Location: Global
Higher Education and Research in War and Peace

On Saturday, September 10, the FREE Network together with the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA) and the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) will host a conference to discuss the importance of higher education and research in war and peace and how EU countries can support the transformation of societies on the road to EU accession.
The value of knowledge and how it is spread and used in any society cannot be overestimated. This is obvious to most in peace times when there is ample focus on modernization, innovation, and transformation of societies in a sustainable manner, where research and education are key inputs to these processes. But also in times of war and conflicts, education and research are important factors in the immediate war efforts as well as providing the foundation for a successful post-war transformation. In Ukraine today, despite Russia’s senseless war and atrocities in the country, the Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) and other educational and research institutions are making important contributions to its governments efforts to defend the country and provide hope for the future.
Conference
This event will provide an introduction to how the Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE Network) unite institutions in EU countries and Eastern Partnership countries to provide higher education, research, and policy analysis to the benefit of current and future generations of Europeans. It will also provide up-to-date accounts of how the Kyiv School of Economics and the academic community are fighting for Ukraine and the future of Europe.
Program
11.30-12.00 – Registration and coffee
12.00-13.30: Session I
- Welcome, Michal Myck, Director of CenEA
- FREE Network: Supporting Economics Education and Research in Central and Eastern Europe, Torbjörn Becker, Director of SITE
- Education and Research for Regional Development: International School of Economics in Tbilisi, Tamara Sulukhia, Director of ISET
- Times of Peace and Times of War: Development of the Kyiv School of Economics and its Response to the Russian Invasion, Nataliia Shapoval, Vice President for Policy Research at KSE
13.30-14.30 – Lunch
14.30-15.30: Session II
- EU Support for Education and Research – the case of the Warsaw School of Economics Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, Professor at WSE
- Education and Research Support from the Individual Member States: the Swedish Case Stefan Gullgren, Swedish Ambassador to Poland
- Higher Education in the Baltics, Anders Paalzow, Rector SSE Riga
15.30-16.00 – Coffee break
16.00-17.30: Panel Discussion—The role of Economics Education and Research in transforming societies
- Dzmitry Kruk, Deputy Academic Director, BEROC
- Nataliia Shapoval, Vice President for Policy Research at KSE
- Vlad Mykhnenko, Fellow, St. Peter’s College, University of Oxford
- Moderated by Tamara Sulukhia, Director of ISET
17.30 – Summary & closing
17.30-18.30 – Reception
Registration
The conference will take place at the Royal Castle (Concert Hall), Warsaw, Poland, and will be streamed online. For online access please register via the Trippus platform (here).
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Economic and Social Context of Domestic Violence: Research Shared at the 2022 FROGEE Conference

This brief summarizes the research papers presented at the 2022 FROGEE conference “Economic and Social Context of Domestic Violence”, which took place on May 11, 2022. It was organized by the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) together with the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA) and the FREE Network. Two additional briefs related to the conference are published on the FREE policy briefs website – a brief on gender-based violence in conflict based on the panel discussion, and another sharing preliminary results from the recent FROGEE survey.
While the concerns about domestic violence (DV) and intimate partner violence (IPV) have been gaining prominence since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, they were further exacerbated by the devastating events happening in Ukraine. Times of crisis or conflict makes the issue more severe, however, gender-based violence is sadly prevalent at normal times too, and a major portion of it is DV and IPV. Limiting violence towards women requires understanding the determinants of DV and IPV and the channels through which they take effect. With this in mind, the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) together with the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA) and the FREE Network invited researchers to present their work relating to the economic and social context of domestic violence. This brief provides an account of what was shared at the conference.
Prevention of Domestic Violence: What Works and What Doesn’t?
Three presented studies geared toward evaluating policies aimed to limit violence against women.
Dick Durevall shared his findings on IPV and national policy programs in Colombia, focusing on the laws and policies implemented based on the UN campaign “UNiTE to End Violence Against Women” between 2010 and 2015. To evaluate the effect of these policies, he adopts a differences-in-differences design and compares provinces that had a gender policy before this renewed effort with those that did not. This builds on the idea that provinces that had an IPV policy strategy before UN recommendations were adopted are more efficient in implementing new such policies. It is found that self-reported physical violence falls from 20% to 16% between 2010 and 2015 in provinces that had IPV policies while this number remained at 18% in those that did not. While sexual violence decreased in both groups, provinces with IPV policies experienced a stronger reduction.
Accurate reporting is a key issue when it comes to IPV since it makes up the foundation for designing effective policy. Due to long-lasting and tiresome judicial procedures, threats, social barriers, or emotional costs, victims might choose not to report. Looking at the introduction of specialized IPV courts in Spain, Marta Martínez-Matute presented her paper on how institutions shape reporting. Bestowed with specialized staff, victim-oriented resources, and a swifter judicial process, these courts are specifically designed to deal with IPV cases. Martínez-Matute and co-author investigate if these resources make women more prone to report IPV by exploiting the sequential rollout of specialized courts. They use yearly court-level data on individual IPV cases between 2005 and 2018 in a staggered difference-in-differences framework with matched control districts. The results show that the introduction of an IPV court in a judicial district reduces the length of the judiciary process by 61% and increases the reported number of IPV cases by 22%. Ensuring that this increase is not fully driven by a rise in false reports, it is found that the share of dismissed IPV cases remains unchanged. Further, it is shown that the increase is driven by less severe IPV cases and not aggravated IPV offenses or homicides.
A distinctive feature of DV crimes is that there is a high degree of recidivism, with many women experiencing repeated violence from the same partner. However, little is known about how police should respond to such crimes to ensure safety to those victimized. From one perspective police arrests deter repeated DV crimes since they incapacitate perpetrators and allow police to investigate while offering safety to victims. However, some argue that this safety is merely temporary and that DV arrests might trigger offenders to retaliate against victims, leading to increased long-term DV. Against this reasoning, Victoria Endl-Geyer presented a study on the relationship between police arrests and DV dynamics in the UK. It uses highly granular administrative data on the population of DV incidents in the West Midlands which allows the researchers to observe the detailed information on the incidents’ timing and location as well as on police officers and their crime scene responses. It adopts an instrumental variables approach using the dispatch team’s previous propensity to arrest (measured as the weighted average arrest rate of officers in the team) as an instrument. The results provide evidence consistent with a deterrence effect. While regular OLS estimates show an insignificant impact, the IV results indicate that an on-scene arrest decreases repeat DV incidents by 25-26 percentage points. They find that the effect is the same when restricting the sample to incidents reported by a third party, supporting that this effect is not driven by a change in reporting behavior.
Factors of Domestic Violence and its Mechanisms
Other studies presented at the conference focused less on policy assessment and more on identifying the determinants of IPV and DV.
Losing or obtaining a job causes a shock in the intra-relationship dynamics and changes the economic power balance between spouses. Deniz Sanin presented her paper on the DV effect of women’s employment in the context of Rwanda. Following the government-initiated National Coffee Strategy in 2002, the number of coffee mills in Rwanda increased from 5 to 213 over the course of ten years. This natural experiment allows studying the effect of having a paid job as it captures the shift from unpaid labor on a family farm to paid work on a mill, keeping job-related skills constant. Using survey data on both DV and labor market outcomes along with administrative data on DV hospitalizations, the study adopts a staggered difference-in-differences strategy and compares women before and after mill opening as well as within and outside of the catchment area (a buffer zone surrounding the mill). The results show that upon mill opening, the probability of working for cash increases and that of self-reporting domestic violence in the past 12 months decreases by 26% (relative to the baseline of 0.35). During the harvest months, the only period of the year in which the mills operate, hospitals are significantly less likely to admit DV patients compared to the month before the harvest season, suggesting that the initial results are not driven by reporting bias. Looking at the mechanisms, she finds evidence supporting an increased bargaining power explanation – women in catchment areas who are exposed to mill opening are more likely to have a bigger say in household decisions such as larger household purchases and contraception usage. Increases in husbands’ earnings and decreased exposure are also ruled out as possible channels since a decline in DV is also found among spouses where the husband works in a different occupation with no change in earnings.
Rather than studying the impact of women’s employment status, Cristina Clerici shared a related paper that focuses on male unemployment. To investigate its effect on IPV, the study exploits the exogenous shock to employment caused by COVID-19 containment measures in Uganda. The authors collect individual-level data via phone surveys on the incidence of IPV among food vendors, including information on husbands’ sector of employment. To identify a causal DV effect of male employment exit, the authors distinguish between two groups of women with similar pre-lockdown experiences of abuse: those with spouses employed in sectors where operations were halted by COVID-19 lockdowns (construction workers, taxi drivers, etc.) and those with spouses who were unaffected (food vendors, farmers, etc.). The results show that male unemployment increases the probability of experiencing physical violence by 4.9 percentage points, corresponding to a 45% increase relative to the average likelihood. The effect cannot be explained by increased exposure (the man being more at home) – affected and unaffected women spend on average an equal number of nights in the market, which could be used as a coping mechanism. This suggests it is the change in unemployment status itself that drives the increase in DV.
While most of the literature on domestic abuse has documented that its drivers often come from changing life conditions of the victim or perpetrator, there is broad anecdotal evidence that exogenous events can lead to exacerbations in domestic violence as well. Ria Ivandic presented her paper that documents a causal link between major football games and domestic violence in England. The authors use a dataset on the universe of calls and crimes in the Greater Manchester area. The data provides a time series on the incidence of different types of domestic abuse with information on the timing, relationship to the accused, and individual characteristics of the victim and perpetrator, including whether the perpetrator was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. They adopt an event study approach focusing on the hours surrounding a game and document a substitution effect in that the two-hour duration of a football game is associated with a 5% decline in DV incidents. However, following the game, the initial decrease is offset as DV incidents start increasing and culminate after 10-12 hours, eventually leading to an aggregate positive effect which constitutes a 2.8% hourly increase on days when games are played.
The authors argue that alcohol consumption, rather than emotions, is the main mechanism through which domestic violence is affected by sporting events. Supporting this hypothesis, they first find that the outcome of the game or the associated element of surprise (measured using the ex-ante probability of winning a game through betting markets) does not affect the probability of DV occurring. Second, they show that the increase in DV following a game is solely driven by an increase in alcohol-related DV incidents, while those committed by non-alcoholized men remain constant. Further strengthening this finding, it is shown that for games scheduled early in the day, when perpetrators can start drinking sooner and continue throughout the day, they find a significant increase in DV incidents committed by alcoholized perpetrators while this is not the case for late-scheduled games.
The Role of Women’s Empowerment
In the literature on gender-based violence, there is a common disposition to think about women’s empowerment as a central element of DV mitigation. However, theories point in opposite directions making the effect of women’s economic empowerment rather unclear. On one end of the spectrum, there are bargaining theories indicating that an increase in women’s employment opportunities or income should have a negative effect on DV by creating outside options or increasing the bargaining power in a relationship. At the other end, there are backslash theories arguing that enhancing women’s financial empowerment may further exacerbate violence by undermining the role of the breadwinner, triggering male partners to retaliate with the use of violence in order to restore the power balance. Going in the same direction, theories of instrumental violence point towards that the male partner might also use violence to extract resources.
In her keynote lecture, Bilge Erten outlined the evidence relating to DV and women’s empowerment and discussed to what extent and in which contexts these theories are supported.
The evidence of a positive or negative effect of empowerment may depend on which aspect of it is studied. Education is seen as an important one because it has the potential to raise women’s self-awareness of IPV, increase the likelihood of matching with a well-educated partner (which is negatively correlated to abusive behavior), and improve labor market outcomes. Although evidence is scarce in this area, Erten shared her own findings on the causal effect of education reform on IPV in Turkey. In line with instrumental violence theories, it is found that, while women in cohorts affected by the reform performed better in the labor market, they experienced more psychological violence and financial control behavior, and there was no sign of an effect on DV attitudes, partner-match quality or marriage decisions.
What we know about women’s empowerment and DV is also different across countries. When it comes to the effect of employment, findings from developed countries are generally consistent with bargaining theory explanations while what is found in the developing world is more mixed. This is also the case for studies on unilateral divorce laws – while a negative effect on IPV has been documented in the United States, a positive effect of these laws is found in Mexico.
Assessing the literature on the income effect leads to a somewhat ambiguous verdict too. Although generally, most studies confirm that overall violence declines with women’s income, there is often heterogeneity in the effect. It has for instance been found that the sign of the income effect from cash transfers on DV changes from negative to positive as the size of the transfer increases.
Finally, Erten provided some important policy considerations. There is evidently a widespread backlash problem that can arise after a policy intervention of the types discussed above. Policymakers need to think more about monitoring and protecting victims from more violence when implementing such a policy. Further research assessing post-intervention is also needed to identify interventions that are the most effective in minimizing domestic violence. In particular, a change in broad social norms around gender roles should be a desirable outcome, to the effect that a new, improved status of women in society and in the household becomes more culturally acceptable and needs not lead to backlash. In the case of expressive violence (that is not a rational, calculated response but rather a compulsion in the heat of the moment), mental health interventions should also be considered.
Concluding Remarks
As highlighted by the 2022 FROGEE conference, domestic violence not only has been put in the spotlight following the pandemic or the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, but is widespread across the globe in regular conditions too. The mixed findings shared at the conference suggested that policies limiting gender-based violence should be designed with respect to the cultural and social setting where they are to be implemented as the heterogeneity is very high across contexts. Although research has come a long way, the conference stressed that there is much more to be done, in terms of not only knowledge but also the political will and commitment to seriously address the issue of gender-based violence.
The presentations held at the conference can be viewed at this link and a separate policy brief based on the panel discussion on gender-based violence in times of conflict can be found here.
List of Speakers
- Cristina Clerici, Ph.D. Student in Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics.
- Dick Durevall, Professor at the Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg.
- Victoria Endl-Geyer, Doctoral Student at the IFO Institute.
- Bilge Erten, Associate Professor of Economics and International Affairs at the Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research at Northeastern University.
- Ria Ivandic, Associate Researcher at the London School of Economics.
- Marta Martínez-Matute, Assistant Professor at the Department of Economic Analysis at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
- Deniz Sanin, Ph.D. Candidate at Georgetown University.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in policy briefs and other publications are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Gender-Based Violence in Conflict

The eruption of war exposes women to increased gender-based violence, in the immediate conflict area as well as in the countries where they seek refuge. Acknowledging the specific conflict-related risks that women face is important, in order to target interventions, especially considering that the actors that sit at peace negotiation tables are predominantly or exclusively men. In this policy brief, we discuss the implications of conflict for gender-based violence, with a special focus on the ongoing war in Ukraine. We also outline some policy interventions that might help mitigate the risks that women face, holding those responsible to account, and building a more gender-equal society from the reconstruction efforts. Our discussion draws from existing academic literature and inputs from the special panel session on conflict during the FROGEE conference “Economic and Social Context of Domestic Violence”.
Gender-Based Violence During Conflicts
During war, as in peacetime, women are exposed to different forms of violence, and to a different extent, as compared to men. In other words, there are gender-specific aspects of conflict-related violence, both in immediate conflict areas and in the places where affected populations might seek refuge.
One form of violence against women in conflict areas is sexual violence and rapes perpetrated by combatants. Scholars and policy analysts tend to portray this violence as a weapon of war (Eriksson and Stern, 2013), meaning that it is a way of humiliating and demoralizing the enemy as individuals and as communities. Differently put, the narrative that portrays sexual violence as, for instance, the consequence of unmet sexual needs among soldiers is increasingly less accepted. Sexual violence against women perpetrated by armed forces in conflict areas is tragically prevalent. While proper quantification of the phenomenon is hard for obvious reasons, it is estimated for example that at least 500,000 women were raped during the Rwandan genocide, and 50,000 during the war in Bosnia (Guarnieri and Tur-Prats, 2022).
Another form of gender-based violence in conflict is that women who are uprooted by war tend to confront a high risk of sexual violence during their journey away from home and in the places where they seek refuge. Vu et al. (2014) estimate, through meta-analysis, that approximately one in five refugees or displaced women in complex humanitarian settings experienced sexual violence. The study also highlights the need for more data to shed light on the characteristics of perpetrators. The presence of aid workers among them appears to persist through several humanitarian crises (Reis, 2021).
Further, women and children fleeing war areas are vulnerable to the risk of trafficking and exploitation for sexual or other work (as highlighted in the FROGEE conference panel). Traffickers and criminal organizations tend to exploit the combination of a mass movement of people in precarious economic situations and the decreased scrutiny generated by the humanitarian emergency.
Finally, war heightens the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) in conflict areas as well as among refugees and displaced individuals, by causing stress, trauma, economic hardship and increased substance abuse, all of which lead to deterioration in mental health and the quality of relationships (Conference panel). An actual or perceived sense of impunity can also undermine victims’ propensity to report IPV at such a time. A systematic review of the published literature on gender-based violence in conflict finds that estimated rates of IPV across most studies are much higher than the rates of rape and sexual violence perpetrated outside the home (Stark and Ager, 2011).
The consequences of conflict on IPV can be long-lasting. Evidence from post-genocide Rwanda shows that women who married after the conflict were more likely to be victims of spousal abuse; skewed sex ratios that reduced women’s bargaining power in the marriage market appear to be the relevant channel (La Mattina 2017). Another important factor is posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans: a study of US military personnel shows that assignment to combat in the Global War on Terrorism is associated with higher incidence of domestic violence and lower relationship quality (Cesur and Sabia, 2016). The increased availability of small weapons can also lead to more frequent or more violent instances of domestic abuse (Conference panel).
The War in Ukraine
Reports from the US State Department and Amnesty international document episodes of sexual violence from armed conflict actors in Donetsk and Luhansk since the start of the conflict in 2014 (Amnesty International, 2020). Both Russian and Ukrainian military were involved, speaking to the tragedy that the population close to the “contact area” have witnessed since 2014.
At present, growing evidence is emerging that Ukrainians, especially but not exclusively women and girls, are victims of rape, gang-rape and forced nudity perpetrated by Russian military troops invading the country (United Nations). It is notoriously difficult to collect and verify data and facts on sexual violence during wartime, but these early accounts, and the experience from previous conflicts, call for a high level of scrutiny and readiness to help. Research also suggests some potential factors that aggravate the prevalence of sexual violence in conflict. Guarnieri and Tur-Prats (2020) show that armed actors who hold more gender-unequal norms are more likely to be perpetrators of sexual violence, and that the incidence of sexual violence is highest when the parts in conflict hold gender norms that differ substantially (Guarnieri and Tur-Prats, 2022). Survey data show that the share of people who appear to hold gender-unequal norms in Russia remained high over the years, based on questions on the effectiveness of women and men as political or business leaders (Figures 1 and 2), or the desirability of women earning more than their husbands (not shown).
Figure 1. Men make better political leaders than women do, % agreement

Source: World Value Survey
Figure 2. Men make better business executives than women do, % agreement

Source: World Value Survey
Evidence on the evolution of norms in Ukraine is more mixed (see Figures 1 and 2). All in all, surveys of gender-role attitudes suggest that gender stereotypes persist in Russian society, but it is not obvious that the prevailing gender norms are starkly different between Russia and Ukraine. On the other hand, attitudes toward IPV in the two countries might be evolving differently, at least among the respective elites, based on the fact that legislation on domestic violence recently changed in opposite direction in the two countries. Specifically, Russia decriminalized minor forms of domestic violence in early 2017. Conversely, Ukraine strengthened the legal response to domestic violence in early 2019, in particular making minor but systematic domestic violence criminally punishable, and extending criminal punishment beyond physical violence to include emotional and economic violence.
As a consequence of the war, almost 13 million Ukrainians have left their homes since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022, according to the United Nations. Almost all of them are women and children, since men and boys aged 18 to 60 are required to stay in Ukraine to defend the country. Women traveling alone with their children, especially when fleeing to foreign countries where they often have no connections, are clearly at risk of assault and exploitation. Such risk is heightened by the exceptional speed of the refugee influx, whereby an impromptu response from the host countries is by necessity reliant on individual independent participation. Private hosts have spontaneously been opening their homes to accommodate for days or even weeks Ukrainians fleeing the war. Proper vetting of these offers is made difficult by the sheer number of people who are being welcomed in bordering countries, for instance Poland, as well as by the exceptional response from private individuals. Within a little more than a month from the start of this crisis there had already been a few episodes of sexual violence against Ukrainian refugees in their host countries (specifically in Poland and Germany).
While the current death toll in the war in Ukraine is unlikely to lead to dramatically skewed sex-ratios, this aspect might become more relevant as events evolve, in light also of the fact that nearly the universe of those who fled the country so far consists of women and children.
Finally, in the post-conflict period, the presence of small weapons, which have been made available to civilians to defend the country, is an additional risk factor for IPV (Conference panel).
What Can Be Done?
Academics, international organizations, activists and female politicians from Ukraine have made specific requests to improve the system of protection and accountability in the face of sexual violence against women living in or fleeing from conflict zones. These suggestions include ensuring that the system of transitional justice that will govern the post-conflict period establishes proper investigation and punishment of every form of sexual violence performed by armed actors during the war. To this end, some steps have already been taken. The UN Resolution in favor of the creation of an International Commission of Inquiry refers explicitly to the need to recognize the gender dimension of violations and abuses.
Beyond the horizon of the war, the safety of Ukrainian women in their homes relies on the protection offered by State legislation against domestic violence. In this respect, the Ukrainian government has recently taken a few measures in what the international community deems to be the “right direction”. A very important reform taken in the summer of 2021 allows for the military to be prosecuted for domestic violence on a general basis rather than on the basis of the disciplinary statute as it was before. This is especially important in light of the findings of increased risk of domestic violence in families of veterans (Cesur and Sabia, 2016). However, some critical aspects remain. In the current context, a crucial factor might be the limit of 6 months to prosecute the crime from the occurrence of the violence. An extension of such a period at a time when the normal functioning of many institutions is suspended or subject to delays can attenuate the perception of impunity that the exceptionality of the circumstances creates.
When it comes to refugees, there is as mentioned a need for better vetting of private hosts, although the urgency of action that the current circumstances require makes this a particularly challenging task. State effort in this direction has been complemented by civil society initiatives. For example, in Sweden, Facebook groups that lined up to coordinate the offer of housing are now organizing themselves to create a system for verifying housing and hosts.
Ukrainian politicians have also asked Western countries to be prepared to offer expertise on how to support survivors of rape and other sexual violence in conflict.
Other experts recommend reliance on cultural and linguistic mediators to help refugee women access services for victims of IPV that are already offered by local actors in their temporary host country (Conference panel).
In the longer term, guaranteeing economic safety for refugees is also an effective measure to reduce their vulnerability to exploitation from sex-traffickers and criminal organizations.
Finally, yet importantly, the involvement of women in peace negotiation processes should be sought after. Echoing the discussion on women’s scarcity in leadership positions in peacetime, the gender-unequal composition of peace delegations poses an issue of equality, representativeness, and efficiency (Bertrand 2018). Interestingly, it has been noted that a more truthful narrative of war, which recognizes women’s role not only as victims but also as perpetrators (and the converse for men, although proportions are clearly unbalanced in both cases), might help pave the way for higher female representation at negotiation tables (Conference panel). Relatedly, the European Institute for Gender Equality proposes gender mainstreaming of all policies and programs involved in conflict resolution processes (EIGE). The international community should also consider gender mainstreaming of reconstruction programs, to help build a more gender-equal post-conflict Ukraine.
References
- Amnesty International. (2020). Not a Private Matter. Domestic and Sexual Violence against Women in Eastern Ukraine.
- Baaz, M. E., and Stern, M. (2013). Sexual violence as a weapon of war?: Perceptions, prescriptions, problems in the Congo and beyond. Bloomsbury Publishing.
- Bertrand, M. (2018). Coase lecture–the glass ceiling. Economica, 85(338), 205-231.
- Cesur, R., and Sabia, J. J. (2016). When war comes home: The effect of combat service on domestic violence. Review of Economics and Statistics, 98(2), 209-225.
- Guarnieri, E., and Tur-Prats, A. (2022). Cultural distance and conflict-related sexual violence. Mimeo
- Reis, C. (2021). Sexual abuse during humanitarian operations still happens. What must be done to end it. The Conversation, October 5 2021. https://theconversation.com/sexual-abuse-during-humanitarian-operations-still-happens-what-must-be-done-to-end-it-169223
- Stark, L. and Ager, A. (2011). A systematic review of prevalence studies of gender-based violence in complex emergencies. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 12(3), pp.127-134.
- Vu, A., Adam, A., Wirtz, A., Pham, K., Rubenstein, L., Glass, N., Beyrer, C. and Singh, S. (2014). The prevalence of sexual violence among female refugees in complex humanitarian emergencies: a systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS currents, 6.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in policy briefs and other publications are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
(Ce)2 Workshop

The (Ce)² workshop is a joint initiative of the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA, Poland) and the Centre for Microdata Methods and Practice (CeMMAP, UK). The seventh edition of the workshop will take place in Warsaw on 27-28 June 2022.
The 2022 keynote lectures in the Lecture Series in Honour of Leonid Hurwicz will be given by:
- Professor Anna Aizer (Brown University)
- Professor Daniel Hamermesh (the University of Texas at Austin and IZA Bonn).
In light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences, we issue a modified Call for Papers. The workshop will feature sessions on forced migration which will be organised in cooperation with migration experts from the University of Warsaw. We extend the list of fields from which we welcome studies to the following:
- Human capital development
- Intergenerational mobility
- Poverty alleviation
- Discrimination and inequality
- Domestic violence
- Forced migration
- Internal displacement
Program
The preliminary programme can be found here. There is no conference fee but participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation costs.
Only full papers will be considered (early versions are welcome). Authors will have 50 minutes for their presentation and they will be expected to discuss another paper presented at the workshop. The total number of presentations will not exceed 20.
The call for the poster session is now open for submissions.
The call for papers issued for the workshop can be found here.
WIEM 2022
Participants of the (Ce)2 Workshop are also encouraged to take part in the XVII Warsaw International Economic Meeting (WIEM) on 28-30 June 2022, as presenters or audience members. The Hurwicz keynote lectures, held on the afternoon of June 28, will also serve as the opening event for WIEM.
The 2022 (Ce)² Workshop is organised as an initiative of the FREE Network and is supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Development Economics Conference 2022

The Centre for Economic and Policy Centre (CEPR) symposium of the Development Economics program will be hosted by the Stockholm School of Economics on Thursday 19 May and Friday 20 May 2022. The conference is organised by Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (Misum), Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) and CEPR.
The conference will cover topics within the research field of Development Economics and will combine presentations of academic papers and contributions from researchers around the world.
Scientific Organisers
- Martina Björkman Nyqvist (Stockholm School of Economics, Misum and CEPR)
- Eliana La Ferrara (Bocconi University, LEAP and CEPR)
- David McKenzie (The World Bank and CEPR)
- Anders Olofsgård (Stockholm School of Economics and SITE)
- Abhijeet Singh (Stockholm School of Economics)
Please note: This is a closed conference for invited guests only.
Program
Thursday, 19 May 2022 |
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8:30-9:00 | Registration and coffee at Stockholm School of Economics | ||
9:00-9:05 | Welcome:
Eliana La Ferrara, Bocconi University, LEAP and CEPR |
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Session 1 |
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Chair: Eliana La Ferrara, Bocconi University, LEAP and CEPR | |||
9:05-9:55 | Land Rental Markets: Experimental Evidence from Kenya
Jack Willis, Columbia University and CEPR (joint with Michelle Acampora and Lorenzo Casaburi) |
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9:55-10:45 | Time is Not Money: An Experiment with Community Contribution Requirements in Cash and Labour
Anna Tompsett, Stockholm University (joint with Serena Cocciolo, Selene Ghisolfi, and Md. Ahasan Habib) |
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10:45-11:00 | Coffee break | ||
Session 2 |
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Chair: Jonathan Lehne, SITE and MISUM | |||
11:00-11:50 | Financial Incentives in Multi-layered Organizations: An Experiment in the Public Sector
Erika Deserranno, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and CEPR (joint with Stefano Caria, Philipp Kastrau, Gianmarco León-Ciliotta) |
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11:50-12:40 | Modernizing the State During War: Experimental Evidence from Afghanistan
Stefano Fiorin, Bocconi University and CEPR (joint with Joshua Blumenstock, Michael Callen, Anastasiia Faikina, and Tarek Ghani) |
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12:40-14:00 | Lunch at Stockholm School of Economics | ||
Session 3 |
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Chair: Pamela Campa, SITE, CEPR and MISUM | |||
14:00-14:50 | Terms of Engagement: Migration, Dowry, and Love in Indian Marriages
Rossella Calvi, Rice University and CEPR (joint with Andrew Beauchamp and Scott Fulford) |
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14:50-15:40 | Learning to See the World’s Opportunities: The Impact of Imagery on Entrepreneurial Success
Alexia Delfino, Bocconi University and CEPR (joint with Nava Ashraf, Gharad Bryan, Emily Holmes, Leonardo Iacovone, and Ashley Pople) |
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15:40-16:00 | Coffee break | ||
Session 4 |
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Chair: Anders Olofsgård, SITE and MISUM | |||
16:00-16:25 | *The Long-Run Effects of Psychotherapy on Depression, Beliefs, and Economic Outcomes
Jonathan de Quidt and CEPR, Institute for International Economic Studies (joint with Bhargav Bhat, Johannes Haushofer, Vikram Patel, Gautam Rao, Frank Schilbach, and Pierre-Luc Vautrey) |
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16:25-16:50 | *Informing Risky Migration: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Guinea
Giacomo Battiston, Free University of Bolzano-Bozen and LEAP (joint with Lucia Corno, Eliana La Ferrara) |
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16:50:17:15 | *Artisanal Gold Mining in Africa
Victoire Girard, Nova SBE (joint with Teresa Molina-Millan and Guillaume Vic) |
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17:15-17:40 | *Production Networks and War
Alexey Makarin, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance and CEPR (joint with Vasily Korovkin) |
Friday, 20 May 2022
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Session 1 |
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Chair: David McKenzie, World Bank and CEPR | |||
09:30-10:20 | Regulation by Reputation? Intermediaries, Labor Abuses, and International Migration
A. Nilesh Fernando, University of Notre Dame (joint with Niharika Singh) |
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10:20-11:10 | Rural-Urban Migration, Informality and Firm Dynamics
Gabriel Ulyssea, University College London (joint with Clement Imbert) |
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11:10-11:30 | Coffee break | ||
Session 2 |
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Chair: Abhijeet Singh, SSE and MISUM | |||
11:30-11:55 | *Improving Parenting Practices for Early Child Development: Experimental Evidence from Rwanda
Marinella Leone, Università degli Studi di Pavia (joint with Patricia Justino, Marinella Leone, Pierfrancesco Rolla, Monique Abimpaye, Caroline Dusabe, Marie Uwamahoro, and Richard Germond) |
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11:55:12:45 | Childcare, Labor Supply, and Business Development: Experimental Evidence from Uganda
Selim Gulesci, Trinity College Dublin (joint with Kjetil Bjorvatn, Denise Ferris, Arne Nasgowitz, Vincent Somville, and Lore Vandewalle) |
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12:45-13:10 | *Parents’ Effective Time Endowment and Divorce: Evidence from Extended School Days
Cecilia Peluffo, University of Florida (jont with Marıa Padilla-Romo and Mariana Viollaz) |
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13:10-14:10 | Lunch at Stockholm School of Economics | ||
Session 3 |
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Chair: Martina Björkman Nyqvist, SSE, MISUM, and CEPR | |||
14:10-14:35 | *The Bright Side of Discretion in Public Procurement
Dimas Fazio, National University of Singapore |
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14:35-15:00 | *Information Systems, Service Delivery, and Corruption: Evidence From the Bangladesh Civil Service
Martin Mattsson, National University of Singapore |
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Economic and Social Context of Domestic Violence

While the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified the academic and policy interest in the causes and consequences of domestic violence, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has tragically spotlighted the gender dimension of war. Against this background, the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) together with the Centre for Economic Analysis (CenEA) and the FREE Network invite to join the hybrid conference “Economic and social context of domestic violence”.
Dimensions of Gender-based Violence in Military Conflicts
The conference will take place on 11 May 2022 with a special panel session on “Dimensions of gender-based violence in military conflicts”. Rigorous analysis is needed for understanding not only the scale of domestic and gender-based violence in extraordinary circumstances – such as the pandemic or war – but also their broader socio-economic determinants in regular times, how they are perceived and what policies and regulations can limit their incidence.
Program
The conference will combine presentations of academic papers and contributions from policy makers. The keynote address will be given by Professor Bilge Erten (Northeastern University) and the conference is planned as a hybrid event with several sessions held at the Stockholm School of Economics in Stockholm, Sweden (SSE).
Registration
If you are planning to join the conference online via Zoom please follow the link (click here) to register. The Zoom link and passcode will be sent to your registered email account upon completing the registration form accordingly. Make sure to check your inbox or/and junk mail.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
#AcademicsStandWithUkraine

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.
The FREE Network has an extensive history of building networks and partnerships with leading academic experts on economic issues in Central and Eastern Europe and emerging markets.
The FREE Network invites academics from the region and beyond to express their solidarity with the Ukrainian people, academics, educators, and students suffering from Russia’s invasion into the democratic nation of Ukraine.
To speak out on Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, please use the hashtag #AcademicsStandWithUkraine.
Donations for humanitarian aid are organized by the Kyiv School of Economics, a member of the FREE Network.
Data Science for Justice: Evidence from a Randomized Judicial Reform in the Kenyan Judiciary

Can data science be used to improve the functioning of courts, and unlock the positive effects of institutions on economic development? Join SITE Brown Bag Seminar with Daniel Chen, Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics, on 29 March 2022.
Data Science for Justice
In a nationwide randomized experiment in Kenyan courts, authors develop and implement an algorithm that uses data regularly captured by administrative systems, identifies for each court their main sources of delay, and provides court-specific actionable recommendations on how to increase performance. Authors find that this intervention reduces delays, especially when the information is also shared with court user committees that include representatives from civil society, lawyers, and police. Authors find downstream economic effects of court speed, especially on contract-intensive industries.
Daniel Chen, Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics
Daniel Li Chen is the Lead Principal Investigator, DE JURE (Data and Evidence for Justice Reform) at the World Bank, Director of Research at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Collaborator at Harvard Medical School, advisor at NYU Courant Institute for Mathematics Center for Data Science.
He is the founder of oTree Open Source Research Foundation and Data Science Justice Collaboratory and co-founder of Justice Innovation Lab. Chen was previously Chair of Law and Economics at ETH and tenure-track assistant professor in Law (primary), Economics, and Public Policy at Duke University.
Daniel Li Chen received his BA and MS from Harvard University in Applied Mathematics and Economics; Economics PhD from MIT; and JD from Harvard Law School. He has attained prominence through the development of open source tools to study human behavior and through large-scale empirical studies — data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning — on the relationship between law, social norms and the enforcement of legal norms, and on judicial systems.
Register for the Seminar
The link to the seminar will be distributed by invitation only. If you are interested to attend the seminar – please contact site@hhs.se. Follow the instructions below: Type the subject box with “Brown bag seminar *INSERT SEMINAR TITLE*” Indicate your affiliation and field of interest. For registered applicants, a Zoom link will be provided prior to the event via email with further instructions.
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events, seminars and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Russian Oil and Gas: What to Expect?

For decades Russian oil and gas have been an essential part of European energy imports. But due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, oil and gas toward the west will be sharply curtailed or even stopped, by an initiative of either party.
How oil and gas flow reduction can affect global energy markets? And how big a problem is it for the EU and Russia?
Experts discussed what the Russian oil and gas flow reduction means for global markets
- Julius Andersson, Assistant Professor at the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE)
- Chloé Le Coq, Professor at the Université Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas and Research Fellow at SITE,
- Sergej Gubin, Research Fellow at BICEPS, and
- Paweł Wróbel, Managing Director of the BalticWind.EU
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events, seminars and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.
Fleeing the War Zone: Will Open Hearts be Enough?

The invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine has resulted in the loss of lives and destruction of infrastructure and has forced millions to flee from the war zone.
By March 14th 2022 over 2,8 million people have found refuge outside of Ukraine and many more have been displaced within its borders. The UNHCR estimates the total number of those forced to flee Ukraine may grow to 4 million.
Program
On March 14, 2022 experts from Ukraine, Sweden and Poland discussed the consequences of the invasion for the Ukrainian population.
- Maciej Duszczyk (University of Warsaw)
- Hanna Vakhitova (Kyiv School of Economics)
- Jesper Roine (Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics)
- Annika Sunden, (Migration Studies Delegation)
- Moderated by Michal Myck (Centre for Economic Analysis)
Disclaimer: Opinions expressed during events, seminars and conferences are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect those of the FREE Network and its research institutes.