Case Of Estonia Research Articles

Legal Challenges in Developing a Digitalised Electricity Market in the EU: The Case of Estonia

Legal Challenges in Developing a Digitalised Electricity Market in the EU: The Case of Estonia

The book policy in a democratic society: the case of Estonia

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The United States and the entry of the Baltic states into international society: insights from the case of Estonia

ABSTRACT This article approaches the history of Baltic-US relations from the point of view of International Relations scholarship and, more specifically, from the vantage point of the concept of international society. It provides an account of the process of Estonia’s entry into international society with a particular focus on the role that the United States, as one of the great powers of the twentieth century, played in this process. Against this background, this article concludes that as a feature of the Baltic states’ memories of entry, the history of Baltic-US relations remains vital to understanding their contemporary foreign policy outlook.

E-Government as a Development Strategy: The Case of Estonia

ABSTRACT This paper examines the role of e-government (EG) in fostering economic transition and development, focusing on the Estonian case. Positioned as a development strategy, EG utilizes information and communication technologies in the public sector to enhance competitiveness and well-being. Drawing from Weberian bureaucracy, it highlights two crucial institutions: secure property rights and governance rules emphasizing transparency, trust, and security (TTS). These institutions offer a comprehensive perspective on the positive impacts of EG. The paper suggests strategies for optimizing these effects, concluding with recommendations for EG implementation and proposing avenues for further research in developing country contexts.

AI Systems’ Impact on the Recognition of Foreign Judgements: The Case of Estonia

Prominent search engines yield many millions of hits *1 when one searches for the keywords ‘robot judge’. While the discussion around AI technologies and their impact on society is increasingly focused on questions of whether and how the use of AI should be regulated and what kind of legal boundaries, we need for safeguarding fundamental rights in its context, the fact is that algorithmic systems are already used in the realms of litigation and judicial systems. The article presents an attempt to ascertain how the use of AI in judicial proceedings affects the cross-border recognition of judgements and, thereby, influences society in general. Special attention is given to the pivotal matter of trust in judicial decisions of other countries. More precisely, can the use of AI reshape or otherwise influence the current procedure of cross‑border recognition of judgements and the judicial duties of a judge in that procedure, at least in the case of Estonia?

Effects of automation on the gender pay gap: the case of Estonia

Abstract This paper investigates how investments in automation affect the gender pay gap. The evidence of the effects of automation on the labor market is growing; however, little is known about the implications of automation for the gender pay gap. The data used in this paper are from a matched employer–employee dataset incorporating detailed information on firms, their imports, and employee–level data for Estonian manufacturing and service employers for the period of 2006–2018. Through the use of the imports of automation goods as a proxy for the introduction of automation at the firm level, this paper estimates the effect of automation using simple Mincerian wage equations. The causality of the effect is further validated using propensity score matching (PSM). We find that introducing automation enlarges the gender pay gap, and PSM confirms that this also has a higher causal effect on the wages of male employees than female employees. The results imply that a higher representation of women in higher-paid positions does not guarantee a reduction in the gender pay gap in the presence of automation, and appropriate measures in education and retraining are needed to tackle the effect of automation on gender inequality.

The road corvée: The persistence of the use of unpaid labour for road maintenance in nineteenth and twentieth century Estonia

This paper examines the road corvée, a practice of using unpaid labour for road maintenance, in the nineteenth and twentieth century. I focus on the case of Estonia, where the road corvée, originating in the feudal economic system, persisted surprisingly long, being abolished only in 1959. Earlier studies on the road corvée have focused mainly on road construction and have therefore failed to recognise the use of the practice beyond absolutist Europe and colonial Africa. Focusing on maintenance reveals that the corvée was also widespread in twentieth-century Europe. I examine how the road corvée was organised and debated to reveal what inhibited and what accelerated its abolition. The study shows how maintenance practices can be deeply embedded in social and economic structures – like the agricultural system in this case – and ultimately be highly inert and resistant to change.

Auxiliary collections as active collections: the case of Estonia

ABSTRACT This article explores a recent trend in Estonian museums – the increase in the auxiliary collections against the background of the general slowdown in the development of the main collections. The article demonstrates that the rise of auxiliary collections occurred because of the tension between the regime of eternal preservation supported by the national heritage practice and the new museum practice of active collections implemented by the museums. Based on a study of 20 state-administered museums, the article examines the ambivalent status of the auxiliary collection by juxtaposing its legal and practice-based conceptualisations. The article will demonstrate that auxiliary collections confer on museums the necessary buffer zone to navigate the state’s regulations and the lack of resources. In the context of the eternal preservation regime, an auxiliary collection is a liminal collection waiting to be made meaningful by administrative, curatorial, and preservation processes. However, auxiliary collections tend to dominate exhibitions and programs that understand heritage as emerging through active co-creation and sensory engagement. The rise of the significance of auxiliary collections can be anticipated vis-à-vis the national heritage repository plans as they offer solution for museums to maintain their relevance in the local communities.

Does the Funding of the Defence Sector Depend on Economic Factors in the Long Run? The Cases of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania

The purpose of this publication is to study the dependence of defence funding on economic factors, namely the prosperity of the country, economic growth, the budget deficit, gross government debt, and inflation rate. The investigation uses secondary data obtained from the Eurostat database and covers the period from 1997 to 2021. The author analyses three Baltic countries such as Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, to ascertain which economic factors have a statistically significant effect on defence sector funding. For this purpose, the author applies correlation analysis and automatic linear modelling (ALM). The findings of the investigation showed differences and similarities between the countries under consideration. In the case of Estonia, defence funding is significantly affected by the prosperity of the country, which is expressed in real GDP per capita, and gross government debt. These economic factors explain 92.6 per cent of defence funding. The cases of Latvia and Lithuania are very similar in terms of the influence of economic factors on defence spending. In these countries, the tendencies of real GDP per capita significantly effect on defence funding. This influence is slightly different and amounts to 76.2 and 78.4 per cent, for Latvia and Lithuania, respectively. The insights of the research can be useful to the governments of these nations when making decisions about defence funding aimed at ensuring security in the Baltic region.

The gap that survived the transition: The gender wage gap in Estonia over three decades

This paper looks at the gender wage gap throughout the transition from communism to capitalism and a time of rapid economic convergence. The case of Estonia is used, and micro data from the Labour Force Survey from 1989 to 2020 are employed. The communist regime had highly regulated wage setting and high levels of educational attainment and labour market participation for women. Although the regime was formally egalitarian, the gender attitudes were conservative and the raw gender wage gap was as large as 41% at the end of the communist period in Estonia. The large gender wage gap under communist rule narrowed quickly during the first years of economic transition, but a further decline in the gap has been slow. The paper has two main messages. The first is that there is strong inertia in the gender wage gap persisting through the communist period and economic convergence. None of the known long-run cultural drivers of gender attitudes can explain this. The second is that the decline in the gap is related to the overall decline in wage inequality, the rise in minimum wages, and more egalitarian gender attitudes. The gender attitudes are responsible for a smaller effect compared to wage inequality.

Multilevel governance in the temporal protection and integration of Ukrainians within the European Union: the case of Estonia

ABSTRACT The war in Ukraine in 2022 resulted in the rapid, large-scale migration of Ukrainians both inside Ukraine and to the European Union (EU). In response, the European Commission and Council activated the ‘Temporary Protection Directive’ (TPD, 2001) which had been dormant for two decades. This granted Ukrainians fleeing to the EU residence permits, access to the labor market, accommodation, medical care, education for minors, and social and welfare assistance. We analyzed how war-fleeing Ukrainians were received in the EU at three territorial-administrative levels. Through discourse analysis at the supranational (EC and CE), national (Estonian) and subnational (local Estonian) levels and a survey on how 500 temporary protected Ukrainians in Estonia were covered by the TPD, we highlight the hierarchic implementation of the TPD. This case shows the potential and pitfalls of participatory multilevel governance (MLG) for a more sustainable presence and future for the Ukrainian (temporary) diaspora in the EU.

Stepping towards the Green Transition: Challenges and Opportunities of Estonian Companies

Addressing the sustainability crisis requires innovative approaches such as sustainable technological entrepreneurship. The case of Estonia, as an example of a twin (digital and green) transition, is examined. We explored Estonian entrepreneurs’ perceptions of challenges and opportunities related to the green transition. The data were collected via an online survey from 532 Estonian companies, focus groups, and individual semi-structured interviews with 42 experts. Survey data were analyzed using proportional odds logistic regression, and interview data were examined using thematic analysis. Based on the interview findings, the main perceived entrepreneurial opportunities related to green transitions were increasing production efficiency and favoring taxation for green products and services. The main challenges included losing competitive advantage, coping with crises, and the need for long-term planning and significant investments. Survey findings revealed that too much pressure only from politicians and a lack of innovation might increase the likelihood of perceived company cost increases. More pressure from other stakeholders and increased innovation were associated with higher odds of viewing the green transition as an opportunity. This study provides valuable insights into the perceptions of Estonian entrepreneurs regarding the challenges and opportunities of the green transition and contributes to their categorization.

Management of National eID Infrastructure as a State-Critical Asset and Public-private Partnership: Learning from the Case of Estonia

In the management of national electronic identity (eID) infrastructure, cooperation between public and private parties becomes more and more important, as the mutual dependencies between the provision of e-services and the provision of the national public key infrastructure (PKI) continuously increases. Yet, it is not clear which key factors affect the public-private collaboration in the eID field, as existing studies do not provide insight into this particular matter. Therefore, we aim to identify the factors that affect public-private partnership (PPP) in the field of eID. We also describe feasible formats that help to improve the cooperation between the two sectors, based on insights from the case of Estonia. In service of that study, we conducted twelve qualitative interviews with high-level experts representing several parties from the public and the private sector. By conducting a thematic analysis of the interviews, we identified five key factors for successful PPP in the eID field, i.e., engagement, joint understanding, two-way communication, clear role division, and process orientation. Furthermore, we generalize our results by discussing, in how far the found cooperation formats can be used by stakeholders to manage state-critical information technology (IT) infrastructure components similar to eID such as mobile phone services, data transmission services and digital signature services.

Location-aware green energy availability forecasting for multiple time frames in smart buildings: The case of Estonia

In recent years, renewable energies (RE) have gained more attention as they provide clean and sustainable energy. Affordable and clean energy is one of the sustainable development goals (SDG-7) of the UN. Solar energy is considered to be one of the world's most abundant renewable natural resources and can certainly contribute to meeting the SDGs. The photovoltaic (PV) panel converts solar energy into electrical energy without emitting greenhouse gases. PV panels generate power based on solar radiation received at a specific location over time. As a result, PV output power is difficult to forecast. Many public/private institutes generate green energy, and balancing demand and supply is vital. This research aims to forecast PV system output power based on weather and derived features using different machine learning (ML) models. A best-fitting model is developed based on the data to accurately predict output power. Moreover, different performance metrics are used to compare and evaluate the accuracy under different ML models such as Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), K-Nearest Neighbour (KNN), Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) and Support Vector Regression (SVR). Compared to the recent research, our results demonstrate that the obtained prediction accuracy is superior, with performance gains reaching up to 14% (R-squared) in the case of the RF model and 25% (MAPE) in the case of the SVR model. The comparison result inferred a similar performance when RF and XGBoost were applied. On the other hand, the ML models MLP, SVR, and KNN give a similar prediction pattern.

Contribution of business angel investments: evidence from Estonia

PurposeThis study aims to analyze the contribution of business angels (BAs), defined as wealthy individuals who provide risk capital to entrepreneurial firms without family connections, in Estonia, an emerging country in Eastern Europe.Design/methodology/approachThis study compared the data of the financial and non-financial performance of BA-backed firms with that of “twin” non-BA-backed firms, extracted from all Estonian unlisted firms using propensity score matching.FindingsThe results of the comparative analysis showed that BAs were patient enough to allow their investees to spend for future growth rather than squeezing profit from increased sales. This is not patience without options for a BA in a situation in which the investee's sales are deteriorating, but rather deliberate patience in the presence of options for a BA where the investee's sales growth is increasing, contrary to conventional investor behavioral principles. It also showed that BAs' post-investment involvement did not make a direct contribution to their investees' sales, although BAs contributed to the sales increase through BA funding itself.Originality/valueThis study has two unique research contributions. First, it shows that the patience of BAs was not a by-product but was intentional, and adds to the debate on whether BAs are patient investors. Second, there are only a few studies on the contribution of BAs to their investees in emerging countries; this study aims to help fill this research gap using the case of Estonia.

Sovietisation and Violence: The Case of Estonia ed. by Meelis Saueauk and Toomas Hiio, and: Propaganda, Immigration, and Monuments: Perspectives on Methods Used to Entrench Soviet Power in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s ed. by Meelis Saueauk and Meelis Maripuu

Reviewed by: Sovietisation and Violence: The Case of Estonia ed. by Meelis Saueauk and Toomas Hiio, and: Propaganda, Immigration, and Monuments: Perspectives on Methods Used to Entrench Soviet Power in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s ed. by Meelis Saueauk and Meelis Maripuu Edward Cohn Saueauk, Meelis and Hiio, Toomas (eds). Sovietisation and Violence: The Case of Estonia. Proceedings of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, 1. Tartu University Press, Tartu, 2018. 336 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. €5.00 (paperback). Saueauk, Meelis and Maripuu, Meelis (eds). Propaganda, Immigration, and Monuments: Perspectives on Methods Used to Entrench Soviet Power in Estonia in the 1950s–1980s. Proceedings of the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, 3. Tartu University Press, Tartu, 2022. 282 pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. €16.00 (paperback). In recent years, and especially since the beginning of Russia's war on Ukraine, historians have increasingly turned their attention to the USSR's non-Russian republics, seeking to tell a fuller story of Soviet history that both recovers the voices of other ethnicities and analyses the USSR's incorporation of new frontier regions into its territory following 1939. These two volumes — the first and third in a series of proceedings from the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory — deserve the attention of Western historians interested in a broader picture of Soviet history. Volume One looks at 'Sovietization and Violence' in Estonia, focusing in particular on the most coercive period of Estonia's incorporation into the USSR (roughly speaking, 1940–53). Volume Three examines 'Propaganda, Immigration, and Monuments', analysing the less violent processes by which Soviet power was entrenched in Estonia from the 1950s to the 1980s. (A second volume, in Estonian, examines the country's March deportations of 1949 and is not covered in this review.) Together, the two volumes feature nineteen essays by Estonian researchers — most of them affiliated with the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, though several are faculty at the University of Tartu — that provide a welcome and extremely useful addition to the historiography on the establishment of Soviet power in the republic and beyond. They provide cutting-edge work by Estonian historians; link the Estonian historical literature to the Russian, Western European and American historical literatures on the USSR; and help ensure that the study of the Soviet Union includes the perspectives of nationalities far from the corridors of power in Moscow. The first volume begins with a useful essay by Olaf Mertelsmann on the meaning of 'sovietization', which clearly highlights the many complexities in the process: 'sovietization' was actually a set of different processes that shaped and influenced each other, for example, and the nature of what was 'soviet' changed over time and was pursued in different ways within the original boundaries of the USSR, in the territories incorporated into the USSR in 1940, and in the satellite states of Eastern Europe. Mertelsmann complicates the idea of a 'typical' sovietization while providing a series of 'hypotheses' on the nature of sovietization in Estonia and beyond. [End Page 780] This theoretical discussion sets the stage for the remainder of the first volume, which focuses most closely on repression and coercion by Soviet authorities in the late Stalin years. Tõnu Tannberg discusses how the new regime sought to combat the armed resistance movement in the Baltics in the last months of 1944; he notes that local authorities were not able to suppress the resistance movement on their own, that all-union security organs were important collaborators with republic-level authorities, that Moscow was sceptical of local personnel and that the regime failed in its goal of eliminating the armed resistance through the use of force. Several contributions, unsurprisingly, analyse the theme of forced deportations from Estonia: Hiljar Tammela analyses how rumours of deportation affected the population's mentalité, while Aigi Rahi-Tamm compares the experience of deportees with those who fled Estonia for the West. Tammela shows that fear of deportations was a mass phenomenon in Estonia after World War Two (based on the precedent of the June 1941 deportations), with rumours predicting the dates and scale of post-war deportations. When the March 1949 deportations arrived, nearly half of the 20,000 Estonians selected for removal could not be...

The Military Covenant, Contractual Relations, and Social Cohesion in Democracies: Estonia as an Exploratory Case Study

The military covenant is a set of morally binding expectations marking the exchange between military, society, and the state. Its base is the military’s duality: like other large public institutions delivering services and its uniqueness in holding the monopoly over the use of legitimate organized state violence. The covenant is a form of relational (not transactional) contract based on trust between, and a long-term orientation of, partners; it both orders and displays these relations thereby offering both prescriptions for action and discursive means to legitimate them. The covenant can be used as an analytical (not normative) concept for theoretical development in three areas: social change and society-military ties, processual aspects of agreements between individuals and groups and the armed forces, and links between society-military ties and the social contract and social cohesion. We use the case of Estonia to illustrate the theoretical potential of the military covenant.

Comparing Smart Country Experiences: The Cases of Estonia and Singapore

Teknolojik gelişmelere paralel olarak kentler hızlı bir dönüşüm sürecine girmiştir. Bu dönüşümle birlikte, kentte yaşayanların talepleri ve beklentileri de sürekli güncellenmiştir. Yöneticilerin, politika üretim sürecine bakış açısı, vatandaşlar ile kurduğu ilişki, paydaşları karar mekanizmalarına katma süreci ve hizmet sunum biçimi değişimlerden bazılarıdır. Kentlerde yaşanan bu değişim ve dönüşümün yansıması olarak akıllı kent kavramı son yıllarda popüler tartışma konusu haline gelmiştir. Bağımsızlığını 1991 yılında kazanan Estonya, gerek blok zincir teknolojisini kullanarak gerekse dijital vatandaşı oluşturmaya yönelik çalışmalar yürüterek başarı sağlamıştır. Asya kıtasının en güneyinde yer alan, doğal kaynaklar yönünden fakir olan ancak günümüzde dünyanın önemli ticaret merkezi konumunda bulunan Singapur örnek bir dijital dönüşüm performansı sergilemiştir. Bu yönüyle bu iki ülke incelemeye değer örnek olarak seçilmiştir. Estonya’nın ve Singapur’un nasıl bir dijital dönüşüm yaşadığı ve kısa sürede gerçekleşen bu dönüşümde, diğer kentlere ilham olabilecek uygulamaların neler olduğu sorularına yanıtlar aranmıştır. Estonya’da, özelikle Tallinn kentinde, akıllı kentin akıllı ekonomi, akıllı hareketlilik, akıllı çevre, akıllı insan, akıllı yönetişim ve akıllı yaşam bileşenlerine yönelik olarak projeler gerçekleştirilmiştir. Estonya’nın öne çıkan akıllı ve dijital projeleri arasında; temassız mobil ödeme, otonom araç, Üç Boyutlu Kentsel Bilgi Modeli, SmartEnCity Girişimi, dijital imza, mobil kimlik kartı, e-ikamet, DigiDoc, e-kabine, e-kanun, e-vergi, e-okul, çevrimiçi oylama, x-road veri katmanı ve Telliskivi Loomelinnak Dönüşüm Projesi yer almaktadır. Singapur’un gerçekleştirdiği akıllı projeler ise; Lab on Wheels ve SkillsFuture programları, HealthHub, OneService, SafeEntry, MyTransport.SG mobil uygulamaları, Auto Rider Otonom Aracı ve üç boyutlu baskı merkezidir. Çalışmanın temel amacı, Singapur ve Estonya’da gerçekleştirilen akıllı veya dijital uygulamaları saptayarak geliştirilen projeler üzerinden karşılaştırmalı değerlendirme yapmaktır. Çalışmada, nitel araştırma yöntemlerinden biri olan örnek durum incelemesi yöntemi kullanılmıştır.

Private security and national security: The case of Estonia

Private security and national security: The case of Estonia

Technology and democracy: the who and how in decision-making. The cases of Estonia and Catalonia

This paper focusses on the use of technology to improve democracy, comparing the cases of Estonia and Catalonia. Both examples are closely related in their use of technology to further democratize the decision-making processes, but have opposite starting points. Estonia’s internet voting system is an offshoot of the comprehensive e-governance system developed by the Estonian government. It is meant to make it more convenient for people to vote and, thus, easier for them to take part in elections. In Catalonia, the online participation system Decidim, initially set up in the city of Barcelona, represents a bottom-up project that emerged from the 15 May protests and aims to make the representative democratic system more direct and participatory. In our comparison we approach both paradigmatic cases from a theoretical reflection on the ideal types of democracy in relation to how decisions are made and by whom. Both projects have evolved and integrated new features that draw them together. First, internet voting is able to reach wider portions of society and digitally transform the Public Administration. Second, online participation platforms increase the potential for collecting citizens’ proposals and enriching discussions. These features make them more like a mixed model which, in the current model of representative democracy, creates spaces for a more direct and deliberative democracy.