Ms Sun-Young Park (p)

This study examines how climate shocks reshape the timing of women's marriage in Nigeria, treating marriage as a two-sided market in which forces of delay and acceleration coexist. While the climate–marriage literature has focused on child marriage and on the bride's side alone, we ask how growing-season drought affects adult women's first marriage when a covariate shock reaches both the bride's and the groom's families.
Using four waves of the World Bank's LSMS-ISA Nigeria Panel (2010–2019; 26,186 person-years from 6,259 women) merged with high-resolution CHIRPS precipitation data, we estimate a discrete-time hazard model with two-way (individual × year) fixed effects. On balance, drought delays marriage: an additional growing-season drought month in the previous year lowers the annual marriage hazard by about eight to nine per cent, a result robust to placebo tests and to fixed- versus random-effects specifications. Decomposing marriage-market flows locates the adjustment on the bride's side—fewer daughters leave to marry, while the rate at which households take in brides is unchanged.
The net delay masks opposing forces: a fall in the local bride price and the unaffordability of the wedding push marriage back, while bride price as a coping asset, the collapse of a daughter's own farm income, and household vulnerability pull it forward in particular subgroups. These findings suggest that delayed marriage under drought should not be read as improved opportunity or empowerment, but as a marker of household hardship and disruption in a central social institution on which women's security depends.

Ms Noémi Annamária Vajdovich (p)

Homelessness became a significant social issue in Hungary following the political transition of 1989. People experiencing homelessness (PEH) face numerous diseases and disabilities in addition to housing insecurity, creating challenges not only for social services but also for the health care system. Their treatment often generates conflicts within public health care, while the professional background and regional distribution of specialised services remain incomplete.
The aim of this paper is to examine the health care utilisation of people experiencing homelessness in Hungary between 2015 and 2021, focusing on regional differences and the main characteristics of their health status. The study also examines the role and territorial distribution of specialised health care providers for people experiencing homelessness.
The research applies a mixed methodology, combining quantitative and qualitative approaches. The literature review provides an international overview, primarily focusing on Eastern-Central Europe, as well as summarises relevant Hungarian antecedents, and content analysis examines the legal interpretation of homeless status. Descriptive statistical analyses assess morbidity patterns, health service utilisation, and institutional data on specialised services.
The database of the National Health Insurance Fund of Hungary (NEAK) includes 11,857 registered homeless individuals entitled to health services during the study period, along with a fivefold control group (59,285 persons) matched by gender and age. Regional analysis covers settlement (LAU 2), county (NUTS 3), and national (NUTS 1) levels. Qualitative data derive from semi-structured interviews with experts (N = 7) and homeless individuals (N = 6), conducted in 2023–2024.
Results show that problems related to social security eligibility are the most decisive barriers to accessing health care. Treatment for PEH is often both a medical and social task. They frequently experience multiple co-occurring severe health conditions — including psychiatric and substance use disorders as well as infectious diseases — which constitute a high level of multimorbidity. Significant regional inequalities exist: specialised services are concentrated mainly in the capital and county seats, and access decreases with settlement size.
The findings support policy proposals aimed at improving health care access for people experiencing homelessness in Hungary.

Ms Ana-Maria Marcu (p), Ms Denisa Trășcan

Demographic transformations represent one of the major challenges facing European states in the 21st century, and Romania is confronted with a particular intensity of these phenomena: accelerated demographic decline, massive emigration, and structural aging — processes that have overlapped within a relatively short period. Declining fertility, the emigration of young populations, and increasing life expectancy have generated structural imbalances in the ratio between the active and dependent population, with direct implications for the financing of essential public services.

This study aims to evaluate the impact of depopulation and demographic aging on the functioning and sustainability of public services in Romania, by integrating classical econometric analysis with spatial statistics methods. The specific objectives focus on analyzing the evolution of the demographic dependency ratio and the aging index over the period 1990–2023, investigating the relationship between these indicators and per capita public expenditure on health and social services, testing for spatial autocorrelation, and estimating spatial regression models to capture regional interdependencies.

The methodology draws on a database aggregated at the NUTS 3 level, enabling the capture of territorial demographic and economic heterogeneity. The baseline econometric model is estimated using the OLS method, with verification of classical assumptions. The spatial dimension is analyzed through the GeoDa platform, employing Moran's I for global spatial autocorrelation and LISA for the identification of local High-High and Low-Low clusters.

The results are expected to confirm the presence of positive spatial autocorrelation in the demographic dependency ratio, with the formation of persistent regional clusters of aging and depopulation concentrated in rural areas of the North-East, South-West Oltenia, and South Muntenia regions. The econometric analysis is anticipated to reveal a positive and statistically significant relationship between demographic indicators and public expenditures, moderated by GDP per capita — with counties of lower economic development simultaneously facing an older population and more limited budgetary resources, a paradox of compound vulnerability.

The strategic relevance of the study lies in providing a rigorous empirical foundation for decisions regarding public resource allocation and social service planning, at both central and local levels, as well as for the optimal use of European structural and cohesion funds aimed at reducing regional disparities. The integration of econometrics with spatial statistics transcends the limitations of uniform national approaches and underscores the need for territorially differentiated public policies, grounded in the specific demographic realities of each region.