What is the role of external anchors in Latvia’s development strategy?

Policy brief by Alf Vanags, Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies, discusses what role external goals such as WTO accession, NATO and EU accession have played in Latvia’s development strategy since 1991. http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/the-political-economy-of-the…/ #Latvia #Development #Economy #FREEPolicyBrief #FREENetwork

Does pay-for-performance system increases the quality of health care?

Policy brief by Galina Besstremyannaya, Ph.D. and Lead Economist at the CEFIR, explains http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/pay-performance-quality-heal…/

Why do scientists move and why should we care?

In this policy brief, Ina Ganguli, Assistant Professor at the UMass Amherst, and Affiliated Researcher at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, provides an overview of new evidence on the determinants of mobility of scientists.

http://freepolicybriefs.org/2016/05/23/scientists-move-care/

Does product market competition cause capital constraints?

New FREE policy brief by Mikael Bergbrant, Assistant Professor at the St. John's University, Delroy M. Hunter, Serge Bonanni Professor of International Finance at the University of South Florida Muma College of Business, and Patrick J. Kelly, Ph.D, Associate Professor at the New Economic School. http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/product-market-competition-c…/

What is the impact of political turnover on economic performance in a context of weak institutions?

John S. Earle, Professor of Public Policy at the George Mason University, and Scott Gehlbach, Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, examine the behavior of over 7,000 enterprises before and after Ukraine’s Orange Revolution—a moment of largely unanticipated political turnover in a country with profoundly weak institutions.

Read more: http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/ukraines-orange-revolution-t…/ #Ukraine #Revolution #Institutions

What does Russia’s dependence on oil actually mean for policy makers’ ability to control the country's economy?

New FREE policy brief by Torbjörn Becker, Director of Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, on the depth of Russia’s oil dependence. http://freepolicybriefs.org/2016/10/31/russia-oil-control/

#FREEnetwork #FREEpolicybrief #Russia #NaturalResources #Oil

Meeting a growing global energy demand, and at the same time reducing CO2 emissions, cannot be achieved by practicing ‘business as usual’. It will require some fundamental changes in the way economic activity is organized.

Latest FREE policy brief on how new technologies will change energy markets by Chloe Le Coq, Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics and SITE, and Davis Plotnieks, Research Analyst at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE). http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/will-new-technologies-change…/

#FREEnetwork #FREEpolicybrief #energy #SITEenergyday #SITE

Does pay-for-performance system increases the quality of health care?

Galina Besstremyannaya, Lead Economist at CEFIR, by using the data on the 2013 reform in Medicare, has carried out research that sheds light on benchmarking within pay-for-performance schemes in health care. http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/pay-performance-quality-heal…/

#FREEPolicyBrief #FREEnetwork #PolicyBrief #Medicare #CEFIR #Economics

What is the equality of the wage distribution in Belarus, where wages make up to 60% of household income?

This policy brief summarizes the results of an analysis of wage inequality among the districts of Belarus over the period 2000-2015. http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/spatial-wage-inequality-bela…/

#FREENetwork #PolicyBrief #Economics #Belarus

How to increase the effectiveness of leniency to fight against cartels around the world?

New policy brief by Professor Giancarlo Spagnolo and Ph.D Candidate Reinaldo Diogo Luz explains http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/expanding-leniency-fight-col…/

#PolicyBrief #FREEnetwork #Corruption #Leniency

Russian defense spending has increased significantly in recent years and reached over 4 percent of GDP in 2015. But the macro economic realities for Russia have change dramatically since the original plans were drawn up in 2010.

How significantly the worsening of the economic outlook will affect Russia's spending priorities? Read the latest policy brief by Torbjörn Becker, Director of Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics and learn more: http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/russias-state-armament-plan-…/

#FREENetwork #FREEPolicyBriefs #Russia #RussianMilitary #Military

Why during the last decades fertility rates for highly educated women have risen?

Moshe Hazan, Associate Professor at the Tel-Aviv University, and Hozny Zoabi, Assistant Professor at the New Economic School, discusses why highly educated women no longer have fewer kids.

Read more: http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/highly-educated-women-no-lon…/

"Turkey is much closer to the median autocracy than the median democracy in terms of freedom of expression", explains Erik Meyersson, Assistant Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, in his policy brief on Turkey’s authoritarian turn.

Read more: http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/timing-turkeys-authoritarian…/

To what extent education directly influences major migration decisions?

Policy brief by Tom Coupé, Associate Professor at Kyiv School of Economics, and Ganna Vakhitova, Assistant Professor and Senior Economist at the Kyiv School of Economics, summarizes a large policy report investigating education and migration decisions.

Read more: http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/the-relationship-between-edu…/ #education #migration

Correct measurement of economic performance is difficult enough in peaceful times, but how to assess economic activity at times of military conflicts when data collection is far from a top priority?

This policy brief provides an alternative assessment of the economic situation in the war-affected East of Ukraine using measures based on satellite nighttime light intensity images.

Read more: http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/lights-went-measuring-econom…/ #Ukraine #Conflict #Economic #Performance #FREEPolicyBriefs #FREENetwork

Are natural resources good for development?

Read the most popular policy brief on resource curse written by Elena Paltseva, Assistant Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) and the New Economic School, and Jesper Roine, Deputy Director at SITE and Associate Professor at the Stockholm School of Economics.

http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/are-natural-resources-good-o…/

25 years have passed since the countries of the former Soviet Union embarked on a historic transition from communism to market economy and democracy.

All transition countries went through a turbulent initial period of high inflation and large output declines, but their economies and living standards today varies greatly. What are the explanations and are transition process complete?

Read the policy brief and learn more http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/traces-transition-unfinished…/

Across the world, economic diversification is associated with higher per-capita income. But how economic diversity of transition economies can be measured?

Policy brief by Arevik Gnutzmann-Mkrtchyan, Research Associate at BEROC, explains how Economic Complexity Index can be used to interpret economic development of transition economies. http://freepolicybriefs.org/…/economic-complexity-transiti…/

#PolicyBrief #FREENetwork #Research #Economics #Diversification #Exports #TransitionEconomies