries from the WVS. Multiple factors are associated to the cultural similarities: the historical background - i.e. countries' political-institutional traditions, religion, language, and imperial legacies - and also socio-economic development, geographical distance, European integration, and climatic differences. The substantial overlap among them, however, diminishes the absolute importance of any of the explanatory factors. The multiple determinants of value differences speak against a classification of national cultures into cultural zones based on single formative factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research estimates the impact of climate on European agriculture using a continental scale Ricardian analysis. Climate, soil, geography and regional socio-economic variables are matched with farm level data from 41,030 farms across Western Europe. We demonstrate that a median quantile regression outperforms OLS given farm level data. The results suggest that European farms are slightly more sensitive to warming than American farms with impacts from $$+$$ 5 to $$-$$ 32 % by 2100 depending on the climate scenario. Farms in Southern Europe are predicted to be particularly sensitive, suffering losses of $$-$$ 5 to $$-$$ 9 % per degree Celsius. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]