Vladyslav Dombrovskyi spoke at the Tenth Annual Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies in Tartu, Estonia
How to present research on the spread of new behavioral patterns in Ukraine's agricultural sector to an audience that is mostly political scientists, historians, and anthropologists? Vladyslav Dombrovskyi, Associate Professor at AUK, found the answer at this year's Tartu Conference in Estonia.
The Tenth Annual Tartu Conference on East European and Eurasian Studies took place in Tartu on June 10–12. It is one of the largest interdisciplinary scientific events in this field. More than 220 researchers from dozens of countries participated. Over three days, 57 panel sessions were held on a wide range of topics: from Soviet legacy and disinformation to international law and EU foreign policy.
Vladyslav presented the study "Global Aid, Local Cooperation: Behavioral Spillovers in Ukraine’s Wartime Food Sector", which examines how international aid affects cooperation and trust among Ukrainian food enterprises during the war. It showed that donor programs create positive changes in the market behavior of Ukrainian companies, which spread from direct recipients of assistance to their business partners.
“After the first day of the conference, I realized that I needed to rework the presentation,” says Vladyslav. “I realized that I needed to shift the emphasis from quantitative data to live quotes from interviews with entrepreneurs. And that’s what resonated with the audience the most.”
During the discussion, a lively debate unfolded about the role of trust in economics and social relations. “When colleagues from other social sciences shared their observations, it allowed us to see our research in a new light, to make it deeper,” Vladyslav notes.
The conference opened up new opportunities for international scientific cooperation and became a source of ideas for further research.
The research was conducted jointly with colleagues from the AUK – Natalia Zaika and Volodymyr Vakhitov – and Roman Neyter (KSE), with the support of the USAID AGRO project.
