Policy brief: Today’s political crisis in Belarus has given a rise to the phenomenon classified in political science as political illegitimacy. However, this is not a pure political phenomenon. It causes adverse and severe economic adjustments. In a short-term perspective, it gives a rise to numerous risks of financial destabilization. Moreover, it is likely to deepen the current recession and make it protracted. In the long-term, political illegitimacy causes adverse institutional adjustments and erosion of human capital, which is likely to lead a country into a long-standing depression.

What are the developments of gender gaps in the labour market and social norms related to labour market activity? Authors from BEROC, BICEPS, CenEA, CEFIR, ISET PI and SITE discuss change of labour markets in the latest FROGEE brief.

Last year marked an important milestone as the world celebrated the 30-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first post-communist election in Poland. Despite the latest developments, there is still a large democratic gap between transition countries that became EU members and other transition countries.

Russia’s oil dependence will once again contribute to an economic downturn that most certainly will follow the Covid-19 outbreak in Russia as in other countries. The decline in oil prices alone could lead to a drop in GDP of more than 8 percent. Will Russia face difficult trade-offs in dealing with the crisis at a time?

In a joint collaboration, Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics together with members of the FREE Network initiative are now providing coverage on the COVID-19 situation in the Eastern European region. What is the current situation in Belarus, Georgia, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and Ukraine?

Sweden is considered one of the most gender equal countries but the question remains whether there are still challenges when it comes to gender equality in Sweden. We interviewed Pamela Campa (Assistant Professor at SITE) where she shares her reflections on why there are still few women in power in Sweden.

Although significant growth has been achieved since 2000, all of this came in the first two tenures of Putin in the Kremlin during the increasing oil prices. But is Russia still a hostage to the whims of international oil market?

On December 16-17, 2019, the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics hosted the annual Academic Conference at the Stockholm School of Economics that brought together researchers and scholars in economics and political science from all over Europe and North America contributing to a better understanding of the political economy of Eastern Europe.