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Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are considered the engine of any economy and actively contribute to the economic growth of countries. For this reason, there are concerns regarding the identification of the factors that influence the activity of SMEs and, in particular, how they manage to adapt and obtain better performance in a constantly changing economic environment. The tax burden is high and discouraging for many enterprises, so we aimed to analyse the relationship between the taxes imposed on SMEs and their performance. Thus, the main purpose of our study was to analyse the relationship between the taxes paid by SMEs and their performance. The period of analysis consisted of the 14 years between 2008 and 2021. The analysed sample comprised the 27 member countries of the European Union. To test the relationship, we used panel data methods, and we considered two indicators that measure the performance of SMEs as dependent variables and indicators that measure the taxes paid by businesses as independent variables. For a more in-depth analysis, we used clusters of countries. The main results show that the taxes that SMEs have to pay are seen as obstacles in the way of improving performance. Moreover, the relationship between taxes and the performance of SMEs depends on the specifics of the economy of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurship plays a major role in national economies, being considered one of the main engines of economic growth, and an important contributor to creating new jobs and innovations. Identifying the main determinants of entrepreneurial activity is important for helping the decision makers in adopting adequate measures to support the creation and development of new businesses. The turbulent economic environment in recent years dominated by economic and financial crises, resulting in a reduction in economic growth but also in an increase in unemployment, has led decision makers to turn their attention again to the determinant factors of entrepreneurship. Starting from those stated above, through this paper we aim to investigate the impact of some macroeconomic, individual and business environment-related factors on the dynamics of entrepreneurial activity in 18 European Union (EU) countries for a period of 14 years (2002-2015). We use three regression models and we apply panel data fixed effect model approach. The results of our study highlight that inflation rate, foreign direct investments, access to finance and total tax rate are the main macroeconomic determinants of entrepreneurship. Also, we find that all individual business-related factors considered in the analysis have a significant impact on total entrepreneurship rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to emphasize the link between the foreign direct investments (FDIs) and the sustainable environment in EU countries. We also focus on investigating the influence of other factors related to business environment on FDIs, considering the investors' sustainable choice for the host countries, grouped according to FTSE Russell criteria. Using panel methodology and applying Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method of data analysis, the authors reached the conclusion that a better-rated business environment, with concern for sustainability, has more of a chance to attract larger sums of FDIs, mostly in the case of developed economies. This fact proves that the main advantage considered by a foreign investor in developed EU countries is represented by CO2 emissions (sustainable environment) and a good ease of doing business environment. The study highlights the factors that influence the decision of investing in developed countries, rather than in emerging and frontier ones. This paper contributes to the existing literature by identifying the group of countries which need a more sustainable approach to attract a large amount of FDIs, given that the inflow of FDIs is a crucial factor of economic growth, a possible source of innovation and technology, and a way to reduce poverty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

World Health Organization gives great importance to excessive alcohol consumption among the population and its negative effects. It proposes a set of measures to reduce alcohol consumption and its harmful effects. The objective of our study was to estimate the effects of excise tax on alcohol in Romania, from two perspectives. On the one hand, we analyze the effects of alcohol excise on the consumption of alcoholic beverages among the Romanian population. We also consider the relationship between alcohol consumption and the incidence of diseases and deaths caused by it. On the other hand, we analyze the effects of the excise tax on alcohol on the state budget, through the revenues from the sales of alcohol. For achieving the main purpose of the paper, we analyze secondary data using both graphical and statistical methods. The statistical methods imply testing correlation between variables and also a regression model. The obtained results highlight the fact that the excise taxes on alcohol have not a significant effect on alcohol consumption among the population. At the same time, we observed that the revenues from excise taxes in alcohol at the state budget had an increasing trend. These results highlight the fact that the increase of excise duties for alcoholic beverages, in Romania, does not reduce their consumption. So, in order to limit the effects of this harmful habit of a certain part of the Romanian population, the decision-makers must take additional measures, the fiscal ones being relatively inefficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our paper examines the potential effect of different types of entrepreneurship (in particular, early-stage entrepreneurship, opportunity-driven entrepreneurship, and necessity-driven entrepreneurship) on economic growth at a national level and aims to identify whether the contribution of entrepreneurship to economic growth differs according to the stage of economic development of a country. Our empirical analysis is based on the panel data, which covers 17 years (2002–2018) and 22 European countries, classified into two groups. The results suggest that all three types of entrepreneurship have a greater impact on economic growth for the entire sample of European countries, and some types of entrepreneurship are more important than others. We find that opportunity-driven entrepreneurship and early-stage entrepreneurship would be key factors in stimulating economic growth across the sample of European countries. Our estimations also show that opportunity-driven entrepreneurship would have a greater impact in transition countries, while necessity-driven entrepreneurship would have a stronger influence in the innovation-driven countries. The results of our research could be of interest to policymakers, as it can help in identifying and implementing the most appropriate measures to eliminate the obstacles in the macroeconomic environment that entrepreneurs face, and measures to support innovative entrepreneurial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]