Alina Sorgner (p), Eckhardt Bode

Caoimhe Dempsey

Older societies tend to have lower levels of new business formation, a key source of economic growth and innovation (Lamotte and Colovic 2013; Liang et al. 2018). Population ageing is a global megatrend that might therefore depress economic prosperity in the long run. Under what conditions can entrepreneurship be promoted in ageing societies? To answer this question, we focus on the role of institutions and culture in moderating the relationship between demographics and entrepreneurship. Previous literature has demonstrated that institutions (both formal, such as laws and regulations, and informal, such as social norms and values) are important determinants of entrepreneurship (Baumol 1990; van Stel et al. 2007; Lusardi 2008; Singh and DeNoble 2003). At the same time, institutions and culture may affect opportunities for individuals of different age to accumulate entrepreneurship-relevant human, social, and financial capital. For instance, in older societies, younger workers may have restricted access to managerial jobs if a higher fraction of these jobs is blocked by older workers, which may vary depending on a country’s institutional setting. We empirically assess how a country’s institutional framework moderates the relationship between demographics and entrepreneurship in the EU countries by drawing on several established data sources, such as the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM), the World Bank database (e.g., the Doing of Business index) as well as the European and the World Values Survey (EVS, WVS) containing data on social norms and cultural values.

Daria Denti (p), Simona Iammarino

Alina Sorgner

Do spatial socioeconomic features influence firms’ demand for forced labour also in places where it is illegal and socially unacceptable? We aim at providing an answer to this question through a quantitative estimation of the community-level socioeconomic risk factors associated to forced-labour episodes in Italy. We exploit a novel database of geo-tagged episodes of forced labour across Italian local labour market areas between 2016 and 2021, which we merge with administrative data on the socioeconomic outlook of places and historical data on the geography of Italian firms. We find that firm-side local features are strong predictors of forced labour, while the local availability of migrants and social capital characteristics are not. Instrumental variable estimation supports the validity of findings. The paper provides for the demand-side as related to forced labour rather than the supply-side in the Italian case.

Agnieszka Olechnicka (p), Adam Ploszaj

Daria Denti

The paper investigates the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on universities in the regions neighbouring Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, examining how geopolitical challenges have affected existing inequalities in higher education and science. The study addresses a research gap by focusing on the war's impact on universities in European countries bordering Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, i.e., Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Moldova. The methodology relies on in-depth interviews and a subsequent survey targeting corresponding authors of scientific articles affiliated with these countries' institutions. Preliminary findings reveal varying impacts on research and teaching activities across institutions, with positive effects observed in areas neighbouring Ukraine and adverse outcomes in regions bordering Russia and Belarus. The study identifies other factors modifying the impact of war, such as the strength and importance of collaboration with Eastern scientific partners, the dependence of scholars and institutions on such collaboration, experience in providing education opportunities for international students, and the strategic orientation of the specific university or the specificity of the represented scientific disciplines. The paper presents the initial results of the ongoing study. The finalisation of the in-depth analysis of survey results is needed to validate the hypothesis on existing inequalities among universities regarding the scale and dimension of the impact of the war in Ukraine on their functions.

Caoimhe Dempsey (p), Keyu Ye, Selina McCoy

Agnieszka Olechnicka

Student’s academic trajectories indicate both social class and spatial differences, and narrowing these inequalities requires an understanding of malleable social and environmental factors that make a difference for students. One potential area to target is academic expectations from parents and teachers, which show significant associations with student educational outcomes (Agger et al., 2018; Byun et al., 2012). This study draws on five waves of the Growing Up in Ireland cohort study (9, 13, 17 and 20 years) which repeatedly measures parent and teacher academic expectations and student’s achievement, academic self-concepts and eventual higher education choices. Using cross-lagged autoregressive models, our study has three aims. (1) Track the development of parent and teacher academic expectations and examine differences in mean levels and temporal changes across levels of family income, parent education and spatial regions. (2) Examine concurrent and longitudinal associations between parent and teacher academic expectations and student’s academic achievement, self-concepts and HE choices. Compare differences in the relative salience of these effects across levels of family income, parent education and spatial regions. (3) Examine the importance of exposure to information from online educational resources and school guidance counsellors plays for student’s HE choices across levels of family income, parent education and spatial regions. While set in the Irish context, the study had relevance internationally in understanding the interplay of parental and teacher expectations, resources and information in shaping educational outcomes like higher education entry and in identifying policy mechanisms to address spatial and socio-economic inequalities in such educational opportunities.