The Social Situation Monitor (SSM) team welcomes your abstract for an oral presentation at a SSM seminar that will take place in Brussels, in late January/early February 2019, depending on speakers’ availability.

Focus of the seminar: social investment

Social investment intends to strengthen people’s skills and capacities and support them to participate fully in employment and social life. Key policy areas include education, quality childcare, long-term care, healthcare, training, job-search assistance, rehabilitation, linked to unemployment benefits and social assistance and housing.

The aim of the seminar will be to present and discuss the latest research on the issue of social investment in Europe. More specifically, we are looking for presentations exploring topics such as:

• Measurement of returns on investment, including:
  • Individual returns (e.g. labour market and income transitions of social investment beneficiaries)
  • Public returns (e.g. fiscal, economic and social outcomes at macro level),
• Timeframe for individual and public returns,
• Comparative analysis: cross-national/regional patterns and variations,
• Funding sources (public/private),
• Synergies between different elements of social policies (e.g. income support and enabling services),
• Synergies between social investment and environmental sustainability.

We welcome presentations of findings based on methods such as panel data techniques (for individual returns), cost-benefit analysis (for public returns) and impact evaluations. The methods used should be shortly presented in the abstracts.

How to submit an abstract

Please submit your abstract electronically as soon as possible and no later than Monday 26th November 2018.

Abstracts will be reviewed by the SSM team, which includes representatives from the European Commission, LSE Enterprise and ICF Consulting. Abstracts will be assessed based on their quality and relevance to the work of the SSM team.

Invited speakers will be given 20 minutes to present and 20 minutes to respond to questions from the audience. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered for one presenter per paper (in case of co-authored papers).

The SSM seminar series

SSM seminars are research seminars. Their aim is to provide a forum to discuss the theoretical, methodological and policy implications of the latest economic and social research. More specifically, SSM seminars aim to inform:

• The economic and social analysis of the European Commission in general, and the Commission’s Employment and Social Developments in Europe review in particular.
• The economic and social analysis of the European Commission’s stakeholders.
• The economic and social policies of the European Commission and its stakeholders.

SSM seminars are primarily intended for:

• Economists and analysts working in policy-making organisations,
• Academic researchers,
• Policy officers with an interest in economic and social analysis.