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Copyright of Athenaeum: Polskie Studia Politologiczne is the property of Faculty of Political Science & Security Studies Nicolaus Copernicus University 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 purpose of this study was to evaluate the financial performances of the publicly held healthcare companies in crisis periods in Türkiye. The 2018 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis were included in the study as the crisis periods. We collected the financial data of the publicly held healthcare companies and calculated three liquidity, three turnover, three leverage and three profitability ratios through ratio analysis to use as financial performance indicators. We then conducted Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and we performed separate analyses for the 2018 economic crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. The results of the analyses showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the publicly held healthcare companies' liquidity, turnover, leverage, profitability ratios and thus their financial performances before the crises and after the crises. While the results are reassuring and give valuable insights to managers and policy makers to determine the areas that needs to be strengthened to be better prepared for possible future crises, our sample was limited. Therefore, this study presents an exploratory foundation for future studies which are needed to make a case for financial stability for the publicly held healthcare companies before and after the crisis periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to answer the question posed in the title: are representatives of the economics profession responsible for causing and course of economic crises? The authors made a critical review of the literature on the subject, both world and Polish. The conducted considerations allowed for the conclusion that the difficulties of economists in the struggle with understanding and explaining economic crises result from two main groups of causes: endogenous and endogenous in relation to economic sciences. The article consists of three parts. The first deals with the issue of the ability to explain crises by modern economic sciences in the context of their essence, functions and peculiarities. The subject of considerations in the second part is the impact of economists on the real economy, in particular the channels of economic knowledge transmission and the related issue of responsibility for economic crises. In the next part, the field of considerations has been further expanded, and attention has been focused on deciding whether in the practice of the functioning of the modern market economy we are dealing rather with repetitive but transient crises of capitalism, or we are experiencing a crisis of capitalism as a socio-economic order.

Copyright of Journal of Modern Science is the property of Alcide De Gasperi University of Euroregional Economy 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 manifestation of the world economic crisis at 2007 and its consequences have brought the European economy and, more specifically, the Greek economy in front of new challenges for adjustment to the new era. In 2010, Greece adopted a fiscal adjustment programme in order to fix the fiscal weaknesses of its economy. This fiscal adjustment programme was completed on 20 August 2018, eight years after its adoption. Adopting the fiscal consolidation process had certain implications for specific sectors of the Greek economy. For this reason, the aim of this article is to examine the political economy of the health sector in Greece, and the implications of the economic crisis. The health sector is crucial for the productive capabilities of a national economy. The study of the health sector of Greece after the adoption of the fiscal adjustment programme is going to reveal the extent to which it is capable of confronting public health challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis focuses on the economic effects of the economic crisis on the health sector and the prospects of the Greek economy's productive capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we emphasize the political causes of the crisis in order to evaluate not only whether these have been the main factors behind the economic crisis (particularly over the last decade), but also whether these can be considered the main factors for the failure of Greek and European officials to overcome the economic crisis. Over the last ten years, there has been something of a deterioration of the political variables and we are now faced with a question of whether we can begin to talk about a way out of the crisis. As per our argument, despite the acceptance of new institutional rules for the efficient operation of the economy through the memoranda of understanding, Greece's performance has worsened in terms of its political and institutional governance indicators over the last decades. This fact is particularly worrying because it highlights an overall failure to change the political conditions that affect the overall quality of life and prosperity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten years after the outbreak of economic crisis in Greece, it is deemed necessary to redefine the economic and political conditions in Greece and to answer the question of whether Greece has succeeded in overcoming the crisis. For this reason, the main objective of this special issue entitled 'Eurozone and the Greek Economic Crisis in 2020: Current Challenges and Prospects' is to analyze and re-examine the current economic and political conditions in Greece in various policy areas and to determine whether Greece has succeeded in achieving the last decade objectives both politically and economically. In this special issue we follow rather an interdisciplinary approach with a special focus on political economy which gives us the opportunity to examine the issue of the economic crisis in Greece, through a wider field of understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The implementation of community-based health insurance in (CBHI) in Rwanda has reduced out of pocket (OOP) spending for the > 79% of citizens who enroll in it but the effect for surgical patients is not well described. For all but the poorest citizens who are completely subsidized, the OOP (out of pocket) payment at time of service is 10%. However, 55.5% of the population is below the international poverty line meaning that even this copay can have a significant impact on a family's financial health. The aim of this study was to estimate the burden of OOP payments for cesarean sections in the context of CBHI and determine if having it reduces catastrophic health expenditure (CHE).Methods: This study is nested in a larger randomized controlled trial of women undergoing cesarean section at a district hospital in Rwanda. Eligible patients were surveyed at discharge to quantify household income and routine monthly expenditures and direct and indirect spending related to the hospitalization. This was used in conjunction with hospital billing records to calculate the rate of catastrophic expenditure by insurance group.Results: About 94% of the 340 women met the World Bank definition of extreme poverty. Of the 330 (97.1%) with any type of health insurance, the majority (n = 310, 91.2%) have CBHI. The average OOP expenditure for a cesarean section and hospitalization was $9.36. The average cost adding transportation to the hospital was $19.29. 164 (48.2%) had to borrow money and 43 (12.7%) had to sell possessions. The hospital bill alone was a CHE for 5.3% of patients. However, when including transportation costs, 15.4% incurred a CHE and including lost wages, 22.6%.Conclusion: To ensure universal health coverage (UHC), essential surgical care must be affordable. Despite enrollment in universal health insurance, cesarean section still impoverishes households in rural Rwanda, the majority of whom already lie below the poverty line. Although CBHI protects against CHE from the cost of healthcare, when adding in the cost of transportation, lost wages and caregivers, cesarean section is still often a catastrophic financial event. Further innovation in financial risk protection is needed to provide equitable UHC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to explore the economic distress and pertinent coping strategies in families with a member suffering from a severe mental illness. Furthermore it endeavors to gauge the impact of illness burden and that of the Greek recession on economic distress, while disentangling their contribution. In total, 190 key relatives of people with severe mental illness were recruited from community mental health services in the region of Attica. Relatives completed a self-reported questionnaire consisting of the Index of Personal Economic Distress, the Family Burden scale and the Family Rituals scale. Information on financial strategies for tackling recession and income loss due to the recession was also gleaned. Regarding economic distress, only 15% had frequent difficulty meeting routine financial demands in their household. The preponderant strategy was spending savings (56.8%). Income category and spending less on basic needs were the main predictors of economic distress. Objective poverty indices rather than burden predicted economic distress to a greater extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent did the 2010 economic crisis in Europe accentuate voters' perceptual bias of parties' ideological positions? This article investigates the perceptions of voters concerning the left–right positioning of parties by testing the displacement theory effects. Two moments in time are considered: before and after the economic crisis emerged (2009 and 2014), covering a sample of seven European countries (countries most and least affected by the crisis). It is argued displacement effects have increased after the emergence of the crisis, especially right-wing contrast effects in those countries most affected. Analysis using micro-level data from the European Election Studies (2009–2014) and party-level data from the Chapel Hill experts' survey (2006–2014) supports the study's primary argument. The findings presented below show general support for these propositions, making an important contribution regarding applying the displacement theory to different economic contexts, and globally to the study of democratic accountability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is disagreement on the specific mechanism through which the economic recession increased suicides in Greece. Unemployment is considered by many authors to be the determining factor but the data are inconclusive and often negative, especially concerning the temporal relationship between onset of increase in unemployment and increase in suicides AIMS: The aim of this paper was to clarify the specific role of unemployment as well as of other socioeconomic variables on specific age-by-gender groups concerning the increase in suicides.Methods: Data of the Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT (www.Statistics: gr) were analyzed with Linear Regression Analysis and Bonferroni correction for multiple testing RESULTS: Unemployment correlates with suicide rates only in males aged 20-24, 50-54 and 60-64 years (p < 0.001). Unemployment could held responsible for an additional 148 male deaths during the period 2009-2015, which accounts for 5.3% of the total (29 additional deaths per year). The changes in all the socioeconomic conditions could held responsible for 317 cases of suicide or 9.4% of total CONCLUSIONS: The results of the current study suggest that there was a 33% increase in deaths by suicide in Greece during the early years of recession (2009-2015); one third could be directly attributed to unemployment, one third to other consequences of recession while another third is of unknown origin. The effect of unemployment is specifically restricted to males at the beginning of their working career (20-24 years old) and to middle aged (45-49 and 55-59 years old). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Televisión del Principado de Asturias (TPA) is a regional public television that has been operating in Spain since 2005 by outsourcing part of its broadcasting activities. From the perspective of the political economy of communication and culture, this article studies the evolution of TPA's outsourcing model, taking into account the production of news content. The time of the analysis extends from the start of its broadcasting to its last tender in this respect, in 2016. Initially, with the goal of promoting the regional audiovisual sector, TPA implemented a contracting model divided into content batches that were allocated to various companies, mostly regional. By doing so, the activities of production were distributed into different territorial areas. However, after the economic crisis of 2008, the confluence of several factors (economic austerity measures, the political change in the regional government and a torrent of lawsuits for illegal transfer of workers) changed the outsourcing model. Currently, the complete activity of production is concentrated on a sole tenderer, which is part of an audiovisual conglomerate at the national level, selected because of proposing the most advantageous economic offer. This has represented a reduction in the diversity of sources of production contracted and the triumph of an economic mindset over social benefit and public service in the socio-economic contexts of austerity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why is it that when debating the economic crisis, actors in the Portuguese parliament invoke more frequently countries affected by the crisis, whereas actors in the Spanish parliament invoke economically well-off countries more often? This article explores this mystery by studying how and why certain countries are evoked in the decision-making process. The analysis reveals that the actors mention different countries to contextualize the nation. We argue the actors in these two countries resort to different reference groups to identify or distance the nation in this concrete period even if they present similar challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An influential body of scholarship in political science has investigated the impact of economic crisis on various political outcomes. The vast majority of these studies rely on annual growth rates (AGR) to specify economic crisis. I argue that this canonical approach comes with several logical shortcomings. It leads to misguided impressions of crisis severity; it makes no distinction between rapid expansion years and rapid recovery years; and it disregards the financial dimension of economic crises. I present and discuss three alternative approaches of measuring economic crisis, imported from economics: economic shocks, economic slumps, and measures of financial crises. Examples from the regime instability literature demonstrate that these alternative crisis measurements provide results that are theoretically more nuanced and empirically more robust. On this basis, the article encourages researchers to pay more attention to the way they measure economic crisis in general and to supplement the AGR approach with alternative crisis measures in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2008 economic crisis signalled a new era for European and global politics and introduced a new 'economic crisis discourse', which has emerged as an attempt to explain, justify, criticize and interpret economic crisis. It has introduced new terms and constructed new meanings to political life. Media economic crisis discourse has been a decisive factor in peoples' understanding of economic crisis. The paper studies the construction and media narratives of economic crisis discourse through an analysis of articles published by The Economist during the 'peak years' of the early Greek economic crisis (2009–2011). The analysis follows Laclau and Mouffe's (1985) discourse theory and reveals the 'nodal points' of Greek crisis discourse as they are presented in the articles of The Economist. The paper underlines the importance of media discourse during crisis periods, in which information dissemination and news framing may crucially affect citizens, policies and societies in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although the effect of the recent Greek economic crisis and austerity on the population's health and the health system effectiveness have been discussed a lot recently, data on common surgical conditions affecting large part of the population are missing. Using inguinal hernia as a model we investigated possible changes of citizens' attitude regarding the time of referral, the perioperative details and the intraoperative findings of the emergency hernioplasties.Methods: The present retrospective study was conducted by a Department of Surgery in a tertiary public hospital of the Greek capital. We reviewed the records of all hernioplasties performed during two 5-year periods: 2005-2009 and 2012-2016, i.e. before and during the crisis focusing on the emergency ones (either incarcerated or strangulated).Results: An equal number of hernioplasties was performed in both periods. During the crisis however, an emergency hernioplasty was significantly more probable (HR 1.269, 95% CI 1.108-1.1454, p = 0.001), at a younger age (p = 0.04), mainly in patients younger than 75 years old (p = 0.0013). More patients presented with intestinal ischemia (7 vs 18, p = 0.002), requiring longer hospitalization (5.2 vs 9.6 days, p = 0.04), with higher cost (560 ± 262.4€ vs 2125 ± 1180.8€ p < 0.001). In contrast the percentage of patients with intestinal resection, their hospitalization length and treatment-cost remained unchanged. During the crisis there was a non-significant increase of emergency patients requiring ICU postoperatively (0 vs 4, p = 0.07) and a non-significant 60% increase of emergency operations in migrants/refugees population (3.5% vs 5.8%, p = 0.28). Epidural anesthesia was significantly more frequent during the crisis.Conclusion: During the crisis: (i) the emergency hernioplasties increased significantly, (ii) more patients (exclusively Greek) presented with intestinal ischemia requiring longer hospitalization and higher treatment cost, (iii) the mean age of the urgently treated patients decreased significantly (iv) regional (epidural) anesthesia was more frequent. Although a direct causal relation could not be proven by the present study most observations can be explained by an increase of the patients who delayed the elective treatment of their hernia, and by a redistribution of the surgical workload towards big central hospitals. This can be prevented by adequately supporting the small district hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After a complex year, with deep trends of geopolitical changes, the new year 2019 promises to be full of events in what concerns the social, economic, political and even geostrategic area. The key events of last year (the uncertain course of the Brexit, the profound lack of reforms at EU level, the year-end social events of France, the hostile manifestations of the Russian Federation towards the West, the oscillating evolution of certain European states in what concerns the values of the rule of law, the economic war between China - the United States, the Presidency of Romania to the EU Council etc.) shall greatly influence the evolution of the economy at the European and global level. This paperwork aims to analyze the main consequences of recent events on short term evolutions from the economic, social and political perspective. We also aim to analyze the realities and main potential evolutions in what concerns the economic, social and political status of this year of turning for the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - Despite numerous studies on the separate health consequences of economic crises and postmigration difficulties, very little is known about the processes through which the intersection of economic crisis and post-migration adversity contribute to migrants' health vulnerabilities. The purpose of this paper is to examine existing literature about how newly arrived and long-term migrants' health and well-being are affected by the economic crisis in Greece. Design/methodology/approach - The ongoing economic recession in Greece, combined with the recent migration crisis, provided an adequate context for investigating migrants' health and well-being. A narrative literature review was performed on whether and how migrants' health and well-being are affected by the economic and the migration crises in the particular case of Greece. Papers published between January 2010 and December 2017 were selected based on review of titles and abstracts, followed by a full text review. Findings - The review identified a surprisingly limited number of relevant studies. Ultimately five studies were selected and their findings summarised. There was only one study attempting to unravel the specific processes through which the crisis and the post-migration problems impact cumulatively on migrants' health and well-being and to suggest healthcare improvements. Further research on this topic is urgently needed. Originality/value - This paper explores existing research looking at how migrants' health and well-being are affected by the economic and the migration crises in Greece. The emerging dearth of research evidence on the above topic is also critically discussed from a socio-political point of view and recommendations are made related to healthcare practice and services set up for migrants' health and care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background There is a procyclical relationship between economic growth and occupational injury rates in the short term. Injury rates rise during periods of economic growth and fall during recessions. Aims To estimate injury rates for the manufacturing sector in Italy between 1994 and 2012 and their correlation with major macroeconomic factors and to identify a possible change in the trend of injury rates at the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis. Methods Total and annual serious injury rates were calculated for the national sector. We used a linear autoregressive model to assess the relationship between injury rates and unemployment rate/real GDP growth, and a joint-point regression analysis to analyse changes in injury rates over time. Results After adjusting for the spontaneous dynamic change in injury rates over time, both total and serious injury rates were negatively associated with unemployment rate, and significantly positively associated with real GDP growth. Manufacturing injury rates dropped after 2008. Conclusions Manufacturing injury rates are associated with major macroeconomic factors. Workplace injury rates declined between 1994 and 2012. This downward trend was further accelerated after 2008. The changes in workforce composition before and after 2008 partly explain the procyclical relationship between business conditions and injury rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media economics is the study of choices, what incentives and disincentives influence them, and how to make better choices to inform company decisions, public understanding, and policymaking. The present paper reviews the development of the field since the beginning in the 1970s with scholars such as Alfonso Nieto at the University of Navarra, Nadine Toussaint- Desmoulins at the University of Paris 2, and Karl Erik Gustafsson at the University of Gothenburg to the emerging of the field with more scholars from different countries. Nowadays the field of media economics research has matured and become multifaceted, encompassing a wide variety of theories and approaches necessary to explore multiple developments and issues in media structures and operations. It is particularly relevant because media and communications are amid a massive transformation created by technology, social changes, and changes in demand. Expansion of commercial media and personal communications, new means of production and distribution, and new economic arrangements are altering well established relationship and interactions in media. This situation requires clear mindedness and knowledge to comprehend the developments and to develop the best individual, firm, and social responses to the challenges arising from the changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2010 and the onset of the economic crisis, Finnish governments have pressed for structural reforms, including unpopular cuts to family benefits and services. This article analyses the government discourse used for legitimating some of these reforms: the cutbacks in child benefit and the restriction of full-time childcare. It also assesses whether this discourse bore the hallmarks of a neoliberal austerity discourse, which could suggest that the reforms were not just a matter of fiscal balancing but also a matter of neoliberal welfare state restructuring. We argue that the economic crisis was central in the powerful 'communicative' discourse used by the governments for legitimating unpopular cuts. Not only did it draw on ideas from an austerity discourse advocating financial sustainability, fiscal prudency and debt reduction, it was also impregnated with ideas from a neoliberal worldview questioning some of the main principles of the 'Nordic' family policy model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Aim of the study was to assess the effect of economic recession on organ donation and transplantation in Greece. Methods Retrospective data (2002-2016) provided by the Hellenic Transplant Organization (HTO), International Registry in Organ Donation and Transplantation, Eurotransplant, Scandiatransplant, National Health Service Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), and United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS) databases were analyzed. HTO database was divided into the precrisis (2002-2008) and crisis (2009-2016) era. Donation and transplantation rates between the two periods were compared. Trend estimation analysis was applied on the latter period. Results Since 2009, organ donation significantly declined without significant change in the reported brain deaths. Overall solid organ transplantations decreased (319.63 ± 70.4 from 460 ± 55.25 transplants/year, P = 0.001). Kidney transplantation rates declined (139.38 ± 29.7 from 209.43 ± 20.9 transplants/year, P = 0.000), with dramatic reduction in both deceased (99 ± 27.5 from 136.43 ± 131.4 transplants/year, P = 0.030) and living donor kidney transplantations (40.38 ± 6.1 from 73 ± 12.5 transplants/year, P = 0.000). Liver, heart, and lung transplant rates were not significantly affected; however, they have been low throughout both periods. Convertion to donation has not been affected by the crisis. Time series logistic regression of the crisis period demonstrated declining trends in organ donation, total solid organ transplantation, and deceased donor kidney, liver, and lung transplantation. In 2015, Greek organ donation rates were inferior to Eurotransplant, Scandiatransplant, NHSBT, UNOS, and Italy. Conclusions There has been a temporal correlation between the economic recession and organ donation and transplantation crisis in Greece. Irrespective of the cause, measures should be taken to reverse this in order to avert the increased morbidity and mortality on the transplant waiting list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]