Academic human capital in European countries and regions, 1200–1793

The article aims to explore the development of differences in the accumulation of human capital in European regions. Specifically, we analyze the human capital accumulation of recent school leavers through data on the average number of years of education in NUTS2 regions of Europe between 2000 and 2020. The results of the decomposition of Theil's T index point to a reduction in regional disparities in human capital in Europe. However, this is the result of reducing disparities between countries rather than between regions within countries. In Central and Eastern Europe, the increase in human capital has been linked to an increase in intra-regional disparities due to the concentration of educated young graduates in the capital regions. The results show that the uneven accumulation of human capital in the regions of Central and Eastern Europe will be an important determinant of the development of regional disparities in the future.

An increasing number of studies have examined fertility variation at the regional level within countries, but this research has largely focused on women. As a result, our knowledge of regional variation in male fertility remains limited. The current study addresses this research gap by examining how the timing and chances of parenthood vary regionally for women and men in four countries in Northern and Western Europe. We hypothesize that gender differences in first‐time parenthood may be less pronounced in urban centers, such as the capital regions, and especially among groups with higher levels of education. The study is based on data collected from female and male cohorts born between 1963 and 1970 in Finland, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The results largely support our hypotheses, indicating that differences in the age at first birth and in the share of parents between capital and other regions are less pronounced among men than among women in all countries except the Netherlands. Consequently, there are smaller gender differences in first‐time parenthood in capital regions across three of the four countries. Furthermore, highly educated women and men living in capital regions are most similar in terms of their age at first birth and the share of parents.

An increasing number of studies have examined fertility variation at the regional level within countries, but this research has largely focused on women. As a result, our knowledge of regional variation in male fertility remains limited. The current study addresses this research gap by examining how the timing and chances of parenthood vary regionally for women and men in four countries in Northern and Western Europe. We hypothesise that men may be subject to less regional variation in their first births than women, and that gender differences in first births may be less pronounced in urban centres, such as the capital regions, and especially among groups with higher levels of education. The study is based on data collected from female and male cohorts born between 1963 and 1970 in Finland, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden. The results broadly support our hypotheses: men show modestly smaller differences in the timing and chances of first parenthood between capital and other regions than women, and consequently smaller gender differences in first parenthood exist in capital regions in all countries except the Netherlands. Moreover, highly educated women and men living in the capital regions have the most similar timing and chances of entering parenthood.

Человеческий капитал - нематериальное понятие, поэтому его сложно описать с точки зрения статистической науки. Однако, исходя из его определения, человеческий капитал всётаки возможно оценить, так как в конечном итоге, его величина может быть выражена неким подобием функции статистических показателей. При этом нужно будет учитывать не только фактическое значение показателей, характеризующих человеческий капитал напрямую, но и показатели, положительно или отрицательно влияющие на реализацию человеческого капитала. Цель настоящего исследования заключается в подборе статистических показателей для системы оценки развития человеческого капитала регионов России, а также для оценки его роли в развитии экономики регионов. Принципиальным отличием от работ других авторов является чёткое разделение показателей на три типа: определяющих непосредственную величину человеческого капитала в регионах; положительно влияющие на его развитие; затрудняющие развитие человеческого капитала. В качестве основных результатов можно назвать следующее: выбрана предпочтительная единица измерения человеческого капитала, сделаны оценки человеческого капитала регионов. Также выделены важнейшие условия развития или, напротив, препятствующие реализации человеческого капитала в каждом регионе России. Результаты исследования могут быть полезны при дальнейших разработках более точных оценок величины человеческого капитала в регионах. Human capital is an intangible concept, so it is difficult to describe it from the point of view of statistical science. However, based on its definition, it is still possible to evaluate human capital, since in the end, its value can be expressed by a kind of function of statistical indicators. At the same time, it will be necessary to take into account not only the actual value of indicators that characterize human capital directly, but also indicators that positively or negatively affect the implementation of human capital. The purpose of this study is to select statistical indicators for the system for assessing the development of human capital in Russian regions, as well as to assess its role in the development of the regional economy. The fundamental difference from the works of other authors is a clear division of indicators into three types: those that determine the direct amount of human capital in the regions; positively influencing its development; hindering the development of human capital. As the main results, the following can be mentioned: the preferred unit of measurement of human capital was chosen, estimates of the human capital of the regions were made. The most important conditions for development or, on the contrary, hindering the implementation of human capital in each region of Russia are also highlighted. The results of the study may be useful in the further development of more accurate estimates of the value of human capital in the regions.

In the article, on the example of countries and regions of foreign Europe, the relationship between social capital and socio-economic development is considered. An assessment of social capital and its components (as intangible factors of development) for regions and countries of foreign Europe is given on the basis of primary sociological data from a study of values in Europe. Civic activity, intolerance, features of trust were studied. Geographical patterns of development of social capital are briefly lighted. The relationship between social capital of communities and social-economic development indicators at the level of regions and European countries has been studied. Regularities are revealed between geographical differences in social capital and differences in economic development, the quality of institutions and innovativeness across regions and countries of Europe. Bridging social capital has a positive effect on economic development, it improves the functioning of institutions and prevents the development of opportunism, it is common in economically developed regions and European countries. Innovative activity is most common in regions and countries with a predominance of bridging social capital. In the regions of Europe with the prevailing bonding social capital, the disunity of social groups and closed trust, crisis phenomena are more acutely felt.

BACKGROUND Female-breadwinner families represent a relatively new phenomenon in Europe. Little is known about the determinants of this couple type, which sensibly diverts from the traditional economic superiority of men within the household. OBJECTIVE This paper studies the contextual correlates of partners' contribution to the household income, distinguishing between female-breadwinner, male-breadwinner, and equal-income couples. In particular, it focuses on the role of male unemployment rate and the prevalence of gender-egalitarian attitudes as possible explanations for the emergence of female-breadwinner and equal-income couples across European regions and countries. METHOD Using data from the fifth round (2010/2011) of the European Social Survey, integrated with data from the Eurostat database, we model the categorical variable identifying the couple type (male-breadwinner, female-breadwinner, or equal-income couple) by using a multilevel multinomial logistic regression model where individuals are nested within regions and countries. RESULTS The prevalence of female-breadwinner, male-breadwinner, and equal-income couples varies considerably across European countries as well as within countries. The prevalence of female-breadwinner couples is positively associated with male unemployment, while it is not influenced by the diffusion of gender-egalitarian attitudes. However, the diffusion of gender-egalitarian attitudes matters for explaining the variation in the prevalence of equal-income couples across Europe. CONTRIBUTION We add to the literature on partners' contributions to household income by analysing the spatial distribution and the contextual correlates of female-breadwinner, male-breadwinner, and equal-income couples across European countries and regions.

The development of the economy based on the introduction of innovations actualizes the study of regional development factors. Human capital plays a key role in innovative development. In this regard, there is a need to analyze the conditions for the development of human capital in a particular region. The purpose of the study is to identify the problems of human capital development in the Orenburg region based on various factors, including economic, social, environmental and the factor of digitalization of the economy. A comparison of the indicators of various factors in the Orenburg Region with those in the Russian Federation (RF) and the Volga Federal District (PFD) showed that many indicators of the state of human capital in the Orenburg region are significantly lower than the national and regional averages. Improving these indicators across the region will eliminate these differences and improve the quality of human capital in the region. The human capital of the Orenburg region, the Russian Federation and the Volga Federal District is used as an object of research, the subject of the study is the economic relations that determine its development. The research uses methods of systematization, generalization, analysis, synthesis, comparison, tabular. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that, for the first time, proposals for the development of Orenburg region’s human capital are presented, taking into account the average indicators for Russia and the Volga Federal District. The practical significance of the research results is due to the possibility of their use by regional and municipal authorities in developing a strategy for socio-economic development and making managerial decisions. The results of the study can be used to analyze the factors of human capital development in the municipalities of the region.

Background The growing amount of monkeypox cases in non-endemic regions raises concerns in societies as a potential pandemic. This study highlights the prevalence and epidemiological trends of a human monkeypox outbreak in various regions in Europe. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The data about the monkeypox outbreak in European countries were recorded by the World Health Organization (WHO), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. The period prevalence-based data were recorded from Jan 1, 2022, to July 7, 2022, and analyzed, and epidemiological trends were established in different European regions and countries. Results In Europe, the human monkeypox rapidly spread in all the four subregions and involved 30 European countries, infecting 6077 people. The rising number of monkeypox cases is identified in Western Europe, 2599 (42.76%); Southern Europe, 1932 (31.79%); Northern Europe, 1487 (24.46%); and Eastern Europe, 59 (0.97%). In Western Europe, significant cases are found in Germany (1304), France (604), the Netherlands (352), Belgium (168), and Switzerland (131). In Northern Europe, it is found in the United Kingdom (1351), Ireland (44), Sweden (28), and Denmark (26); in Southern Europe, it is found in Spain (1256), Portugal (415), and Italy (233). However, a smaller number of cases are found in Eastern European states, Hungary (22), Poland (13), and Romania (12). The results further revealed that the number of monkeypox cases per million people in Northern Europe was 14.40%; Southern Europe, 13.49%; Western Europe, 13.26%; and Eastern Europe, 0.70%. The highest monkeypox cases per million population are found in Portugal, 40.70; Gibraltar, 29.68; Spain, 26.86; the United Kingdom, 19.90; Malta, 18.12; the Netherlands, 20.54; Germany, 15.56; Switzerland, 15.14; Belgium, 14.50; France, 9.27; and Ireland, 8.90. Conclusions In a short period, the monkeypox cases swiftly spread in 30 non-endemic European countries and involved all four European regions. The healthcare authorities must take timely decisions to control the outbreak of human monkeypox disease, as the world cannot afford the global burden of human monkeypox outbreak as another potential pandemic.

Classifying the WHO European countries by noncommunicable diseases and risk factors.

The upgrading of human capital caused by education is significant to regional development. Reasonable predictions of the degree of advanced human capital in different regions are effective for formulating reasonable talent policies and accelerating regional coordinated development. The BP neural network is a widely used prediction technology. PSO-BP neural network has good global search ability, which can accelerate the convergence speed of traditional BP neural network, which is suitable for forecasting larger data. The study takes the provincial data of China from 2005 to 2019 as an example, using PSO-BP neural network algorithm to predict the advanced level of human capital through the influencing factors filtered by OLS regression. The results show that: (1) Innovation ability and urbanization can play a decisive role in advanced human capital filtered by OLS regression; (2) The results of predicting the development trend of advanced human capital in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in 2020–2025 through the PSO-BP neural network have showed that there is still a large gap between the senior human capital stock in Hebei-Beijing-Tianjin in terms of total and per capita in 2020–2025 compared with other regions in east of China; (3) Giving full attention to elaborate the positive role of economic quality and quantity development are suitable for narrowing the difference of advanced human capital in this region. Through the method of OLS-BP-neural network, this study explores the gap and influencing factors of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region, excavates the reasons for the huge gradient difference in the development of this region, and extends the machine learning prediction method to the analysis of the advanced level of human capital and the research of narrowing the regional development gap.

Health-care provision for displaced populations arriving from Ukraine

This paper summarizes the findings for the European Region of the WPA Task Force on Steps, Obstacles and Mistakes to Avoid in the Implementation of Community Mental Health Care. The article presents a description of the region, an overview of mental health policies and legislation, a summary of relevant research in the region, a precis of community mental health services, a discussion of the key lessons learned, and some recommendations for the future.

This article is to discuss the state of scholarly research on the influence of human capital on the economic growth and the development of regions. We hereby review the relevant literature published over the past 30 years, and we integrate the various trends and factors into a preliminary and multi-dimensional framework of human capital development. Through this methodologically systematic review and framework development, we provide a more comprehensive and deeper understanding of the connection between human capital development, world technological trends and economic growth. In so doing, we consequently identify various research gaps and prescribe effective ways for future works in this research stream. Conclusively, we discuss the problem of a lack of the demand for human capital (as well as knowledge) in Russian regions that is the main reason for weak economic situation in them. Here is suggested to restructure current regional economy in order to consolidate high qualified human capital in regions and stipulate economic growth in regions.

The aim: to conduct a comparative analysis of the dynamics of health expenditures from GDP, cash expenditures of families and public expenditures on health in Ukraine, Poland and the countries of the WHO European Region. Materials and methods. The object of the research was the data of the WHO European Office. Historical, analytical-comparative, systemic, logical, graphic, mathematical-statistical and other research methods were used. Research results. It was found that all indicators of the analysis in Ukraine had an unstable character of changes in the years dynamics. Since 1995, Poland and European countries have seen a systematic increase in total health spending (%) of the country's GDP. The indicator of out-of-pocket expenses of families on medical and pharmaceutical support in Ukraine was significantly higher than in Poland and European countries, and its average values ​​in Ukraine were 1.5 times higher than in Poland. In 2014, this indicator reached its maximum (46.2 %) against the background of an increase in government spending (%) of total health spending (from 11.9 % to 12.7 %). In 2014, this indicator exceeded similar values ​​in Poland by 2.0 times and 1.7 times in European countries. In contrast, in Poland, the out-of-pocket expenses of families on medical and pharmaceutical support have been steadily decreasing from 30.0 % to 22.1 %, and since 2010 they have been lower than in European countries. According to government spending as a percentage of total health spending in Europe and Poland, there was a trend towards a gradual increase from 11.0 % to 13.2 % (European countries) and from 8.2 % to 10.7 % (Poland). The corresponding Ukrainian data were higher than in Poland and lower than in European countries (from 10.8 % to 11.4 %). Against the background of the unstable nature of the dynamics of changes in indicators characterizing the participation of the state in financing health care in Ukraine, since 2005, there has been an increase in the cash expenditures of Ukrainian families for relevant needs. As a result of systemic transformations in Poland, on the threshold of its accession to the EU (May 1, 2004), since 2005, there has been a decrease in the out-of-pocket expenditures of families against the background of a slight increase in % of public spending on health care. Conclusions. The unstable nature of the dynamics of changes in domestic indicators, in comparison with similar data that was observed in Poland and the countries of the WHO European Region, suggests the need to introduce more decisive actions, which should lead to a reformatting of the role of the state in financing the health system

Within the European Union (EU), substantial efforts are being made to achieve economic and social cohesion, and the reduction of health inequalities between EU regions is integral to this process. This paper is the first to examine how self-reported conditions and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) vary spatially between and within countries. Using 2014 European Social Survey (ESS) data from 20 countries, this paper examines how regional inequalities in self-reported conditions and NCDs vary for men and women in 174 regions (levels 1 and 2 Nomenclature of Statistical Territorial Units, ‘NUTS’). We document absolute and relative inequalities across Europe in the prevalence of eight conditions: general health, overweight/obesity, mental health, heart or circulation problems, high blood pressure, back, neck, muscular or joint pain, diabetes and cancer. There is considerable inequality in self-reported conditions and NCDs between the regions of Europe, with rates highest in the regions of continental Europe, some Scandinavian regions and parts of the UK and lowest around regions bordering the Alps, in Ireland and France. However, for mental health and cancer, rates are highest in regions of Eastern European and lowest in some Nordic regions, Ireland and isolated regions in continental Europe. There are also widespread and consistent absolute and relative regional inequalities in all conditions within countries. These are largest in France, Germany and the UK, and smallest in Denmark, Sweden and Norway. There were higher inequalities amongst women. Using newly available harmonized morbidity data from across Europe, this paper shows that there are considerable regional inequalities within and between European countries in the distribution of self-reported conditions and NCDs.