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Sustainable competitiveness as a concept is introduced in the scientific debate in the last two decades. It is addressed on considering economic, social and environmental factors that determine competitiveness in the long run. The paper is focused on measuring sustainable competitiveness at the national level. Two indexes are considered: the Sustainability Adjusted Global Competitiveness Index (World Economic Forum) and the Global Sustainable Competitiveness Index (SolAbility). The paper compares sustainable competitiveness of EU28 countries, EU13 and selected South-East Europe. The author conclude that almost all observed EU28 and EU13 countries have better scores in sustainable competitiveness compared to the economic pillar. The data confirm social sustainability dimension as being interrelated with the higher level of economic development while the environmental dimension is still a challenge for many observed countries. Sustainable competitiveness is a conditio sine qua non for sustaining or increasing current and future welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic diplomacy attracts an increasing level of interest from various areas of life ranging from academics in the fields of e.g. international relations, international economics and political economy through public servants responsible for foreign affairs, trade policy and promotion as well as their private and entrepreneurial counterparts to its former and active practitioners – all of them trying to identify its role in foreign and/or economic policy from their own particular perspective. However, many of them do not always apply the legal framework of contemporary diplomacy – the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations – as the guiding principle and defining norm. The paper discusses various aspects of economic diplomacy from the theoretical viewpoint as well as the relations and specifics of its constituting vectors and streams (trade diplomacy, commercial diplomacy, financial diplomacy and others), levels of action (bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral as well as macro and micro). It focuses on institutional forms states apply in order to pursue economic interests abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing demand of the world economy for infrastructure-related capital increases the practical importance of its academic research. However, there are significant differences in the understanding of the term "infrastructure" and its classification. Consequently, the results obtained by different researchers are often incomparable. All this requires once again refer to the concept of infrastructure. The purpose of this paper is to formulate a flexible framework for the concept of infrastructure, to examine the presence of the concept's core among the research for the last 50 years and to identify the ways to create infrastructure classification system, following the same logic of flexibility. Achieving this purpose allows, on the one hand, adapting the concept to specific research goals and objectives and, on the other hand, making the results comparable. The authors emphasize to the importance in advancing the understanding of how to ensure the usefulness of economic research for the formulation of economic policy in terms of infrastructure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modern economy is characterized by significant strengthening of integration processes caused by the deepening of relations between countries, international trade liberalization, scientific and technological progress, development of productive forces and the deepening of international labor division. This results in the formation of regional associations, which are evolving progressively into independent centers of the world economy. The article highlights various aspects of the integration processes in the common economic space effectiveness evaluation. It considers integration processes through the prism of international trade of member States of the Customs Union and the Common economic space, both from a quantitative point of view (dynamics of trade transaction financial volume, the structure of trade exchange) and qualitative point of view (assessment of intra-industry trade). Special attention is paid to the study of the stages of economic integration and the development of the methodology of its economic efficiency evaluation. The authors developed criteria of integration economic efficiency may serve as a basis for evaluation of the prospects of the further development and implementation of the integration project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]