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Copyright of Sociologija/Sociology: Journal of Sociology, Social Psychology & Social Anthropology is the property of MOD International 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.)

This paper surveys the literature on immovable property taxation along two dimensions prevalent in the literature: i) according to the type of real estate over its life-cycle and ii) according to the type of tax. The first strand of the literature agrees that immovable property taxation should be neutral to avoid distortionary behaviour vis-a-vis other assets/consumption goods. However, the neutrality benchmark and hence taxation to be chosen depend on the theoretical view taken. The second strand assesses one type of property tax at a single point in time with respect to the considerations of efficiency, equity, fiscal federalism and political economy. Most of this strand of the literature focuses on recurrent property taxation on residential property, which has a lot of theoretical merits. A key message of both strands is that reaping the theoretical merits of immovable property taxation in practice is hindered by tax design issues and political economy issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trust in state institutions is essential for the stability and legitimacy of political regimes. Understood in evaluative terms, political trust has often been linked to the performance of the state and its institutions. The macrolevel sources of trust, however, are not well understood owing to the scarcity of empirical tests beyond cross-sectional analyses. This paper examines economic performance and the quality of governance as determinants of political trust in Europe. The analysis relies on data from the European Values Study and the World Values Survey between 1990 and 2019, covering 42 European countries surveyed at least twice. The modelling strategy explicitly distinguishes between-country variation from within-country variation in macrolevel characteristics, enabling the examination of cross-national and longitudinal effects. The results provide evidence of associations between economic performance - economic development and unemployment - and political trust in the expected directions, with some differences across European regions. Further, countries with less corruption tend to enjoy higher political trust, but the effects of changes in the level of corruption on trust depend on the corruption indicator used. Finally, improvements in the quality of electoral democracy are associated with declines in political trust. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides empirical evidence that supports the view that the quality of institutions is an important determinant of long-term growth in European countries. It shows that an initial high government debt level coupled with institutional quality below the EU average tends to be associated with particularly poor longterm real growth performance. Interestingly, the detrimental effect of high debt levels on long-term growth seems cushioned by the presence of very sound institutions. The paper offers some evidence that sound institutions may be particularly important for long-term growth in countries in which the exchange rate tool is no longer available and less so in countries with flexible exchange rate regimes. The empirical findings on the importance of institutions are robust to various measures of output growth, different measures of institutional indicators, different sample sizes, different country groupings and to the inclusions of additional control variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to consider the impact of military outlays on economic stance in several states in Central Europe. Therefore, we attempted to search the long- and short-range causality between defence spending and economic growth in the Visegrad countries through analysing general values (total spending approach), as well as outlay distribution in the defence sector (spending division approach). To do so, we first presented the theoretical aspect of the problem, as well as the trends in military spending of the considered states since 1993. Second, we reviewed international results of empirical examinations in this area. Then we examined causalities among variables on the grounds of VAR methodology. We did not validate the long-term causality between defence spending and economic growth in the Visegrad countries. Nonetheless, we confirmed several short-term relationships in both empirical approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ekonomski Vjesnik is the property of Ekonomski Vjesnik 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 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]

This paper represent a theoretical approach on the processes of economic development and all the macroeconomic indicators are used as components of the big picture that defines the two researched entities, the European Union and the United States of America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contrary to the well-recognized and studied causality running from economic growth to health, this study presents evidence of the reverse causation - from health to economic growth. The study tries to analyze the processes and connections that trigger the relationship between investment in health and the achievement of economic growth. This paper goes through a review and an analysis of the effects that health investment has on economic growth and the economic rationale for investing in health. The focus of this research paper is finding out how better health serves as a predictor of economic growth and the degree to which economic growth is explained by health expenditures in South Eastern European countries. Regression analysis, used in identifying the relation between health expenditure per capita and GDP per capita for SEE countries are based in the data of World Bank for years 2000-2011. Based on the findings, there exist a strong relationship between investment in health and economic growth in all SEE countries. By comparing the regression's results of the SEE countries, it can be concluded that health expenditures per capita in Albania, as a measure of investing in health, explain slightly more of the variation in GDP per capita than in the other countries. On the other hand, Macedonia and Albania are the countries where health expenditure has the highest impact on economic growth. To sum up, SEE countries have to consider investment in health sector as a crucial instrument for achieving both, economic and social inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With its rapid growth and increasing adoption, big data is producing a substantial impact in society. Its usage is opening both opportunities such as new business models and economic gains and risks such as privacy violations and discrimination. Europe is in need of a comprehensive strategy to optimise the use of data for a societal benefit and increase the innovation and competitiveness of its productive activities. In this paper, we contribute to the definition of this strategy with a research roadmap to capture the economic, social and ethical, legal and political benefits associated with the use of big data in Europe. The present roadmap considers the positive and negative externalities associated with big data, maps research and innovation topics in the areas of data management, processing, analytics, protection, visualisation, as well as non-technical topics, to the externalities they can tackle, and provides a time frame to address these topics in order to deliver social impact, skills development and standardisation. Finally, it also identifies what sectors will be most benefited by each of the research efforts. The goal of the roadmap is to guide European research efforts to develop a socially responsible big data economy, and to allow stakeholders to identify and meet big data challenges and proceed with a shared understanding of the societal impact, positive and negative externalities and concrete problems worth investigating in future programmes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Standard economic growth models generally consider different factors of production such as land, capital, labour, technology and human capital. These are common in theoretical models and empirical applications but more evidence is still needed for their long-term regional evolution. Therefore, this paper traces the evolution of specific aspects of these factors in the European regions and cities by means of different proxies. The data have been collected and calculated from a wide range of diverse historical and spatial data bases. A particular feature is the definition of the European regions according to the NUTS classification by the European Union. Thus, the paper gives a rough outline of some of the most important long-term regional tendencies that should be taken into account in research directed to past and recent time periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to find if and in which extent the number of diseases per 100000 persons (hospital discharges) vary by economic development level, type of disease (circulatory system disease, respiratory system disease and digestive system disease) and life style. In the paper we apply the general linear method (GLM) on a data sample of 30 European countries for the year 2010. The health status of the population is expressed by the number of diseases by type of disease, while health determinants are the gross national income (GNI) per capita and the life style factors. We noticed that each of the two factors, the economic development level and the type of disease, has a significant influence on the number of diseases per 1000000 persons. Moreover, the interaction between the two factors has a significant influence on the number of diseases. The number of circulatory system diseases is higher in the countries from the high and upper middle income groups, while the respiratory system diseases are the less frequent in high income group countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Once with the development of the human capital theory, the education received an economic value, which is a quality variable of human resources and the main determinant of economic growth. The famed economists have shown that the remarkable economic effects of the investments in education influence the chances of acquiring a job and earnings, demonstrating how the theory justifies such an investment. Human capital approach allows also estimating the costs of education in schools and higher education, as well as the profits that comes out of it. Thus, the human capital theory is primarily focused on the demand for education. Moreover, the objective function of the state, in terms of education, contains itself two contradictory arguments: the state, theoretically, is a representative and guarantor of the collective good and its organizer; the state will seek to maximize individual education on the one hand and on the other hand will search for the optimization of the relationship between professional training and formal education. Also, in the context of recent years, the budgetary constraints are raising the problem of optimal allocation of the resources, as well as the funding of the performance of the educational services. The particularities, in terms of flexibility and cumulative distribution of the investment levels in the human factors, are translated into a practical action in the sense that global competition, from which Romania cannot decouple. In the long run, there are winning and resisting only those with academic flexible formation and the intelligent persons. Considering the above arguments, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the main characteristics of funding mechanisms for education systems, the volume of spending on education and ways of managing the resources allocated to the education. The cost allocation for education in Romania is investigated in terms of government policies, but also in terms of human capital theory. Also, to answer to the question how Romania had aligned to the modern trends in terms of allocation of the resources more and more important for human capital formation, this paper attempts to estimate the economic effort claimed by the financing of the education system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the heterogeneity of growth in the Western Balkan and Emerging European economies. For that purpose, growth determinants are estimated in the period 1997-2009 by dynamic panel data models. The chosen period provides a comparison for the model results with those estimated for the period up to 2007 in order to analyze changes caused by the global instability. According to the main findings of the paper, macroeconomic stabilisation and structural reforms still matter in determining economic growth, but foreign direct investments and economic integrations seem to have the most important role in stimulating growth in the observed countries. Moreover, significant positive effects of foreign direct investments and economic integrations produce differences in growth paths between Emerging European and Western Balkan economies. Sharp decrease of foreign inflows in 2008 determined contractions of growth rates firstly in Emerging European economies with subsequent spill-over on the Western Balkan economies during 2009. Consequently, in the period of global instability, differences between two groups of economies become even more obvious. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of this paper is to investigate the efficiency of the banking systems in eight European countries over the period 1994 to 2008 by using the production frontier methodology. The paper shows that risk factors along with a size variable should be taken into account, otherwise inefficiency tends to be overstated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of the implementation of the Single Market and to propose ideas on how its potential can be better revitalized in times of economic crisis. First, the paper offers a broader perspective to the analysis of the Single Market by exploring its close links to the rapidly changing economic environment due to the global economic crisis. Second, it puts together a comprehensive body of empirical evidence, based on the analysis of EU FDI flows and trade in services which allows for a thorough analysis of what has been achieved in terms of European economic integration. Overall the paper concludes that the Single Market is a powerful instrument to promote economic integration and to increase competition within the EU and that it has been the source of large macro-economic benefits. Building on the evidence and analysis provided, the paper concludes with suggestions to redesign the policymaking for the Single Market in the future, having in mind the statements presented in the Draft Report (issued on 22nd of March 2010) on Delivering a single market to consumers and citizens (2010/2011(INI)) "The new agenda for the single market must be formulated in such a way as to enhance social justice, ensure market integrity, foster innovation and welcome the new digital age - all of which will enable the single market to have an edge over other major global economies." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the implications of foreign bank penetration on economic growth from the perspective of resource allocation in host countries. We use aggregate banking data, constructed from bank-level balance sheet and income statement information covering more than 1200 banks in the 35 emerging economies of Asia, Latin America and Eastern and Central Europe for the period from 1996 to 2003. By applying pooled OLS and fixed effects estimators, we present consistent evidence that the effect of gross fixed capital formation on output growth is higher in an economy with a more pronounced level of foreign bank penetration relative to an economy with a lower level of foreign bank penetration. This finding suggests that foreign banks play an important role in allocating capital in a more productive way, thus leading to a higher economic growth rate. One of the main policy implications of our findings in this paper is that foreign banks may serve as a channel in enhancing the economic integration of emerging economies with the advanced economies that are home countries of foreign banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our contemporary understanding of globalization is an increasing interlinking and interdependence of national economies within a global economy. This view of globalization has become associated with large corporations driven by their own immediate self-interests. This process is seen as leading to an increasingly homogenous global culture. This can be described as the globalization of uniformity. The globalization of uniformity is most often identified with the phenomenon of outsourcing, and the rise of the truly global corporation. Many of the arguments against globalization arise out of fear engendered by this process; a fear that such globalization of uniformity may lead to a loss of cultural identity and national sovereignty. Bu there is another, less widely studied, aspect to globalization. Improved communication, access to information, and lowering /elimination of barriers to trade, can also lead to greater entrepreneurship and innovation. Globalization in this perspective can lead to specific local competencies taking deeper root and finding opportunities to flower not just in their local markets, but across the world. This can be referred to as the globalization of variety, which, to some extent, can reverse the outsourcing process and strengthen local cultures. One example of the globalization of variety is the luxury industry, which is today composed of companies which started out mainly as small family-owned businesses and social enterprises barely fifty years ago. Significantly, the luxury industry is largely Europe-driven, and now has an important role to play in the continued evolution of European culture, identity and ethos. Research has shown that changing the definitions of luxury has the potential to transform attitudes towards wealth. This is critical to the future global economy. This paper studies the luxury industry as a microcosm of the globalization of variety. Based on the analysis of the luxury industry, the paper proposes a taxonomy within which different industry sectors can be studied from the two different globalization perspectives, and which can be used for making policy recommendations to catalyze the evolution of new competencies within a local economy, and drive these systematically to take advantage of the process of globalization of variety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical neoclassical growth model with two kinds of capital, and technological interdependence among regions. Technological interdependence is assumed to operate through spatial externalities caused by disembodied knowledge diffusion between technologically similar regions. The transition from theory to econometrics yields a reduced-form empirical model that in the spatial econometrics literature is known as spatial Durbin model. Technological dependence between regions is formulated by a connectivity matrix that measures closeness of regions in a technological space spanned by 120 distinct technological fields. We use a system of 158 regions across 14 European countries over the period from 1995 to 2004 to empirically test the model. The paper illustrates the importance of an impact-based model interpretation, in terms of the LeSage and Pace (2009) approach, to correctly quantify the magnitude of spillover effects that avoid incorrect inferences about the presence or absence of significant capital externalities among technologically similar regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the issue how the C@R project on rural living labs has contributed to developing a policy agenda for innovation and rural development. The paper also presents recommendations to be considered in future policy agendas regarding the benefits of rural living labs as engines of innovation and rural development in Europe. The formulation of recommendations for policy-makers at the European Commission level is carried out through a scenario-based framework that considers the complexity of the socio-technical environment in which rural living labs act to stimulate rural development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have approached this paper with the idea of helping to predict the likely effects of the accession of the CEEC's on trade patterns in the enlarged EU and how the trade structure will affect growth. To this end, we examine the factors that account for the major changes that have taken place in trade flows since the CEEC's began their processes of transition and economic opening-up within the framework of the European Association Agreements. Specifically, our purpose is to find evidence that help us to foresee whether the accession of the CEEC's will involve not only increased trading with the new partners -attributable to the effects of trade creation and deviation, acknowledged on a general basis in the literature on the Regional Integration Agreements- but also a geographical restructuring of the trade flows between the members of the area. Due attention has not been attached until recently to this latter aspect in the context of the new geography and trade models, although it is of equal importance. In this respect, it is of particular interest to us to examine whether -as has been postulated in some papers- the integration of the CEEC's may lead to a concentration of the multinationals in these countries with a view to using them as a "exporting platform" in detriment to the exporting possibilities of the current members of the EU, and particularly of the Southern European member states, which have a more similar production and trading capacity to the candidates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The coinage of the term sociology took place in the early nineteenth century with an associated assumption that specific socioeconomic and intellectual developments in Europe at that time catalyzed its emergence. This particular phenomenon has furnished the basis for the formulation of one of the departing points of this paper. Taking the point further, the paper focuses on the question of how to address the issue of institutionalization of sociology in a country. It is asked as to whether the conditions similar to the ones observed in Europe are necessary for the development of sociology in other countries. In the light of this particular question and the experiences of Europe and other countries regarding the emergence of sociology, two particular concepts have been introduced, namely 'organic growth' and 'diffusion', to explain the process of development of sociology, equating the former with Europe and the latter with other countries including Bangladesh. Initiatives from the outside played a major role in the establishment of sociology in Bangladesh. While reviewing the process, an attempt is also made to assess the level of development of sociology in this country in terms of the parameters heuristically chosen, further suggesting that such indicators are not well articulated yet. To analyze the relevant development process of sociology in Bangladesh it is argued that two sets of factors can be identified that determine such development. They include 'structural factors' and 'agency' and a substantial part of the paper comprises of the empirical facts and analysis describing the function of these in the context of Bangladesh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) assure economic growth in Europe. Generally, many SMEs are struggling to survive in an ongoing global recession and are often reluctant to release or pay for staff training. Cloud Computing offers many opportunities and could help companies to improve their business and use technology more efficiently In this chapter, learning methods particularly E-Learning in European SMEs is described in part 1. In this paper a short presentation of Cloud Computing and advantages for SMEs (part 1), the objectives of the European project IN-CLOUD (part 2) and the work in progress within this project are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the European Union, regional economic performance and economic development respect the principles of the core-periphery model, with core-countries in Northern and Western Europe and periphery-countries as the Southern and Eastern European states. Thus, although treaties and cohesion policies promote balanced development throughout the European Union, it continues to be a divided entity. Despite the efforts of both public institutions at both the national and EU level, and the private sector, inequality still persists and in some cases is increasing. In analyzing the causes of these perpetuating disparities and especially in shaping solutions to ensure balanced development throughout Europe, one should take into account that when joining the European Union, its Member States should be treated as regions of a supranational organization. Hence, it follows that development and growth programs, as well as the allocation of cohesion funds must consider the dissimilar socio-economic and cultural backgrounds encountered in the Member States, the 'one size fits all' approach threatening to intensify Europe's North-South division. Using panel data, this paper provides an empirical study of the inequality determinants, aiming to identify convergence or divergence trends across countries and regions of Eastern Europe. Our findings partially confirm the theory, indicating that, in the long run, the new EU Member States recorded a process of convergence, reducing the gap between rich and poor regions, even if in the short-term, and especially in times of economic crisis, the economic disparities may widen. Moreover, the results highlight that there is potential for boosting GDP per capita in all territorial units analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the relationship between economic performance and institutional development in several Central and Eastern European Countries. Our meta-argument is that the structural transformations at the levels of the quantitative variables and mechanisms are only a part of the transition processes. In order to view the big picture, the qualitative aspects related to public policies and institutions should also be considered. We test the linkages between the quality of public policies and institutions for seven Central and Eastern European countries (Bulgaria, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and Romania) for a time span between 2001 and 2011. These countries are displaying a certain degree of heterogeneity in terms of economic performances and the design and implementation of public policies. We use for our analysis the World Bank indicators from World Wide Governance Indicators. In order to deal with the potential reverse causality issues, we employ Generalized Method of Moments Framework (GMM) by using the lagged variables as instruments. The impact of governance indicators is statistically significant even if we use several control variables: exchange rate, unemployment, current account deficit, taxes burden and price stability. The corresponding Sargan and Arellano-Bond test for zero autocorrelation in first-differenced errors tests shows that the results display a corresponding robustness. The main policy implications for our findings may be synthesized by the thesis, according to which a proper design of public policies, a high degree of their effectiveness and accountability, a stable social and political environment together with the rule of law and efficient anticorruption mechanisms are critical determinants of economic growth even in emerging markets. The impact of the government "size , economic structure and markets" mechanisms , monetary policy and price stability , ownership structure and legal rights , international exchange, freedom of exchange in capital and financial markets on economic growth is far from being negligible. Hence, the Central and Eastern European countries joining the EU should implement policies strength their institutions and to improve the quality of public decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Creative industries clearly proved their potential for economic growth in the period before the crisis in Europe as well as across the world. However, the crisis has significantly changed the way of doing business and many sectors have been affected - some businesses managed to survive while others have been forced to close down. The present paper aims to examine whether creative industries have undergone a downturn as a result of the economic crisis or they managed to preserve their revitalising effect on countries, regions and cities. [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]

Shopping centers play an important role in improving the quality of life in town and city centers around the world. Often seen as drivers of local economies, shopping centers are necessary to maintain economic growth and a sense of community, offering employment, and providing a better quality of life. In last decades in all capital cities and large cities in Central and Southeastern Europe numerous shopping centers were open and therefore the situation at retail market and traditional supply chains changed rapidly. The aim of this paper is to provide key data related to shopping center industry in Central and Southeastern European countries and to analyze the structure of retail offers, opportunities for investors, retailers and consumers at given markets. Comparative analysis of secondary data will give an insight into the current state of shopping center development and discuss the problems related to future retail development in Southeastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-speed rail (HSR) can potentially transform the geography of a country, bringing regions and cities closer to each other by improving accessibility. Such benefits in turn can be the basis for creating (regional) economic development, and this is often a major factor in promoting the higher costs of HSR investment. The key factors here concern the role and position of HSR in the local, regional and national transport systems, and this may be more important than the speed of the service. Two factors are central to the planning of HSR lines. The first relates to the numbers and locations of stations on the HSR network, and the second to how these stations are integrated into the rest of the transport network. This paper reviews current financing and trends in European rail travel, concentrating on the recent developments in HSR. It then addresses these two issues of station location and integration across connecting transport services. Rail has an increasingly important role to play in providing mobility between the major cities in Europe, and it is likely to provide much of the necessary capacity for the expected growth in long distance travel. A dedicated HSR network might be a good option to achieve this role, but such a network needs to be planned as the strategic backbone of the transport system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2005 the budgets of European Capital of Culture programme has been significantly focused on large infrastructure projects in the title holder cities, that is, in the area of narrower or wider region. This trend of increasing infrastructure spending (particularly in Western Europe) has been followed by the tendency of assigning titles to midsize and smaller cities - from an average of 1.5 million people per host city in the first decade of the project to approximately 200,000 inhabitants per host city in period until 2012. However, some host cities faced a delay in the execution of infrastructure projects, while some projects were cancelled due to reduced cultural budget - all that as a result of the global economic crisis. Despite financial difficulties in the host cities, European Capital of Culture programme continues - in 2013 one of the two ECoC hosts is the French City of Marseille, in partnership with the region of Provence, with structural projects reaching EURO 660 million despite financial crisis. In 2020 Croatian cities have an opportunity to participate in the programme of the European Capital of Culture for the first time. This will also mean an opportunity to complete urban transformation of the designated city. Infrastructure projects will certainly be of great importance in the selection of the first Croatian ECoC. This paper provides an overview of the infrastructure dimension of ECoC programme, and it tries to predict the ECoC trends, with a particular focus on Croatia and Eastern Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Socialiniai Tyrimai is the property of Vilnius 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.)

Abstract: Sustainability of fiscal and budgetary policies and therefore the sustainability of public debt is an intensely debated issue which has a particular importance in the public decision making. In Europe, the problem of sustainability public debt has become a subject of public interest after the introduction of single currency in the European Union. The growth of indebtedness of the member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union has raised extensive debate on the sustainable level of public debt. Hence, the paper has the purpose to analyze the sustainability of public debt in the member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Delicate and difficult at the same time, financial and monetary fields have always attracted attention of researchers worldwide. One of the challenges of contemporary capitalism, financial liberalization, is a process that can bring enormous benefit, but it can pose serious obstacles to development and economic prosperity. In this paper, we propose to analyze the impact of liberalization on bankin g system from emerging countries. The necessity to study and knowledge both the process itself and its effects on financial markets came as a result of a small number of studies and the inconclusive results regarding the impact of financial liberalization on developing countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Than rejected, financial liberalization must be accompanied by an increase in prudential policy. Too rapid liberalization in a country does not mean speed problems in an absolute sense, but in a relative sense: in many cases instability occurred because of the difference between impressive speeds of financial liberalization and very slow adjustment of the prudential provisions, banking and financial regulations, respectively monetary policy actions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The shrinking phenomenon represents a natural trend in the evolution of an urban community. Usually, it comes together with economical decline, unemployment, house vacancy, perforation of the urban grid, local budget decreasing, and so on. Timişoara has lost around 14% of the population in almost two decades. Can this be considered a signal for the shrinking process? This paper is based on the partial results of the project FP7 no. 225193 "ShrinkSmart - The Governance of the Shrinkage into the European Context", financed by the European Commission, Theme 8 Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities 2009-2012 (http://www.shrinksmart.ufz.de/). The West University of Timişoara is a partner in the consortium of this project, together with seven other European Universities. The team from the West University of Timişoara is composed of Melinda Dincă, Dan Lucheş, Delia Nadolu and Bogdan Nadolu (the coordinator). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper follows an argument that the key elements of global competition are no longer trade of goods and services and flows of capital, but the competition for people. We claim that economic growth is driven by educated and innovative people, who prefer to live and migrate to countries that are diverse, tolerant and open to newcomers. Countries should compete for educated and diverse people and therefore a positive attitude to migration is an important argument for future economic growth. We analysed peoples' attitudes to migration in 23 European countries based on the micro-data of the European Social Survey fourth round database. The outcomes of the empirical analysis show that European peoples' attitudes toward immigrants vary depending on 1) personal characteristics of the respondents; 2) country's characteristics; 3) peoples' attitudes towards countries' institutions. The results of the study provide empirical evidence based grounds for development of policy measures for improving peoples' attitudes to immigration and to ethnically diverse human capital that support future economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various effects of the financial deepening came to the centre of academics as well as policy-makers discussions during last four decades especially in relation to the financial sector development. Together with financial liberalization and international financial integration economists focus their attention to the financial deepening especially due to its potential effects on the real economy. Perspective of the fast and sustainable economic growth at the end of the 1990s increased an attractiveness of the European transition economies (ETE) for the foreign investors that resulted in increased foreign capital inflows to ETE. International capital inflows (especially debt and portfolio capital flows) stimulate financial deepening through higher demand for financial services. As the underdeveloped financial markets obviously constrain domestic capital mobilization, the international financial integration is considered to be very useful vehicle in fostering financial sector advancement. One of the most discussed areas related to the overall effects of the financial deepening is a bidirectional relationship between financial development and economic growth. It is generally expected there is a positive effect of financial development on economic growth. On the other hand especially some country-specific institutional characteristics and different policies may significantly distort positive incentives of the financial deepening. In the paper we analyze the main aspects of the financial deepening in ten ETE in the period 2000-2010 using vector error correction model (VECM). In order to meet this objective we implement a multivariate cointegration methodology introduced by Johansen (1988, 1991) and Johansen and Juselius (1990) to estimate the relationships between financial depth indicators and real output in the selected group of countries. To find the order of integration of endogenous variables we test the time series for the unit root presence. In order to determine cointegrating (long-run) relationships, we follow a Johansen cointegration procedure to perform the trace test and maximum eigenvalue test. We also test the direction of the causality relationships between financial depth indicators and real output using linear Granger causality test. Using the estimated VEC model, the dynamic responses of the endogenous variables to the money stock, domestic bank deposits and domestic bank loans one standard deviation shocks are computed for each country from the group of ETE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bologna process aims at creating a European Higher Education Area where inter-country mobility of students and staff, as well as workers holding a degree, is facilitated. While several aspects of the process deserve wide public support, others are less consensual. The paper checks the extent of academic staff confidence in the restructuring of higher education currently underway, by looking at its implications in Romania. Based on six open-ended interview questions of 29 faculty members in Romania, the results of our study identify central themes associated with this relevant stakeholder group's perception of benefits and issues/challenges associated with the implementtation process. Most notably the themes of process planning, accreditation, lack of information, and unexpected results emerged as issues/challenges, while mobility, wider choice of programs, improved quality, and international standing were perceived as benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the nexus between economic growth and the buildup of external vulnerabilities, this paper provides a systematic account of different growth strategies followed in Central and Eastern Europe in 2000-08 and then uses this growth diagnostics to derive implications for a post-crisis recovery. The main findings point to three policy lessons for improving growth sustainability. First, greater reliance on tradable sectors should be the cornerstone of a future growth model. Second, enhancing domestic sources of bank credit funding would contribute to the mitigation of external vulnerabilities and make the domestic financial system more resilient to global financial shocks. Third, prudential and macroeconomic policies will have to be more proactive in managing capital inflows, including funneling these inflows into investment in export-oriented industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper presents 5-yearly data on the height of young adult men in 15 Western European countries for birth cohorts from the middle of the 19th to the end of the 20th century. The results indicate that from the 1870s to the 1970s average height increased by around 11cm, or more than 1cm per decade. The main finding is that for the northern and middle European groups of countries the gains in height were most rapid in the period 1911–15 to 1951–55, a period that embraced two World Wars and the Great Depression but also witnessed advances in public health and hygiene. For the southern countries growth was fastest in the period 1951–55 to 1976–80. These findings suggest that advances in height were determined not only by income and living standards but also by a variety of other socioeconomic trends. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Due to its trans-sectorial nature and to its direct interference with the economic growth, the environmental policy of the European Union is facing a series of specific problems. For example, the adoption of certain environment protection measures, among which the implementation or increase in environmental taxes sometimes generates tensions and opposition, especially from the polluters who denounce restrictions in the industrial development. As a result of the recent downtrend in the environmental tax revenues in the member states of the European Union, the objective of this paper is to foresee the perspectives of the evolution of environmental taxes in the world current economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the major sources of changes in the trade balance of seven European countries - Denmark, France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Norway, and Sweden - before the World War I using the structural vector autoregression analysis. The results suggest that the transitory shocks to income are the main source of variation in the trade balance, whereas the permanent shocks to income determine the changes in the income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]