Family, society and the individual: determinants of entrepreneurial attitudes among youth in Chennai, South India

High rates of youth unemployment across the world have captured the attention of many world organizations and other policy makers. One policy solution that has been proposed to curb these high rates is encouraging youth entrepreneurship. In this paper, we examine the formation of attitudes that are favorable to entrepreneurship using data from 185 business students in South India. We adopt an approach that tests the relative efficacy of two principal factors in the formation of entrepreneurial attitude, i.e., stocks of youth human/social capital and a series of personality traits. Results from a probit model suggest that the youth’s prior labor market experience, the social capital that youth have accumulated through volunteering, and the social connections that parents have made are all highly predictive of pro-entrepreneurial attitudes; personality traits exert less importance. Implications for these findings are discussed for the creation of strategies that can stimulate entrepreneurship among youth as one way to combat high rates of youth unemployment

Climate action through policy expansion and/or dismantling: Country-comparative Insights: An introduction to the Special Issue

Elected politicians and civil servants are key in developing climate policy. The articles in this special issue investigate factors that induce politico-administrative actors to adopt climate policies and dismantle anti-climate policies to advance decarbonisation. Politico-administrative actors have predominantly expanded climate policy and raised policy ambition in recent decades. However, economic crises and weakening public support may cause dismantling of climate policy and hamper policy ambition. Against this backdrop, articles in this special issue also study factors that propel climate policy dismantling. Together, the contributions show that interactions between politico-administrative actors and publics, organised interests, and international organisations shape climate and anti-climate policy change

Drivers of declining CO2 emissions in 18 developed economies

Global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) from fossil fuels and industry increased by 2.2% per year on average between 2005 and 2015 1 . Global emissions need to peak and decline rapidly to limit climate change to well below 2 °C of warming 2,3 , which is one of the goals of the Paris Agreement 4 . Untangling the reasons underlying recent changes in emissions trajectories is critical to guide efforts to attain those goals. Here we analyse the drivers of decreasing CO 2 emissions in a group of 18 developed economies that have decarbonized over the period 2005–2015. We show that within this group, the displacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy and decreases in energy use explain decreasing CO 2 emissions. However, the decrease in energy use can be explained at least in part by a lower growth in gross domestic product. Correlation analysis suggests that policies on renewable energy are supporting emissions reductions and displacing fossil fuels in these 18 countries, but not elsewhere, and that policies on energy efficiency are supporting lower energy use in these 18 countries, as well as more widely. Overall, the evidence shows that efforts to reduce emissions are underway in many countries, but these efforts need to be maintained and enhanced by more stringent policy actions to support a global peak in emissions followed by global emissions reductions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement 3

Options to Reform the European Union Legislation on GMOs: Scope and Definitions

We discuss options to reform the EU genetically modified organisms (GMO) regulatory framework, make risk assessment and decision-making more consistent with scientific principles, and lay the groundwork for international coherence. The first in a three-part series, this article focuses on reform options related to the scope of the legislation and the GMO definition

Perceived economic self‑sufficiency: a countryand generation‑comparative approach

We thank Michael Camasso and Radha Jagannathan as well as Asimina Christoforou, Gerbert Kraaykamp, Fay Makantasi, Tiziana Nazio, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, Jacqueline O’Reilly and Jan van Deth for their contribution to the CUPESSE project (Seventh Framework Programme; Grant Agreement No. 61325). CUPESSE received additional funding from the Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) and the Field of Focus 4 “Self-Regulation and Regulation: Individuals and Organisations” at Heidelberg University. We further acknowledge helpful comments on this article by two anonymous reviewers. Julian Rossello provided valuable research assistance.Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https ://doi.org/10.1057/ s4130 4-018-0186-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.Existing datasets provided by statistical agencies (e.g. Eurostat) show that the economic and financial crisis that unfolded in 2008 significantly impacted the lives and livelihoods of young people across Europe. Taking these official statistics as a starting point, the collaborative research project “Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship in Europe” (CUPESSE) generated new survey data on the economic and social situation of young Europeans (18–35 years). The CUPESSE dataset allows for country-comparative assessments of young people’s perceptions about their socio-economic situation. Furthermore, the dataset includes a variety of indicators examining the socio-economic situation of both young adults and their parents. In this data article, we introduce the CUPESSE dataset to political and social scientists in an attempt to spark a debate on the measurements, patterns and mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of economic self-sufficiency as well as its political implications.CUPESSE project (Seventh Framework Programme; Grant Agreement No. 61325