Search

Energy security and international competitiveness are two of the most fiercely discussed topics – especially in the light of the European Union (EU)’s dependence on Russia’s gas, oil, and coal. Both mentioned concepts are of special importance for the so-called EU new member states (EU NMS), which are undergoing the energy diversification process. The main goal of this paper is to analyze how energy security influences the international competitiveness of these countries. The study uses trade theories related to productivity differentials (Ricardian hypothesis) and differences in factor endowments (Heckscher–Ohlin hypothesis) as a basis for our econometric modeling. The results show that relative energy supply as well as physical and human capital relative endowments have a statistically significant impact on international competitiveness of the studied economies.

In this age of globalization, and as a result of the advent of information, com-munication and translation technologies, translation tasks tend to be outsourced or even crowd-sourced to countries with lower wages, and translation fees seem to be on a downward spiral. Downward pressure on translation rates ap-pears to confirm the factor price equalization theorem, a key derivation of the Heckscher-Ohlin trade model in economics. This famous theorem in labor and international economics argues that the prices of factors of production such as wage rate (or return on human capital) are equalized across countries as a result of international trade activities. This paper begins by presenting the theoretical framework of the factor price equalization theorem. It then examines how this theorem can be applied to analyze certain recently observed phenomena in the market for professional services in general and in the translation market in par-ticular, and discusses implications for professional translators, language service providers and translator training institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]