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What effect, if any, do changes in the terms of trade have on the level of output (GDP) or welfare? I examine this issue through two versions of a textbook, Heckscher‐Ohlin‐Samuelson (HOS), two‐good model of a small, open economy. In the first version both goods are for final consumption. In the second, one good is an imported intermediate input into the other. In both versions, economic theory suggests that an improvement in the terms of trade raises welfare (consumption) but leaves aggregate output (GDP) unchanged. I then show that a national income accountant applying the principles of the 2008 System of National Accounts (SNA) would reach the same conclusions. This follows from a continuous‐time analysis using Divisia index numbers. However in the case where imports are intermediate inputs and competition is imperfect, an improvement in the terms of trade does raise GDP: the size of the effect depends on the size of the markup of price over marginal revenue. I argue that the continuous time Divisia approach is the right framework for national income accounting, even though it can only be implemented approximately in practice. If the aim is to find the best approximation to the Divisia index, then the chained Fisher index (as used in the US and Canadian national accounts) or the chained Törnqvist are better approximations than is the chained Laspeyres (as used in Europe). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision about the timing of retirement and actual retirement age is based on financial factors as well as personal characteristics and country-level macro indicators. The goal of this research is to examine the associations between the mentioned factors and actual retirement age while focusing on similarities and differences between European countries. The data came from 34,478 respondents in 20 countries who participated in waves 2, 4 and 5 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Using Ordinary least squares regression models, we explored associations between actual retirement age and personal as well as the country-level variables. Results reveal that higher Gross Domestic Product (GDP), higher pension spending, being a male, and being self-employed were found to be associated with higher actual retirement age, while being a female, civil servant, having fair or poor health, and secondary education were found to be associated with lower actual retirement age. The effect of net household wealth and GDP were not consistent across countries. The contribution of our study is the ability to make predictions about actual retirement age based on each country' GDP per capita, thus adding the country variables to the individual characteristics and improving our understanding concerning actual retirement age. The different effects of wealth and GDP across countries suggest that policymakers should take into account the specific effect in their country to better assess the implications of different policy measures on the actual retirement age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To explore the relationships between total fertility rate (TFR), utilization of assisted reproduction technology (ART), and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Europe. Materials and Methods: Analysis of total ART cycles obtained from the latest European IVFMonitoring Consortium (EIM) report for 2016. TFR, GDP and population size for that year were found in relevant World Bank data documents. In addition, this study compared two subgroups in Europe: developed economies and economies in transition, as defined by the UN. Pearson Correlations were calculated using Sigmaplot for utilization, GDP and TFR. Results: Forty countries were included in the 2016 EIM report. The mean utilization rate was 1,391 cycles per million population (C/M) (range = 162-3156) and mean TFR was 1.61 (range = 1.26-2.73). Mean GDP was $35,072 per capita (range = $10,610-$110,650). There was no correlation between TFR and utilization or GDP, however there was a significant positive correlation between GDP and utilization (correlation coefficient = 0.428; p=0.00661). In the developed economies (n=28) GDP and utilization were roughly 3-times higher than in the economies in transition (n=11) ($42,710 vs $15,630; 1,674 vs 671), with a slightly lower TFR (1.58 vs 1.67). In the developed economies there was no correlation between GDP, TFR, and utilization, while in the economies in transition, the only significant correlation was GDP vs TFR (r=0.69; p=0.017). Conclusions: There is a strong correlation across Europe between GDP and utilization of ART. This correlation does not exist within the developed economies. In Europe the utilization of ART treatment is dependent on national wealth and not on the TFR in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The widespread epidemic of the COVID-19 in developed countries such as Europe and the USA has sparked many speculations. What factors caused the rapid early pandemic of the COVID-19 in developed countries is the main goal of this study. We collected the main disease indicators and various environmental and economic factors in 61 countries around the world. Our results show that the number of cases is positively correlated with the country's GDP. We further analyzed the factors related to the spread of the disease. They indicate a strong positive correlation between the total patient numbers and the number of airline passengers, with an r value of 0.80. There is also a positive correlation between the number of car ownership and the total patient, with an r value of 0.35. Both the flight passengers and car ownership contribute 66% to the number of total patients. The total death numbers and the number of airline passengers are positively correlated, with an r value of 0.71. A positive correlation between the number of car ownership and the total deaths is with an r value of 0.42. The total contribution of both the flight passengers and car ownership to the number of total deaths is 57%. Our conclusion is that the main cause of the coronavirus pandemic in developed countries is related to the transportation. In other words, the number of travelers determined the early coronavirus pandemic. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen restrictions and screening of passengers at airports, especially international airports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the future of mining in Europe but in the framework of a global pandemic. We have analysed the various prognosis of global growth trends and the future of mining in Europe, on the basis of the known statistical data of what has happened so far. Several case studies are included, and a proposal of a strong EU reaction to really be successful in the plans designed when the Raw Material Initiative was planned is suggested. The incredible mining potential of the EU as well as its technological leadership is here presented to demonstrate that, if politically supported, these can bring back Europe to the leading role in mining it had in the past. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mergers and acquisitions have affected and are affecting a large number of industries in all geographical areas, with the ability to transfer very quickly both positive and negative impulses from one economy to another, so that there can be no more areas. unaffected by economic booms or economic and health crises. The aim of this research is to analyze the impact of the pandemic on mergers and acquisitions in Europe, on country risk low and country risk very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between railroad integration and regional development on the European periphery between 1870 and 1910, based on a regional data set including 291 spatial units. Railroad integration is proxied by railroad density, while per capita GDP is used as an indicator of economic development. The period under study is of particular relevance as it has been associated with the second wave of railroad construction in Europe and also coincides with the industrialization of most of the continent. Overall, we found that railroads had a significant and positive impact on the growth of per capita GDP across Europe. The magnitude of this relationship appears to be relatively modest, but the results obtained are robust with respect to a number of different specifications. From a geographical perspective, we found that railroads had a significantly greater influence on regions located in countries on the northern periphery of Europe than in other outlying areas. They also helped the economies of these areas to begin the process of catching up with the continent's industrialized core. In contrast, the regions on the southern periphery showed lower levels of economic growth, with this exacerbating the preexisting divergence in economic development. The expansion of the railroad network in them was unable to homogenize the diffusion of economic development and tended to further benefit the regions that were already industrialized. In most of the cases, the capital effect was magnified, and this contributed to the consolidation of newly created nation-states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of 2019, the new virus called Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) spread widely from China all over the world (including Europe). Most countries in Europe at the beginning of 2020 have been quarantined. The aim of the work is to develop the system dynamics model for assessing the impact of the different factors on the COVID- 19 death rate in Europe. There were tested three hypotheses about factors of reducing the COVID-19 death rate with the help of linear regression analysis. The density of the population of European countries doesn't affect the COVID-19 death rate. Also, COVID-19 death rate does not drastically affect mortality statistics. But the level of country's economic development is a factor of COVID-19 death rate because in high developed countries the pandemic death rate is lower, regardless of the mechanisms of the spread of the disease and its impact on human health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays the amount of money that a state is allocating for the defense is very important, along with the education and health. In this paper we have analyzed, with the help of the data provided by the United Nations Human Development Report 2019 and the Global Firepower 2020 what is the situation of these expenses in the countries in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research covers an evaluation of the impact of education system, educational, scientific and other institutions on the economic growth in nine countries of Southeast Europe (SEE). The main hypothesis is the following: GDP pc growth is significant and positively correlates with the indicators of the state of education system. In addition to educational institutions, there are other social and economic indicators on which education and science depend, namely the budget and fiscal system, corruption and protection of intellectual property rights, which also have positive and significant impact on GDP pc. The stated fields are interactive. Besides GDP pc, the analysis includes another 11 variables. Factor analysis for the variables grouped into two factors shows high significance. The F-test result shows significance of the regression model. ANOVA test, too, confirms the aforementioned significance. Both variables (the first and second factor) have positive direction with GDP pc. The results show significance of the institutional-educational variable, while the impact of educational population in the model is not sufficiently significant. Econometric analysis has mainly confirmed the initial hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim/purpose - The aim of the paper is to compare and create a ranking of alternative trading systems and to investigate if there is a relationship between Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and stock indices of those markets and correlation between GDP and turnover value. Design/methodology/approach - The paper presents a comparative analysis of 13 European trading systems in such categories as: capitalisation, value of share trading, number of listed companies, number of new companies and companies removed from the market between the years 2016 and 2018. In addition, the paper includes a ranking of alternative trading systems in Europe which was created on the basis of the variables mentioned. The paper examines the correlation between GDP and indices of alternative trading systems and also between GDP and turnover value. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation. Findings - The ranking shows that the 1st place was taken by the British AIM market, which turned out to be the best in all categories under the comparison, the next two positions were occupied by the markets whose characteristic feature is that they cover several countries of the western Europe; these are the markets of First North and Alternext. The Polish market was at a fairly high 5th position among the 13 compared markets. The Greek and Russian markets came last. The relationship between the impact of GDP and index value as well as GDP and turnover value has also been examined. The research regarding the first aspect of the study confirmed the hypothesis about the correlation of GDP with the index. However, in the second case of the GDP and turnover value there is a very weak correlation. Research implications/limitations - The limitation in the correlation study was the difficulty in obtaining data for all 13 alternative trading systems taken for the study, thus comparing four markets in the GDP correlation and the value of the index and three markets in the relation GDP and turnover value. Originality/value/contribution - The added value of the paper is the ranking of alternative trading systems and study of correlations between Gross Domestic Product and stock indices of Alternative Trading Systems and turnover value of these markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovation and new information technologies have become crucial determinants to encourage competitiveness in all sectors of economy. This paper investigates the relationship between economic growth and digital skills. The analysis of the economic growth will be carried out with the help of the most representative indicator of results, respectively the gross domestic product (GDP). The starting point of the study is the analysis of the level recorded by GDP/capita and the level of digital skills for each EU member state, continuing with the perspective of the evolution of the link between the two indicators and the grouping of countries according to it. The results show similarities and dissimilarities between the EU countries and help us understand the progress of the EU28 countries towards a digital society and economy. Also, the study can be a necessary tool for decision makers, focusing on the important aspects whose evolution depends on the development of the Digital Single Market for Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing this problem of increasing or decreasing the public debt in Romania we have found that there are many debates between the contemporary economists regarding the economic development in this way. Most of the work is summed up at the very low level of budgetary revenues collected in recent years and the steady increase of budget expenditures. Public debt was and is well below the 60% of GDP ceiling set by the Maastricht Treaty. But there is a trend of economic thinking that advocates raising public debt, but which can be found in productive investments conducive to job creation and GDP growth. Our study shows that although we have quite large economic growth, however, in Romania, the lowest budget revenues in Europe are registered, due to a rise in public debt, both calculated as a percentage of GDP. This state of the economy may be the result of an asymmetry in Romania's European integration policy, the need to meet the nominal convergence criteria and the real convergence indicators that are so important to enter the eurozone. On the background of statistical data, through heuristic research, we set out to find out how best it is to roll out year on year increasing public debt for the sustainable development of the economy, or to reduce public debt in order not to leave a burden too to the future generations and to find other ways of development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coastlines have always played a major role in Europe's history. From antiquity through the early stages of colonialism and the advent of the Industrial Revolution, seashores were the economic centres of the continent. Though industrialization marked the beginning of the decreasing importance of these areas, it has been in recent decades that the significance and economic structure of coastal regions has changed completely. The importance of fisheries has declined, the hubs of the marine trade have moved to the Far East, and the significance of the tourism has increased. This article examines how the social and economic role of the European seashores--which used to have a central role in trade and the world economy--has changed in the last 10-15 years. In addition, the article studies the differences between the coastal and terrestrial regions of the European Union based on existing literature and statistics. Finally, the paper analyses some coastal areas, and examines what has led to increases or decreases of population and the economy in certain regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concepts of economic growth and unemployment are at the beginning of the most important variables in the sense that all economies are choosing and implementing economic policies. The purpose of this study to investigate the relation between economic growth and unemployment in Eastern European Countries for the period of 1992-2014 within panel data framework. In this paper this relationship has been examined in the context of Okun's Law. Panel Unit Root, Pooled Panel OLS and Panel Johansen Co-integration tests are applied respectively. The results show that the economic growth and unemployment series are stationary at first level, unemployment affected positively by economic growth, in other words 1% rise in GDP will fall the unemployment rate by 0.08% because of Okun's coefficient for Eastern European Countries and there is a co-integration between these important macroeconomic variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study's objectives are (1) application of a quantitatively sound approach to the evaluation of economic and environmental sustainability for 10 Southeast Europe (SEE) countries, including comparison with the developed countries of Germany, France and the Russian Federation, and (2) evaluation of the effects of chosen sustainability indicator weights, especially of the GDP-PPP, climate change and the income equality Gini index, as sustainability parameters. One applied scenario is with the level of sustainable economic development assessed by a traditional approach, based on high weight of GDP-PPP, and another assigns lesser weight to the GDP-PPP and higher weight to natural wealth and income equality, i.e. a 'beyond-GDP' goal. The sustainability of environmental development was determined by a common approach based on high importance of climate change indicators and an approach, perhaps more suitable for developing countries of SEE, that gives higher weight to their agriculture, forestation and energy usage. Assigning higher weights to natural wealth and social equality encouragingly demonstrated that this results in the same or higher sustainability rankings for the SEE countries, and for some even higher than those of the developed countries. Developing countries that have relatively low GHG emissions and energy use, and GDP well above the poverty level, should consider basing their sustainable development on raising the relative weights for natural wealth and income equality, and lowering it for the GDP. Methodology recommendations are offered to sustainable development planners and policy-makers. Uniformity and scientific consensus-based standardization of sustainability analysis methodology are critically needed. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to identify macroeconomic indicators that can be used as predictors of waste management on the European continent. The study was conducted taking in account the intensification of urbanizations, the increase of standard of leaving that fuels to consumerism phenomenon, and imposed challenges for waste management. The research focuses on the interval from 2010 to 2020 for 37 European countries grouped according to EU15/EU28/non-EU and EU/non-EU members. As macroeconomic indicators, human development index (HDI), GDP/capita. GNI/capita, general government expenditure with environment protection, people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, population by educational attainment level, sex, and age (%)-less than primary, primary and lower secondary education (levels 0-2) were used. A multilinear regression model with collinearity diagnosis was applied to find out the direction and intensity of the contribution of independent variables and to hierarchy the predictors of waste management.. For multiple comparison between and inside of each grouping of countries, statistical inference methods were used: one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc test multiple comparisons and independent samples Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn's post hoc test. The main conclusions of the study are that EU15 countries have the highest average values for most indicators of waste management, comparative with EU28 and with non-EU countries, followed by a group of EU28 countries. For indicators of recycling rate of packaging waste by type of packaging-metallic and recycling rate of e-waste, the non-EU countries have the highest values of mean compared with the EU15 and EU28 groups of countries. This can be explained by the high level of development of the some non-euro area countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein) that have intense concerns about waste recycling and have the necessary financial strength to carry out complex environmental protection programs., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)

The aim of this study is to present the measures to be taken in the field of higher education from the Europe 2020 Strategy programme's most important elements, considering them from the competitiveness point of view. We highlighted both the EU and the national objectives in terms of R&D expenditures and the number of 30-34 years old age group with higher education qualifications, and we have surveyed the results achieved so far and the trends experienced regarding performance, based on the most recent data. According to the statistical data, it can be stated that the GDP- proportional expenditures relating to research and development have increased modestly over recent years, but they lag behind the 3% defined in the Strategy, with only Finland, Denmark and Sweden having fulfilled the EU expectations. In most countries, significant progress has been made towards reaching the declared target of 40% of the population obtaining a higher education qualification. In 2013, the performance of the 28 union countries lagged behind the Europe 2020 Strategy's objective of 40% by 2.9 percentage points; this reinforces the assumption that an ever-increasing proportion of the European population are graduates and this fact lays the foundation for economic growth based on knowledge and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NEET is an acronym for Not in Employment, Education or Training. For the year 2010, it is estimated that 12.5% of all young people aged 15-24 in the OECD countries could be categorised as NEETs. Within this group, various subgroups of NEET are identified. Our study, which was conducted using cross-sectional data collected through the European Social Survey, focuses on the category of people who are assumed to be most marginalised and inactive: ''the disengaged.'' Participants in the study were men and women aged 18-30, originating from 33 European countries. The results show that disengaged NEETs reported poorer health than both young people who were conventionally unemployed and those in employment or studying. It is also shown that ''the disengaged'' scored worse on other social and welfare variables, for example, trust and social activity. Being disengaged is discussed in relation to the gross domestic products of the different countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the aggregate-level analyses of the relationship between objective and subjective measures for well-being have limited themselves to the measures of national gross domestic product (GDP) and mean life satisfaction. We develop this line of research by embedding the analysis into the context of 289 NUTS (Nomenclature des Unités Territoriales Statistiques) regions in Europe and replacing the simple life satisfaction measure with measures of active human functioning. We suggest that the measures of personal and social well-being, as they are operationalized in the 6th Round of the European Social Survey (ESS) questionnaire, can be treated as subjective indicators for social and human capital and, thereby, can be associated with the regional level GDP in cross-sectional analysis. The empirical analysis shows that the indicator for 'social trust' appears to have a positive and significant correlation with regional GDP. The analysis also distinguishes another form of social capital; 'social contact and support', reflecting the relative frequency and quantity of social support, which also shows a positive relationship with regional GDP. Concerning subjective human capital, the strongest predictor for regional GDP appears to be the aggregated sense of 'competence and meaning' in the regions. These effects proved robust after including the objective control variables (population density, intramural research and development (R&D) expenditure, share of tertiary-educated population and employment). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a smarter, greener and more competitive economy requires improved coordination and alignment of the various regional policies and national strategies with the Europe 2020 Strategy. This will lead to a balanced and sustainable regional development and reduce social and regional imbalances. The purpose of the article is to assess the implementation of regional development policy in Bulgaria in particular, to analyze the socio-economic problems of the South-Central region and summarize recommendations for improvement in the context of Bulgaria's membership in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an interesting analysis of the future economic development of EU countries, offering in the same time some comparisons with USA. Starting with an analysis of the annual dynamic rates of GDP for the EU countries, during 2000-2012, there are identified two periods which are important to consider them for scenarios of Strategy Europe 2020. The trajectories of future economic development until 2015 are extrapolated considering the average dynamic rates both for the period 2002-2007 also for 2002-2008. There are obtained two trajectories: an optimistic one based on average dynamic rate of the period 2002-2007 and a less optimistic the other based on the average dynamic rate during 2002-2008. An analysis of the relative positions of the countries depending on their GDP per capita and their development potential shows which scenario will be viable for the EU development until 2015. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study aims at describing the spatial structure of Europe with spatial moving average, potential model and the bidimensional regression analysis based on gravity model. Many theoretical and practical works aim at describing the spatial structure of Europe. Partly zones, axes and formations, partly polycentric models appear in the literature. We illustrate their variegation by listing, without any claim to completeness (since that could be the subject of another study), a part of them. Based on our examinations, the engraving of the structures that we described can be seen. The position of the core area of EU countries clearly justifies the banana shape and in relation to it, the catching up regions take shape in several areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The economic slowdown affects the population's health. Based on a social gradient concept, we usually assume that this detrimental impact results from a lower social status, joblessness, or other related factors. Although many researchers dealt with the relationship between economy and health, the findings are still inconsistent, primarily related to unemployment. This study reinvestigates a relationship between the economy's condition and health by decomposing it into macroeconomic indicators., Methods: We use data for 21 European countries to estimate the panel models, covering the years 1995-2019. Dependent variables describe population health (objective measures - life expectancy for a newborn and 65 years old, healthy life expectancy, separately for male and female). The explanatory variables primarily represent GDP and other variables describing the public finance and health sectors., Results: (1) the level of economic activity affects the population's health - GDP stimulates the life expectancies positively; this finding is strongly statistically significant; (2) the unemployment rate also positively affects health; hence, increasing the unemployment rate is linked to better health - this effect is relatively short-term., Conclusions: Social benefits or budgetary imbalance may play a protective role during an economic downturn., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

The current economic and financial crisis represents the most sever episode of this type during the last generations - as it results from the reports of the European Commission. The impact upon the European Union member states' economies materialised under the form of the credit restructuration, reduction of the trust at the economic level, and also, a serious contraction of the demand and the commercial exchanges. These are elements which determined the decrease of the investment and production activity, and also the usage of the production capacities, especially in the constructions field. On a medium and long term, we can appreciate that the true problem of the nature and profoundness of the crisis represents the pressure upon the business competitiveness, with consequences at the level of the working force or degradation of the human and technologic capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates, through panel univariate GARCH models for 14 European countries the causality between inflation and GDP and finds that inflation causes GDP at the 5% level of significance and GDP cause inflation at the 10% significance level. Thus, there is a bidirectional effect between the above two cases which is significant at the 10% level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic growth is a key concept in developing countries and in designing growth models becoming more efficient. This paper begins by defining the concept of growth, identifying and presenting the factors that contribute to achieving it, and finally the European growth model is outlined for attaining this objective. Given the global financial crisis started in 2008, were analyzed performance of growth models used in Central and Eastern Europe, an attempt to identify causes and effects. Thus, we have outlined three growth models: robust, moderate and a model with economic contraction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some economic processes cannot be finished only by using an econometric model with one equation because the economic theory is a systemic concept that contains many variables. After the Great Depression was discovered the concept of macroeconomic modeling that went mainstream in Europe and The United States of America, and in our days the phenomenon accelerated, it derived similar with the structure of the derivates market, which are micro and macroeconomic valid. This research paper underlines the overview of the last 20 years in the development of the first tier macroeconomic indicators that stress the general trend of the economic evolution of Romania. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic crisis occurred when nobody expected, and its effects are felt in all the economic fields, at national, European and global level. Tourism, also is subject to major changes because the effects are felt in this sector, both at national, continental and even global level. The European states, whose economy was based mainly on tourism, feel the effects of the economic crisis much deeper, even the states with a tourism tradition (France, Spain, Italy), but WTO's vision is rather optimistic for Europe. For Romania, the economic crisis is another factor that always stands in the way of the development in the tourism sector. The diversified potential of our country did not determined Romanian citizens to spend their holidays in the country. They travel to the neighbouring countries to spend their holidays, no matter if these are short or long. This choice for a holiday destination can be attributed to the high prices charged by the Romanian tourism market and the lack of clear stategies for the development of the Romanian tourism sector. Thus, for the Romanian tourism, the effects of the economic crisis will be felt for a long time, if nothing is done urgently to stimulate and gave financial and political support for this sector. This confusing period causes a fierce competivity on the European tourism market,the states are competiting in developing stategies to attract international tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on the relationship between training and development and performance. It expands existing research on the subject by combining national and organizational factors through a hierarchical linear model to explore the training and development and performance relationship in 14 European countries. The main findings point out the importance of cultural, institutional and organizational factors in analysing the relationship between training and development and performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caffeine is one of the most consumed substances, and it has been largely detected in aquatic ecosystems. We investigated the trends in caffeine consumption over three decades and its relationships with gross domestic product (GDP) and human development index (HDI) to understand global patterns and to identify potential hotspots of contamination. The total caffeine consumption is increasing mainly due to population growth. Moreover, caffeine consumption per capita is also increasing in some countries, such as Brazil, Italy, and Ethiopia. A high positive correlation between caffeine consumption per capita with HDI and GDP was found for coffee-importing countries in Europe, while a high negative correlation was found for coffee-exporting countries in Africa. The literature review showed that the highest caffeine concentrations coincide with countries that present an increasing caffeine consumption per capita. Also, approximately 35% of the caffeine concentrations reported in the literature were above the predicted no-effect concentration in the environment and, again, overlaps with countries with increasing per capita consumption. Despite the high degradation rate, caffeine consumption tends to increase in a near future, which may also increase the overall amount of caffeine that comes into the environment, possibly exceeding the thresholds of several species described as tolerant to the current environmental concentrations. Therefore, it is essential to prevent caffeine from reaching aquatic ecosystems, implementing sewage treatment systems, and improving their efficiency., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Despite age-related changes or declines in circumstances, health or income, many older people are able to maintain subjective well-being (SWB) in later life. This is known as the paradox of well-being. To date, much research has focused on either individual- (e.g., age, health, and income) or country-level (e.g., national wealth, inequality) differences in SWB. The present research investigates how these levels combine, and whether the paradox of well-being persists across different economic contexts., Method: This research uses the 2008-2009 European Social Survey to test the multilevel hypothesis that economic circumstances, reflected by a country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), affect the paradox of well-being, that is, the relationship between age and SWB. Analyses also account for other relevant psychological, individual, and country differences. Possible avenues by which GDP affects SWB are also explored., Results: The multilevel analysis revealed that GDP disproportionally affects the SWB of older people relative to younger people, and that the paradox of well-being is only observed in countries with higher GDP., Discussion: The findings clarify the relationship between age and SWB by demonstrating that the paradox of well-being is conditional on the economic context. Implications for individual- and country-level strategies for successful aging are discussed., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)