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This article argues that a society's level of social trust influences employers' hiring strategies. Employers can focus either on applicants' potential and select on foundational skills (e.g., social skills, math skills) or on their readiness and select on more-advanced skills (e.g., pricing a derivative). The higher (lower) the social trust—people's trust in their fellow members of society—the more (less) employers are willing to invest in employees and grant them role flexibility. Employers in higher-trust societies are therefore more attentive to applicants' potential, focusing more on foundational skills than on advanced skills. We empirically test this theory by using a novel dataset of more than 50 million job postings from the 28 European Union countries. We find that the higher a country's social trust, the more its employers require foundational skills instead of advanced skills. Our identification strategy takes advantage of multinational firms in our sample and uses measures of bilateral (country-to-country) trust to predict job requirements, while including an instrumental variable and fixed effects on country, year, employer, and occupation. These findings suggest a novel pathway by which social trust shapes employment practices and organizational strategies.

AbstractPermafrost thaw is a challenge in many Arctic regions, one that modifies ecosystems and affects infrastructure and livelihoods. To date, there have been no demographic studies of the population on permafrost. We present the first estimates of the number of inhabitants on permafrost in the Arctic Circumpolar Permafrost Region (ACPR) and project changes as a result of permafrost thaw. We combine current and projected populations at settlement level with permafrost extent. Key findings indicate that there are 1162 permafrost settlements in the ACPR, accommodating 5 million inhabitants, of whom 1 million live along a coast. Climate-driven permafrost projections suggest that by 2050, 42% of the permafrost settlements will become permafrost-free due to thawing. Among the settlements remaining on permafrost, 42% are in high hazard zones, where the consequences of permafrost thaw will be most severe. In total, 3.3 million people in the ACPR live currently in settlements where permafrost will degrade and ultimately disappear by 2050.

Across the world people are moving nationally from rural areas to bigger towns and cities, and within the European Union, people are also increasingly moving between countries. While migration in the Nordic countries has exceeded natural population increase as the most prominent driver of population growth, the Baltic countries have experienced significant out-migration in the latest decades. However, migration is only one of several demographic challenges that affect the demographic structure in municipalities and regions. Ageing of the population is another key challenge; in some places emphasised by out-migration of people in age groups being active in the labour force. Life-expectancy has steadily increased and together with the decrease in birth and death rates, people are living longer while the number of children is declining. Retirement age, the age when people exit the labour force, has not changed parallel with the increasing life expectancy and thus adds to the increased proportion of non-productive elderly citizens. These changes in the composition of the population will increasingly affect vital societal parameters such as the labour supply and the dependency burden, and eventually the ability to provide sufficient social services at municipal level.

Health care and social care are not only important aspects of the Nordic welfare state model. The development of those sectors also has an important impact on the regional development and sustainability(economically, socially and environmentally)in the Nordic Region. The use of digital solutions in both sectors is increasing across all the Nordic countries. However, in relation to the ambitious goals set out in national digitalisation and eHealth strategies, digitalisation in health care and social care can be seen to have been developing at a relatively moderate pace. This research is part of the Digitalisation inHealth Care and Social Care project initiated and funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The aim of this research has been to explore the effects and potential benefits to regional development and to address the various obstacles facing digitalisation in health care and social care throughout the Region.