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Adopted guidelines reflect a harmonised European approach to a specific scientific issue and should reflect the most recent scientific knowledge. However, whilst EU regulations are mandatory for all member states and EU directives must be followed by national laws in line with the directive, EMA guidelines do not have legal force and alternative approaches may be taken, but these obviously require more justification. This new series of the BJCP, developed in collaboration with the EMA, aims to address this issue by providing an annotated version of some relevant EMA guidelines and regulatory documents by experts. Hopefully, this will help in promoting their diffusion and in opening a forum for discussion with our readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This policy paper summarizes four corridor studies on bilateral social security agreements (BSSAs) between four European Union (EU) member and two nonmember states, draws conclusions on their results, and offers recommendations. BSSAs between migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries are seen as the most important instrument to establish portability of social security benefits for internationally mobile workers. Yet, only about 23 % of international migrants profit from BSSAs and their functioning has been little analyzed and even less assessed. The four corridors studied (Austria-Turkey, Germany-Turkey, Belgium-Morocco, and France-Morocco) were selected to allow for comparison of both similarities and differences in experiences. The evaluation of these corridors' BSSAs was undertaken against a methodological framework and three selected criteria: fairness for individuals, fiscal fairness for countries, and bureaucratic effectiveness for countries and migrant workers. The results suggest that the investigated BSSAs work and overall deliver reasonably well on individual fairness. The results on fiscal fairness are clouded by conceptual and empirical gaps. Bureaucratic effectiveness would profit from information and communication technology-based exchanges on both corridors once available. JEL Classification: D69, H55, I19, J62 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The realization of national climate change commitments, as agreed through international negotiations, requires local action. However, data is still insufficient to make accurate statements about the scale of urban emissions (UNHABITAT, 2011). The need of comparable emission inventories at city level, including smaller cities, is widely recognized to develop evidence-based policies accounting for the relation between emissions and institutional, socio-economic and demographic characteristics at city level. This paper presents a collection of harmonized greenhouse gases (GHG) emission inventories (the "CoM sample 2013") at municipal level directly computed by the cities and towns that participate in the EU Covenant of Mayors initiative. This is the mainstream European movement of local and regional authorities who voluntarily commit to reduce GHG emissions by 20% or more by 2020. The "CoM sample 2013" (http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/com/data/index.php? SECURE=123, doi:10.2904/EDGARcom2013) has been carefully checked to ensure its internal consistency and its congruity with respect to internationally accepted guide values for emission factors. Overall, it provides valuable data for the analysis of the heterogeneity of final energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions of cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The common energy policy of the European Union is a current topic on the agenda of European institutions, reflected in package "Clean Energy for All Europeans", proposed by the European Commission. Despite several harmonization attempts, the consensus needed for a common policy and for an Energy Union has not been reached yet. One possible element why we still do not have a common energy market is the lack of competition in the energy sector. In this context, the present research paper analyzes to what extent competition can be a key-factor in ensuring the modernization of the energy sector. Aspects of competition law which are relevant for building a common energy market are highlighted in the present research paper. Furthermore, the present article raises the question how important cooperation is, searching the proper balance between competition and cooperation. The present article uses an interdisciplinary research method, combining the analysis of primary and secondary European law, of legal instruments and provisions, considering the teleological method, with the assessment from a business and economics point of view. Case law and case studies from Member States of the European Union provide best practice models for the energy sector and present an international comparative perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses two main questions: (1) how far do the activities of fiscal councils in the EU countries help promote transparency and accountability in the management of public finances and (2) how could fiscal councils enhance the impact of those activities? The analysis is based on a questionnaire collected in 2016 from fiscal councils in 18 EU countries. The questionnaire looked at how the councils themselves assessed their impact on the management of public finances, and how they communicated their findings to the wider public. The councils see some benefits of their work; and their monitoring of adherence to fiscal rules and legislative regulation, as well as their warnings about excessive government spending, seem to get noticed in the media. This activity informs the public, and may in turn influence politicians' ratings, thereby helping to contribute to greater accountability in the management of public finances. The paper consequently argues that fiscal councils may promote fiscal transparency and accountability and proposes several ways to enhance the effectiveness of their influence on media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the age of globalisation, implementation and commercialisation of new technologies are perceived as key elements determining competitiveness of particular countries, therefore, the growth of innovativeness is seen as the predominant direction of European Union society’s transformation into information society. The aim of the paper is to propose a procedure of measurement of innovativeness growth over time, with the Summary Innovation Index (SII) methodology as a starting point. The considered issue can be expressed by the following main question: how to measure the innovation performance dynamics for a selected group of countries (such as the EU- 28, EU-15 or EU-13 countries) and for time intervals (not only for two moments of observations). This is an important inquiry since well-known innovativeness indices (SII, GII, or IOI) concentrate mainly on the provision of information about countries’ innovation performance for a specific year of observations. Due to this fact, changes occurring over longer time periods are rather neglected. The main result of the paper is a proposition of average innovativeness growth index. The index uses weights describing the employment share of a selected group of specialists (e.g.: scientists and engineers, research and development personnel) in relation to the economically active population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with tertiary education efficiency and effectiveness across 24 European Union countries in four sub-periods between 2004 and 2015. The efficiency scores are computed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). We try to raise awareness of the quality, and not of the quantity, of educational outputs and inputs by introducing quality-based correction of the DEA efficiency score, which we regard as effectiveness. Our results show that quality considerations affect the relative positions of countries regarding their efficiency scores. In other words, some less developed countries, which are efficient in the quantity-based model, fail to reach the defined efficiency border when considering some quality indicators of outputs. On the other hand, some inefficient developed countries increase their DEA-based ranking and achieve effectiveness (quality-based efficiency). The same is true for input quality considerations. Since tertiary education cannot be expected to provide the same quality of outcomes with different input qualities, efficiency improves (deteriorates) in the input-output quality-based model in many countries with low (high) quality student bases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature concerned in fiscal federalism and fiscal decentralization promotes the sub-national responsibility for sub-national resources and spending. In this paper sub-national tax revenues are compared to total tax revenues expressing the tax decentralization for the sample of EU 28 countries. Beside it, the main part of sub-national taxes, the immovable property tax -- tax on land building or other structure, is compared to total sub-national tax revenues. Using the GMM system estimation determinants of sub-national tax revenues, real estate tax revenues and tax decentralization are investigated on the sample of EU countries. Results show the significant negative relation between GDP per capita growth, population density and inflation rate and all variables in question. In the case of sub-national government real estate tax revenues the positive relation with public debt is observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The topic of financial inclusion has gained increased attention, on the background of international frameworks and policies devoted to inclusive societies, inclusive financial systems, sustainable and inclusive growth. However, existing literature and practice lack a generally accepted, reliable and easy to interpret quantitative measure of financial inclusion. The novelty of our paper relies on developing a financial inclusion index, comprising an updated set of indicators which account for current developments of the financial industry and the continuous diversification and complementarity of financial products people have access to. It is the first study comprising all the 28 EU countries and covering a large, recent time horizon (2008-2013). The index has been computed for each year considered and a ranking has been provided to comparatively assess the evolution of a given country on the financial inclusion scale. Our findings revealed that one-third of EU countries show moderate financial inclusion, while the remaining ones depict low financial inclusion, with different degrees of severity. A constant presence at the bottom limit of financial inclusion, in each of the six years, has been Romania. This result reflects a reality, namely the lack of official concern from authorities and financial institutions in respect of monitoring, measuring and stimulating financial inclusion. We believe that the index proposed in this paper could act not only for assessing the degree of inclusion at a given moment of time, but also as a tool for monitoring and signaling the imperative involvement of regulators, financial institutions and civil society in designing and implementing policies and programs for enhancing inclusive financial products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This article explores the main determinants of youth unemployment in Europe in the period 2002 to 2014 by estimating panel data models for the 28 Member States of the European Union (EU). Heterogeneity is acknowledged by estimating models for subsamples of countries with “high” and “low” youth unemployment rates. The main results suggest that youth unemployment is more pronounced in countries with poor GDP growth, a low share of construction activity and high public debt. Reduced mobility (owing to homeownership), corruption, reception of a high level of remittances and a lack of possibilities for young people to live outside parental homes are also important factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Management Issues / Problemy Zarządzania is the property of Problemy Zarzadzania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The aim of the study is to determine the pace and directions of changes (understood as: improvement or deterioration) occurring in selected areas of sustainable development of EU Member States. The paper analyzes dynamics of changes in selected areas of sustainable development monitored on the basis of headline indicators published by Eurostat from 2008 to 2015. In the paper, three variants of reference points of synthetic measure of development were considered. On the basis of the obtained results, the countries in which the improvement in the sustainable development and its deterioration can be observed were identified. The results have confirmed the existence of significant developmental disparities between EU Member States in this field, but it should be noted that the obtained results depend on the methodological approach both to the selection of features and the adoption of a specific standardization formula, as well as the considered variants of reference points. The results obtained can be utilized in subsequent years to examine the directions of change observed both from the point of view of European Union as one organization, and the individual EU Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War in Europe, mass media from capitalist countries transmitted programmes to socialist nations and disputed local audience. The last ones defended themselves with radio jamming and improved their programmes to attract watchers. But this paper focuses on another type of resistance and its limits - actually, a counterattack: in late 1980s, many TV stations from socialist European countries transmitted to the capitalist nations in the continent. This paper aims to demonstrate how these transmissions were permanently conducted at that time by recreating the coverage maps of those stations, according to their real technical parameters and to geographical conditions. It concludes that some of the TV programmes from socialist countries were received and could be watched in capitalist Europe, despite language and technical barriers. The influence of socialist broadcasters' programmes in capitalist Europe remains unclear, though. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The European Union (EU) and its European neighbourhood are mutually dependent. In the next decades, the EU will need to import foreign labour in response to different challenges. The geographical proximity, economic, cultural and historical links with EU Neighbouring countries make them an important potential source of labour force and, moreover, they are the main countries of origin and transit of legal and illegal migration towards Europe. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of different EU policies on future migration flows, and to evaluate the current effect of immigration from neighbouring countries on EU labour markets. Design/methodology/approach – The papers in this Special Issue combine different macro and micro approaches, and have been produced in the context of the seventhth Framework Programme EU-funded SEARCH project. The main objective of this project is to strengthen the integration process by analysing current and future trends in several areas covering trade, migration or institutional reforms among others. The first three papers focus on the analysis of the determinants of migration flows, the next four are related to immigrants’ integration and the last one explores the trade-migration link. Findings – The evidence gathered in this Special Issue is of interest to academics and policy makers. For instance, at the aggregate level there is a need to coordinate EU migration policies with reforms in other areas such as labour market institutions or welfare systems, but also to take into account developments in immigrants’ countries of origin. Policy should focus on assessing the skills levels of immigrants and providing assistance in transferring their skills, but also on providing better information of the current needs in the EU labour markets. Originality/value – The Special Issue adds to the literature on the determinants of migration and on the integration of immigrants into EU labour markets. These papers contribute to a better understanding of the complex link between the EU and the Neighbouring countries. They also leave open many questions that should clearly stimulate future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aim of the paper is to identify the types of capitalism in the Eurasian transition economies in comparison with the other European countries and evaluate the influence of the recent global crisis on the institutional organization of these states. The paper uses cluster analysis for identifying the types of capitalism. The paper identifies 3 basic groups (core and periphery of the EEA and the other transition economies) and 10 sub-clusters in the European area. According to the results, only Estonia is at the same level as the core of the EEA, whilst the rest of the EU-8 economies and Montenegro with the Mediterranean economies comprise the periphery. In general, CEECs and EU Balkan States have higher quality institutional environment, but on the basis of the analysis of the selected indicators (economic growth, inflows of FDI and unemployment), these economies were impacted more by the recent global crisis than part of the Balkan and post-soviet countries in the clusters "2a" and "2c". For the losing economies, one can consider subcluster "2d" (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The functioning of patent pools leads to specific benefits in the transfer of technologies, and it accelerates technological advancement and provides easy access to technologies. Therefore, one could expect that the European Union (EU) - an organization which attempts to gain competitive advantage of its economy on the basis of knowledge and technology - should support patent pools. However, due to the possibility of anti-competitive practices, the functioning of patent pools is subject to EU legislation and competition laws. In this context patent pools pose a challenge in the area of reconciling the process of supporting technological advancement with the protection of fair competition. The paper presents an analysis of EU regulations in the area of patent pools. The author assesses the pro- and anti-competitive effects of activities carried out by patent pools. The further part of the paper discusses an evolution of the EU's approach to such organizations, presenting specific patent pool laws in the context of technology transfer agreements. Finally, the author presents some specific problems and future changes related to EU competition laws with respect to patent pools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several EU countries import wood pellets from the south-eastern United States. The imported wood pellets are (co-)fired in power plants with the aim of reducing overall greenhouse gas ( GHG) emissions from electricity and meeting EU renewable energy targets. To assess whether GHG emissions are reduced and on what timescale, we construct the GHG balance of wood-pellet electricity. This GHG balance consists of supply chain and combustion GHG emissions, carbon sequestration during biomass growth and avoided GHG emissions through replacing fossil electricity. We investigate wood pellets from four softwood feedstock types: small roundwood, commercial thinnings, harvest residues and mill residues. Per feedstock, the GHG balance of wood-pellet electricity is compared against those of alternative scenarios. Alternative scenarios are combinations of alternative fates of the feedstock materials, such as in-forest decomposition, or the production of paper or wood panels like oriented strand board ( OSB). Alternative scenario composition depends on feedstock type and local demand for this feedstock. Results indicate that the GHG balance of wood-pellet electricity equals that of alternative scenarios within 0-21 years (the GHG parity time), after which wood-pellet electricity has sustained climate benefits. Parity times increase by a maximum of 12 years when varying key variables (emissions associated with paper and panels, soil carbon increase via feedstock decomposition, wood-pellet electricity supply chain emissions) within maximum plausible ranges. Using commercial thinnings, harvest residues or mill residues as feedstock leads to the shortest GHG parity times (0-6 years) and fastest GHG benefits from wood-pellet electricity. We find shorter GHG parity times than previous studies, for we use a novel approach that differentiates feedstocks and considers alternative scenarios based on (combinations of) alternative feedstock fates, rather than on alternative land uses. This novel approach is relevant for bioenergy derived from low-value feedstocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Today the EU is being confronted with internal and external economic challenges. They may become a threat of European stability. Significant strategies must be implemented for the promotion of a sustainable development reflected in economic resilience. The paper deals with the question of boosting the competitiveness of the EU via a rapid implementation of the trust-like mechanisms- "analogues" of the common law trust. It is mainly oriented on the method of a comparative analysis and presents certain prorated fruitful ways of rapid implementation of the trust-like devices in civil law jurisdictions. The outcomes of the paper will be useful for the successful planning of the European entrusting processes, because they indicate to the necessity of the implementation of the American models of mutual funds and the beginning of the utilization of an express trust, which will serve a great variety of socio-economic purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the idea that EU has to reformate as a result of the latest challenges, including the Brexit. A possible effect and opportunity from this can be a stronger position for the EU Balkan Member States. The analysis in the paper takes into consideration all Balkan economies, including candidate countries in order to obtain a general approach for the region. This approach is new because it puts together member and candidate members from a region, in the context of re-evaluating the EU, and leads to the idea of finding a regional leader able to generate regional progress and to support the region's interests in the European Institutions. The analysis covers five representative economic indicators (GDP growth rate, gross fixed capital formation, unemployment rate, inflation rate and general government gross debt) and is realized on three levels: a comparative analyses, a cluster analysis, and a cumulative analysis as well. Moreover, regression is used in order to point out the economic disparities across the region. The main conclusion of the analysis is that the great regional economic disparities can be decrease using common regional policies. Moreover, the analysis identifies a regional economic leader able to coordinate common initiatives at least on short and medium terms. The analysis and the conclusions in the paper are supported by the latest official statistic data, pertinent tables and diagrams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the evolution of the olives for consumption market in the world and in the European Union during 2000/1-2015/16. Table olives are an important source of food because they contain high-quality fats and provide significant intake of antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, etc. For the analysis of the olives market in the world and in the European Union a number of specific indicators such as production, consumption, import and export were used. The market-specific indicators analyzed in the paper posted significant increases in the 2015/16 season as compared to the 2000/1 season. This demonstrates the increase in human consumption of table olives, mainly due to the positive impact on global population health. Worldwide, the main olive-growing countries are also the main olive-exporting countries (European Union, Egypt, Turkey). At the level of the European Union, Spain, Greece and Portugal occupy the top positions in the production and export ranking. The statistical data that led to the analysis of this market were taken from the International Olive Oil Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial structure of enterprises is constantly a subject of research of many academics. Despite the fact that many scientific studies deal with this area of financial management, the research is mostly focused on industrial companies. In our opinion, there is a wide scope for research into the segment of agricultural enterprises and their financial structure, as well. The aim of the paper is, therefore, to analyse the direction and intensity of action of the selected internal corporate factors and external factors of the macro-environment on the financial structure of Czech and Slovak agricultural enterprises and to identify differences in the action of these factors between the Czech and Slovak companies. The methods of multiple regression and correlation analysis have been used as the main research methods. The achieved results pointed at the fact that in addition to the internal corporate factors, the external factors of the macro-environment were also statistically highly significant for certain groups of agricultural enterprises. The paper also points to some diff erences in the direction and intensity of action of the chosen factors on the examined level of debt -- the total indebtedness and the credit indebtedness of the studied agricultural enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Th e main objective of the paper is to identify the impact of the Russian agrarian import ban on imports of certain agricultural products from Europe, Norway, Canada, the USA and Australia. Th e import ban particularly aff ected the import of competitive agricultural and foodstuff commodities into Russia. Th e ban was the result of the political and security tensions existing between the Russian Federation and the Western World, since early 2014. If we take into consideration the volume of the mutual trade and the importance of the mutual trade for each of the stakeholders mentioned above, it can be assumed that the main objectives of the Russian embargo was not to hurt the individual countries - especially the European Union, but rather to support domestic producers in order to achieve a higher level of self-sufficiency in basic agricultural products. It is evident that the objective of the applied import ban is to reduce the dependence of the Russian Federation on imports. Th is paper provides an analysis of the most aff ected product groups and products, especially in relation to the EU countries. Th e paper provides the following fi ndings: Th e result of the applied import ban was a significant reduction of the Russian agrarian import value. Th e import ban also improved the overall competitiveness of the Russian agricultural trade, whilst on the other hand, the competitiveness of some commodity groups was reduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the peculiarities of public expenditure on education and health care in eight EU countries grouped by population. Trends in the outcomes are revealed. Applying correlation and regression analysis to Eurostat data, the significance of influence of these expenditure on GDP during 2011-2019 is determined. It is established that health care expenditure have a positive effect in all countries, while education expenditure have not had a significant impact on economic development in some countries. These expenditure are proven to have a varying influence on GDP depending on budget capacity of any given country, government priorities, effectiveness of use and support for dynamic financing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are struggling with internal and external macroeconomic and social factors in their catching-up strategies to be closer, as economic wealth, to the Western developed European countries. In these ex-communist countries, institutional factors could be seen as critical for success in narrowing the income gap. The paper proposes an analysis of the impact of economic and financial development and globalization on the income gap in 11 Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic and Slovenia) for the period of 1996 to 2019, taking into consideration institutional factors. The study analyses the variables: transition coefficient as a proxy for income gap, GDP per capita, KOF Financial Globalisation Index, Financial Development Index and World Bank Institutional Indicators in a panel approach methodology and estimation of FMOLS and DOLS equations. The paper's findings show that all considered factors have a significant contribution to the income gap in the examined period of time. Economic and financial development, as well as institutional quality, is positively associated with the closing income gap, while globalization has a negative influence. It is also revealed the direction of the causality relationship between the considered variables: from economic and financial development, globalization and institutional quality to the income gap. These findings suggest some policy recommendations in support of the continuation of the European integration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers how social justice influences EU financial consumer law. It provides a new way of looking at social justice in consumer law by showing that equality of status based social justice has increasingly come to the fore in modern EU financial consumer law. This emergent and complex set of private and regulatory rules on credit, insurance, investment and payment products has responded to the consequences of inequality between financial firms and consumers by engaging in product and rights regulation that balances the parties' rights and duties and protects consumers from the consequences of status-based inequality. Looking forward the paper recommends that this social justice approach must be made transparent and become an express part of EU law and policy, both in order to raise consumer trust in the internal market and to more clearly set the future law and policy agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maritime industry has deep roots in Europe. International ports and Inland water ways are in use by European merchants in the course of their trade all along the history. Formation of the European Union and Single European Market has increased the importance of maritime transport even more than before. Currently, industry is regulated at the Union level with body of law which intends to create a safe and predictable business environment for European and foreign enterprises. However, shared nature of the EU with her Member States in regulating Maritime Transport has created a big question mark for many external parties as well as European stack holders of Maritime industry. The question is who can represent EU maritime industry externally and where to draw the limits of Union and Member States Competencies in this industry? At the midst of the second decade of 21th Century, still many international businesses and even foreign governments wonder about limits of external competencies of the EU in maritime industry. Such confusion creates trouble for foreigners and even Europeans in determining where should they referee their matters to the Commission and where should they approach Member States? In this paper, author tries to answer above mentioned question by scrutinizing external and internal challenges facing the EU about its competencies to represent maritime industries outside of her boundaries. Paper is divided into five main sections. After introductory comments, second part will discuss maritime policy and its regulation in the EU. In third part with particular focus on the EU-IMO relations, paper will analyse external challenges facing the Union in representing her maritime industry in international organizations. Forth part will take a look at internal challenges and regulatory limits which affect the extremal representation of maritime industry by the Union. Final part is dedicated to concluding remarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to appeal as one of the fundamental human rights is foreseen by international legal acts and domestic legislation. In this scientific paper we have handled the right to appeal under article 6 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Kosovo legislation, with special emphasis on contested procedure by including the appeal against judgment and the appeal against ruling, the grounds of appeal against judgment and limitation of appeal grounds against several judgments. All those abovementioned matters are the main object of review in this scientific paper. Handling the right to appeal against the first instance court judgment is important also due to the fact that in Kosovo according to the new Law on Courts as a competent court to review and decide on appeal submitted by the appellant is the Court of Appeals as a second instance court. In this scientific paper we have used normative, deductive, descriptive methods. At the end of this scientific paper there are conclusions in relation of the right to appeal with special emphasis on contested procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we contribute to the literature on determining the real exchange rate by using models that incorporate structural breaks and nonlinearities. We estimate cointegrated dynamic ordinary least squares regressions and quantile regressions. We find that the estimated coefficients for the EU members from central and eastern Europe are different to those for the other member states. We also find that the models are different before and after the crisis that started in 2008, and this affects the outcome of the long-run equations for the EU15 + Cyprus and Malta. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shadow economy is a perennial, multifaceted and hard to gauge phenomenon that affects to some degree all countries. Scientific research needs to develop rigorous and internationally comparable metrics of shadow economy in order to avoid possible misunderstanding, exaggeration and sometimes bad intentions concerning the assessment of shadow economy, corruption and fiscal fraud. Considering the limitations of single shadow economy indicators we propose a more comprehensive measurement based on a new synthetic shadow economy index (SSEI). This index encompasses three relevant indicators, namely the size of shadow economy per capita, the shadow economy relative to GDP and the countries' shares in EU total shadow economy. The analysis covered the period 1999 to 2012 and the results indicated that some of the developed EU countries, rather than the new members, are on top positions of the shadow economy. We also found a sigma convergence trend in shadow economy size and intensity among EU-28 countries over 1999-2012. The main conclusion of our paper is that the analyses of shadow economy should be based on a set of relevant indicators, instead of a single indicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analysis the Euro area's growth over the last 15-20 years and provides a medium term outlook. We find that in a no policy change scenario, growth will be subdued, essentially reflecting the influence of weak pre-crisis trends, most notably for TFP (especially since the mid-1990's). This trend will be exacerbated over the coming decade by the ongoing negative fallout from the financial crisis and by the emerging drag on growth emanating from ageing populations. Unlike in standard recessions, the GDP losses relative to a pre-crisis projection appear to be permanent. The picture presented could potentially improve with the implementation of an ambitious programme of structural reforms focussed on boosting employment and productivity. Since the usefulness of such policies is controversial in the current juncture with constrained monetary policy, the paper also looks at the impact of such reforms in a realistically calibrated model and concludes that fears of large permanent deflationary effects from structural reforms are exaggerated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the impact of decreasing MFI interest rates on household deposits and saving goals in 12 Monetary Union member countries in the years 2009-2015. It analyses tendencies in household deposits (overnight, with agreed maturity and redeemable at notice), and att empts to link them with certain household saving motives (target, retirement and precautionary). The paper identifies those deposit categories which appeared as sensitive to declining interest rates and indicates the Eurozone countries whose populations are expected to revise their savings plans. Precise implications are drawn for target saving motives of households in Austria, Cyprus and Malta. However, in the case of two other motives, the analysis does not conclude on the impact of decreasing MFI interest rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of International Relations / Medzinarodne Vztahy is the property of University of Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of International Relations and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper is focused on assessment of the transport services in small towns. Current legislation in the Slovak Republic, however, does not clearly determine which cities must provide the urban public transport (UPT). Analysis of the current state of the UPT evaluated 71 district towns of the SR and it was found out that 21 towns did not provide operation of the UPT. Another criterion for evaluation was the number of inhabitants of the city over 10,000 in Slovakia and selected regions of the Czech Republic and Poland. The paper presents results of a research conducted in the area of a transport operation, along with a proposal for the content of the methodology, based on a multi-criterial analysis to assess the need to introduce the UPT. The EU research results, regarding dependency of a GDP size and transport performances in UPT in selected EU states, Switzerland and Norway, are presented, as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The two main anomalies characterizing Initial Public Offerings (IPOs) in Europe, initial underpricing and long run underperformance, are analyzed using a sample of 437 IPOs over the period 1997-2011. The paper focuses on three highly developed European countries (Italy, France and Germany), and studies the two anomalies across different industries. The three countries are found to have a broadly similar trend in the short run anomaly, but more significant differences in long run underperformance. Industry is not found to be a determinant of underpricing or long run performance. Unlike previous literature, this paper focuses on homogeneous Eurozone countries considering the recent financial crisis period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper analyses one of the most important and discussed economic topics, namely foreign direct investments, from the point of view of their possible theoretical contingency with the gross domestic product per capita, which up to a certain extent stand for the welfare of a nation. Out of the 28 belonging to the European Union, six countries, the lowest ranked in respect to this indicator, namely: Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary and Poland, are analysed from the perspective of net FDI inflows and FDI inflow share in GDP. The results are construed in comparison with one another. The paper reveals that there is indeed a connection between the level of GDP per capita, the level of net FDI inflows and the living standard of the population, although sometimes such results are not strongly confirmed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research, development and innovation hold a prominent position in national economies and the public sector. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the role of public research in EU countries with focus on selected indicators of research and development (R&D). The area in focus is total R&D expenditures and public R&D expenditures in years 2010 and 2015. The author also strives to analyze other R&D indicators in EU countries, pointing out the similarities and differences in the particular countries. The analysis concentrates on not only the selected indicators of public R&D, but also a comprehensive evaluation and role of public research in EU countries. EU countries are evaluated on the basis of indicators of public R&D by means of factor analysis, cluster analysis and box-plot, divided into four clusters depending on internal similarity in 2015. The most marked differences were observed in indicators of public research (R&D public expenditures as % of total R&D expenditures, researchers in public sector as % of total researchers, number of publications per 1000 researchers in the public sector, number of citable publications per 1000 researchers in the public sector) in the first cluster in comparison to the third cluster. In case of the indicator H-index (per 1000 researchers in the public sector) the most marked differences were observed in most countries of the second cluster in comparison to countries of the fourth cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interconnections for cross-border electricity trade improve price convergence and welfare. Increased production from variable renewables however implies higher levels of optimal interconnection capacity than in the past. Rather than using scenario building to determine new optimal levels of interconnection capacity, this paper presents a new methodology for Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) based on empirical market data, using the French-German electricity trade as an example. Employing a very fine dataset of hourly supply and demand curves (aggregated auction curves) from the EPEX Spot market, it constructs net export (NEC) and net import demand curves (NIDC) for both countries. This allows assessing hourly welfare impacts for incremental capacity and, summed over the year, the annual welfare benefits for each discrete increase in interconnection capacity. Confronting benefits with the annualised costs of increasing interconnection capacity determines the socially optimal increase in interconnection capacity between France and Germany on the basis of empirical market micro-data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural R&D has been identified as an important determinant of economic output in the agricultural sector. Surprisingly, in previous studies, spatial spillover associated with R&D spending in the agricultural sector has not been taken into account. This paper investigates the effects of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional economic growth across EU-28 NUTS-II regions in the period 1995-2014. In particular, we extend previous studies by considering spillover in all sectors of agricultural R&D performance including business enterprise, government and higher education. The spatial Durbin panel data model is employed to estimate brooders effect including direct and indirect effects. Empirical results show a positive effect of agricultural R&D and its spatial spillover on regional growth in all performance sectors. Moreover, the impact of spatial spillover of agricultural R&D on regional growth depends on the performance of the R&D sectors; positive spillovers are stronger in the business enterprise sector. Finally, the interaction effect between the economic output of the agricultural sector of each region with that of its neighbours is significantly positive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper studies the pattern of technical change at the firm level by applying and extending the Quantal Response Statistical Equilibrium model (QRSE). The model assumes that a large number of cost minimizing firms decide whether to adopt a new technology based on the potential rate of cost reduction. The firm in the model is assumed to have a limited capacity to process market signals so there is a positive degree of uncertainty in adopting a new technology. The adoption decision by the firm, in turn, makes an impact on the whole market through changes in the factor-price ratio. The equilibrium distribution of the model is a unimodal probability distribution with four parameters, which is qualitatively different from the Walrasian notion of equilibrium in so far as the state of equilibrium is not a single state but a probability distribution of multiple states. This paper applies Bayesian inference to estimate the unknown parameters of the model using the firm-level data of seven advanced OECD countries over eight years and shows that the mentioned equilibrium distribution from the model can satisfactorily recover the observed pattern of technical change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of integration and future developments within the European Union (EU) covers the issues of environmental protection, sustainable development and energy efficiency. These issues are becoming a significant part of economic and social development and appear as a factor for assessing the competitiveness of the EU countries. Therefore, this paper focuses on: the implementation of achieving the climate and energy objectives in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy, the environmental sustainability of EU countries under the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and the assessment of the competitiveness of the EU countries on the basis of ecological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable management of aquatic ecosystems requires better coordination between policies span-ning freshwater, coastal and marine environments. Ecosystem-based management (EBM) has been promoted as a holistic and integrative approach for the safekeeping and protection of aquatic biodiversity. The paper assesses the degree to which key European environmental policies for the aquatic environment, namely the Birds and Habitats Directives, Water Framework Directive and Marine Strategy Framework Directive, individually support EBM and can work synergistically to implement EBM. This assessment is based on a review of legal texts, EU guidance and implementation documents. The paper concludes that EBM can be made operational by implementing these key environmental directives. Opportunities for improving the integration of EU environmental policies are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The finding of the paper shows the relative effectiveness of the 'one size fits all' policy of the European Central Bank. The paper provides strong evidence in favor of this by testing whether the monetary policy effects (footprints) found in inflation uncertainty converge to a common level. These footprints are measured as the fraction of the estimated policy-induced reduction in this uncertainty. The testing was conducted by applying a bootstrap-type test in a regression of the rate of growth of these fractions on their initial values, computed for 16 euro area countries. ( JEL C33, E52, E58) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The premise of this paper is that the current motivation for rethinking the European project in terms of a "profound reformation" has a character at least partially caducous, and that rethinking the European project according to the "multi-speed" dimension and in a "non-limitative" perspective represents in fact not only the intention to fasten and deepen the Union of "different paces and intensity", and thus to deepen the existing multi-speed and multi-tier Union, but also to establish a different path for Europe than that of the United Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]