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We studied the balance of payments data for a set of Latin American countries between 1990 and 2019. We intended to quantify the main items of foreign exchange income and expenditure. We were particularly interested in studying the magnitude and role of financial flows, either as a source of external resources or as an item of expenditure. The analysis was carried out in two dimensions: cross section (for a sample of 11 nations) for the entire period and over time for the three decades covered by the data. This study offers an empirical basis to reassess the traditional view that places an “external constraint” on growth in the foreign trade. In contrast, the data analyzed here suggest that items related to financial flows are the main responsible for external vulnerability of these countries. RESUMO Estudamos os dados do balanço de pagamentos de um conjunto de países latino--americanos entre 1990 e 2019. Pretendíamos quantificar os principais itens de receita e despesa em moeda estrangeira. Estávamos particularmente interessados em estudar a magnitude e o papel dos fluxos financeiros, seja como fonte de recursos externos, seja como despesa. A análise foi realizada em duas dimensões: seção transversal (para uma amostra de 11 nações) para todo o período e ao longo do tempo para as três décadas cobertas pelos dados. Este estudo oferece uma base empírica para reavaliar a visão tradicional que impõe uma “restrição externa” ao crescimento do comércio exterior. Em contrapartida, os dados aqui analisados sugerem que os itens relacionados aos fluxos financeiros são os principais responsáveis pela vulnerabilidade externa desses países.

During the Customs War of the Kingdom of Serbia and Austro-Hungary, a large number of discount banks were established in Serbia. One of them was the District Bank in Niš. In accordance with the business policy of Serbian banks in that period, this bank also had its own companies, an automatic mill and a brick factory. The Great War interrupted the work of banks in Serbia, and their property became the subject of exploitation by the occupiers. After the end of the war, the District Bank renewed its work, and the most profitable part of the company was the mill. The brickyard worked poorly because the citizens did not have the funds to build new houses. In the period from 1921 to 1929, the District Bank operated successfully and regularly paid dividends to its shareholders. With the outbreak of the economic crisis and falling prices for agricultural products, the District Bank found itself in trouble because it had to stop working in its industrial companies, and the withdrawal of funds from savings deposits left the bank without working capital. The bank was forced to seek protection and used it until 1942. It was one of the few banks that operated during the WWII and even increased its capital. The change of the social system and the creation of socialists' Yugoslavia marked the end of the business of this financial institution.

The Baltic Dry Index (BDI) is one of the most well-known indices, as it is perceived as a leading indicator of economic activity. Reductions in the movement of people, commodities, and capital in the conditions of economic crises, such as the one in 2008 and 2009, as well as the current economic crisis generated by the COVID-19 pandemic, were affected by the reduction of economic activities. It is interesting to point out that the analysis of the basic trend of the BDI movements in the period before the economic crisis shows that the index fell to near record lows just before the derivatives and credit crisis hit stocks full force. This is a clear signal that the index can be used as a tool for stock market forecasting. The paper aims to examine whether the changes in these raw materials affect the changes in the value of BDI. For these purposes in the paper was use GMM and 2SLS estimator. The results show that different raw materials have a different impact on the value of the BDI, which indicates that based on individual movements value of raw materials which composes the BDI cannot forecast its movement.

This study investigates the interaction between fiscal and monetary policies and how crises affect the coordination between policymakers in Turkey. This study’s novelty is that a nonlinear Taylor rule indicating monetary policy response function is estimated based on the Threshold Generalized Method of Moments (Threshold GMM) methodology over the period January 2006—March 2020. The empirical findings reveal that when fiscal policy has an expansionary stage, especially in crises times, the policy interest rate does not react significantly to the inflation gap, output gap and real effective exchange rate gap in expansionary periods. On the contrary the policy interest rate gives statistically important responses to these variables during contractionary fiscal policy periods. Thus, the effectiveness of the Taylor rule appears in a period of contractionary fiscal policy. This situation gives rise to the significant policy implication that the monetary policymaker’s success in controlling inflation increases with the contractionary fiscal policy. Finally, it has been observed that effective coordination between monetary and fiscal policies did not occur during crisis periods, but compatible coordination was achieved in other periods.

The question of how rising atavistic nationalism will affect democracies worldwide is an essential one of our time. In this paper, I focus instead on conducting a comparative historical analysis of atavistic nationalism in two unrecognized states: North Cyprus and Taiwan. I argue that the democratic crisis of our times is, in its essence, economic and has been precipitated by the failure of democracies to build domestic capacities to support democratic values. Furthermore, I posit that engaging populaces at the local political level will prove essential to preserving democracies around the world. I conclude by underlining that atavistic nationalism is indeed a significant threat to regional and global peace and requires further co-operation on trade and governance, and should be engaged at the local level. Lastly, I suggest that co-creating local cultures that will act to soften atavistic nationalism, which feeds off the perception of threats and fear.

COVID-19 has contributed to global public health and economic crises. While most developed countries have successfully adopted mass vaccination programs, in developing countries, the vaccination rates have remained extremely low. The vaccine divide has further aggravated the economic impacts of the pandemic. This chapter argues that since COVID is a global problem, vaccines should be equally accessible to all countries. A wider availability of vaccines is not achievable unless poor countries develop their capability to produce vaccines locally. The production of generic vaccines requires low level of R&D capability, which is achievable by firms in poor countries if they receive technological support. The chapter discusses the relevance of the open innovation model that focuses on firm- and institution-level collaboration in improving the capability of firms in the developing world. The flexibilities in the TRIPS Agreement could also be used to address the existing vaccine divide.

Corruption as a phenomenon, not only destroys the economic base of a country, but it violates the basis of its legal system, legislation, judiciary, public-private institutions, cultural and health institutions, social policies of society and others. In order to know and study the phenomenon of corruption, we must definitely stop at some criminogenic factors which have a significant impact on the appearance of the occurrence of corruption. Thus, corruption as a criminal occurrence is present throughout the history of the state and human society and as such has always been considered as an immoral and harmful social occurrence. Corruption is especially expressed in times of crisis of certain societies, but also along with the strengthening of the state, the development of business activities, the interference of the state in the economy and the bureaucratization of society it has found its housing of presence as a criminal occurrence. Today, the occurrence of corruption has become one of the obvious problems in most countries almost all over the globe. Factors that have influenced the appearance of this occurrence are numerous, such as: the transition of society, economic crises, unemployment, poverty, mass media, the war and the circumstances of the war, the unresolved housing problems, etc. For this, in recent times, corruption has been characterized as one of the most negative social occurrence. Cooperation between relevant state institutions and citizens for this type of criminal activity is extremely important for detecting corruption as a criminal offense.

Este artigo aborda a relação existente entre as crises financeiras, a ascensão da extrema direita e a relativização dos direitos humanos, especialmente, dos grupos minoritários. A Longa Depressão, a Grande Depressão e a Crise Financeira de 2008, todas crises sistêmicas do capitalismo, serviram de background para fomentar o retorno da extrema direita, e o mais preocupante, a relativização dos direitos humanos, especialmente, àqueles voltados a proteção dos grupos minoritários. O Estado passa a ser usado como forma de oprimir, ainda mais, os definidos como inimigo comum, sejam eles os pobres, os negros, os refugiados ou os homossexuais. Posto esse cenário, surge, então, uma estranha e feroz classe que se define como a dos cidadãos de bem e que usa o Estado para relativizar e negar direitos fundamentais.

La revolución contra la teoría cuantitativa la hizo Keynes en la década de los treinta dentro de la economía oficial. La contrarrevolución keynesiana la realizó Milton Friedman en la década de los setenta, también dentro del sistema teórico dominante y se conoció con los nombres de Escuela de Chicago, monetarismo o neoliberalismo, términos que nunca le gustaron al propio Friedman. En el artículo se analizan algunos aspectos fundamentales de este gran cisma intelectual en la economía, en torno a la economía monetarista, la crítica a la curva de Phillips, la política monetaria y su explicación sobre los determinantes de las crisis económicas, especialmente el Gran Crac de 1929, para contrastarlo con la crisis de 2008. The revolution against quantitative theory was made by Keynes in the 1930s within the official economy. The Keynesian counterrevolution was carried out by Milton Friedman in the seventies, also within the dominant theoretical system and was known as the Chicago School or Monetarism or Neoliberalism, terms that Friedman himself never liked. In the article we analyze some fundamental aspects of this great intellectual schism in the economy, around the monetarist economy, the criticism of the Phillips curve, the monetary policy and its explanation on the determinants of the economic crises, especially the Great Crash of the 29 to contrast it with the 2008 crises.

The globalization of the modern economic system, the scarce nature of the resources used, the depressive and stagnant nature of the current processes, the increasing complexity of the geopolitical situation and the deterioration of the environmental situation, etc. predetermine a serious transformation of the functions of accounting services and the role of accounting in the modern management system. In these conditions, the need to study the impact of environmental factors on the nature of the enterprise activity and the mechanism for the development and adoption of managerial decisions are especially relevant. It is indisputable that the accounting organization system in a crisis situation should be different from its management in a sustainable development environment; this determines the need to improve managerial accounting methodology in conditions of unpredictability and instability of the external environment. An analysis of the specialized literature suggests that there are insufficient studies of many aspects concerning the methodological content of the anti-crisis model of managerial accounting, the construction of its categorical apparatus, and the provision of a managerial accounting model in crisis processes in the economy, etc., which predetermined the choice of the topic of our study.

The purpose of this article is the periodization of social and technological development of the human civilization in order to predict the development of social and cultural values of the society. Since the position of countries in the global socio-economic system and their historical destiny is determined by quantitative and qualitative indicators of economic and social development. The tasks solved in the article are to identify factors affecting the change in socio-cultural values of society. The novelty of the article is the identification of factors that most actively influence the development of basic technologies and the change in social and cultural values of society. The article presents the periodization of the socio- scientific and technological development of human civilization and a comparative analysis of the characteristics of individual periods of this development. The forecast of social, scientific and technological development of human civilization was made. Recommendations on the possibility of predicting the development of social and cultural values of society in the direction of increasing motivation for scientific, creative and innovative activities based on the forecast of socio-scientific and technological development of human civilization are proposed. t is concluded that crises in the global economy will continue until the transformation of the essence and paradigm of the development of modern human civilization from a society of “consumption” into a society of “creativity, self-realization and human development” in all areas of activity.

В статье отмечается, что в истории развития человеческой цивилизации экономические кризисы оказывают прямое влияние на изменение динамики роста или снижения производительности труда. Данный факт подтверждается официальными статистическими показателями в разрезе федеральных округов и регионов. Проведенный нами анализ позволил установить некоторые закономерности: 1) сопровождение более высокого уровня производительности труда с более низким уровнем износа основных производственных фондов; 2) взаимосвязь более низких показателей индекса производительности труда с более высоким уровнем износа основных производственных фондов. Данная закономерность отчетливо подтвердилась на примере данных 2020 года по Пензенской области, Республики Марий Эл; Пермскому краю, Республики Башкортостан и Самарской области. В современных условиях для нивелирования негативных экономических и исторических процессов, для повышения уровня производительности труда необходимо сконцентрировать внимание на технических и технологических инновациях, импортозамещении, обновлении имеющейся ресурсной базы и основных производственных фондов., The article notes that in the history of the development of human civilization, economic crises have a direct impact on changing the dynamics of growth or decrease in labor productivity. This fact is confirmed by official statistical indicators in the context of federal districts and regions. Our analysis allowed us to establish some regularities: 1) accompanying a higher level of labor productivity with a lower level of depreciation of fixed production assets; 2) the relationship between lower indicators of the labor productivity index and a higher level of depreciation of fixed production assets. This pattern was clearly confirmed by the example of 2020 data for the Penza region, the Republic of Mari El; Perm Territory, Republic of Bashkortostan and Samara Region. In modern conditions, in order to level negative economic and historical processes, to increase the level of labor productivity, it is necessary to focus on technical and technological innovations, import substitution, updating the existing resource base and fixed production assets.

(1) Background: In the period between 2008 and 2020, the world experienced two global economic crises that affected people’s way of life and well-being: the financial crisis of 2008 and that precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the crises’ radically different causes, their consequences for economic activity have been equally dramatic; (2) Methods: This article analyzes the consequences of both crises on gambling spending in Spain and compares traditional (offline) games with more recent online offerings. The data were collected from databases maintained by the Spanish government and gambling companies; (3) Results: The paper offers two main conclusions. The first is that, while traditional (offline) gambling has been significantly affected by economic crises, online gambling has exhibited consistent growth since its legalization. The second is that the measures implemented to resolve the two economic crises differed significantly and thus had different impacts on spending on the various types of gambling; (4) Conclusions: The key conclusion is that purchasing power (measured in terms of GDP) can only explain spending on less addictive gambling games, such as lotteries. However, the availability and accessibility of games are both directly related to spending on games of all types.

Com o advento de uma pandemia no final de 2019 na China, provocada por um vírus desconhecido e com alta taxa de contágio, propagou-se rapidamente por vários países ao redor do mundo, tornando-se motivo para que a Organização Mundial de Saúde declarasse, no início de 2020, a situação como emergência global em saúde. Considerando a alta taxa de mortalidade e a velocidade do contágio, os governos viram seus sistemas de saúde à beira do colapso, que pela gravidade das consequências adotaram medidas para conter o avanço da doença e minimizar os impactos nos sistemas de saúde, como o isolamento social e fechamento de mercados, permitindo apenas os serviços essenciais. No cerne deste contexto emergiu a crise econômica em 2020, afetando de forma abrangente vários setores da economia e empresas de todos os portes. As mais afetadas foram as pequenas e médias empresas. Neste sentido, o objetivo deste trabalho é apresentar um conjunto de diretrizes para uma Gestão Estratégica Resiliente (GER), de modo a indicar alternativas de preparação ou mitigação de riscos para que as Pequenas e Médias Empresas enfrentem situações de crises econômicas ou pandemias no futuro. Na abordagem metodológica, trata-se de uma pesquisa exploratória de natureza qualitativa. Os dados do estudo foram obtidos por meio de uma pesquisa bibliográfica e documental. Como resultado, a análise foi realizada a partir do referencial teórico do material coletado, identificando os principais impactos causados por crises econômicas e/ou pandemias, associando-os com as ações sustentáveis, os elementos que proporcionam vantagem competitiva e com as características da resiliência. O propósito deste trabalho se consolidou com uma proposta de um conjunto de diretrizes para uma Gestão Estratégica Resiliente, o qual permite às pequenas e médias empresas alternativas para sobreviver à momentos de crise. Os resultados indicam que, entre os pressupostos da vantagem competitiva, das ações sustentáveis e das características da resiliência, destaca-se que a pequena e média empresa poderá criar valor ao cliente na entrega de produtos e serviços, indo além do atendimento às suas necessidades, comprometendo-se com o mínimo possível de impacto ambiental e atuando no seu papel de agente social na redução da pobreza junto à comunidade. Para as pequenas e médias empresas, apesar de suas limitações, há espaços para o desenvolvimento de sua estratégia voltada para o desenvolvimento local e sustentável. With the advent of a pandemic in China at the end of 2019, caused by an unknown virus with a high contagion rate, it spread rapidly throughout several countries around the world, making it a reason for the World Health Organization to declare the situation as a global health emergency in early 2020. Considering the high mortality rate and the speed of contagion, governments saw their health systems on the verge of collapse, which by the severity of the consequences adopted measures to contain the advance of the disease and minimize the impacts on health systems, such as social isolation and market closures, allowing only essential services. At the heart of this context emerged the economic crisis in 2020, broadly affecting various sectors of the economy and companies of all sizes. The most affected were small and mediumsized enterprises. In this sense, the objective of this work is to present a set of guidelines for resilient strategic management (RSM), in order to indicate alternatives for risk preparation or mitigation so that Small and Medium Enterprises face situations of economic crises or pandemics in the future. In the methodological approach, this is exploratory research of a qualitative basis. The study data was obtained through a bibliographic and documentary research. As a result, the analysis was performed from the theoretical framework of the collected material, identifying the main impacts caused by economic crises and/or pandemics, connecting them with sustainable actions, the elements that provide competitive advantage and with the characteristics of resilience. The purpose of this work was consolidated with a proposal for a set of guidelines for resilient strategic management, which allows small and medium-sized alternative companies to survive the moments of crisis. The results indicate that, among the assumptions of competitive advantage, sustainable actions and resilience characteristics, it is highlighted that small and medium-sized enterprises can create value to the customer in the delivery of products and services, going beyond meeting their needs, committing to the least possible environmental impact and acting in their role as a social agent in reducing poverty with the community. For small and medium-sized enterprises, despite their limitations, there are spaces for the development of their strategy focused on local and sustainable development.

Orientador: Daniela Magalhães Prates Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Economia Resumo: Esta dissertação pretende mostrar como no Brasil e a Índia - que possuem sistemas bancários mistos, com participação significativa de bancos públicos - esses bancos tiveram um papel fundamental na atenuação do efeito-contágio da crise econômica internacional por meio da realização de ações anticíclicas, que constituem uma das funções das instituições financeiras públicas. Os sistemas bancário brasileiro e indiano passaram por amplas reformas a partir do início da década de 1990, no âmbito dos processos de liberalização financeira interna que integraram as chamadas reformas neoliberais. No Brasil, muitos bancos foram privatizados, enquanto na Índia, apesar da venda de parte do capital de várias instituições públicas, o governo manteve o controle dessas instituições. Sendo assim, mesmo após as reformas, a presença de bancos públicos nos dois países continuou relevante, principalmente na Índia. Diante do contágio da crise, a maioria das iniciativas de política econômica teve como denominador comum a ação anticíclica, contrariando o padrão adotado em situações anteriores de instabilidade. Nos dois países, a existência de um sistema bancário misto, permitiu a adoção de ações anticíclicas por essas instituições, contribuindo para atenuar a contração do crédito por parte das instituições privadas, que adotam um comportamento cauteloso nos momentos de reversão do ciclo. A despeito das especificidades de cada país, os bancos públicos garantiram a manutenção dos fluxos de crédito após o efeito-contágio, o que resultou na ampliação da participação deste tipo de instituição no estoque de crédito doméstico das duas economias estudadas Abstract: This thesis aims to show how in Brazil and India - which have banking systems, with significant participation of public banks - these banks had a key role in mitigating the contagion effect of the international economic crisis by holding countercyclical actions, which constitute one of the functions of public financial institutions. The Brazilian and Indian banking systems have undergone extensive renovations, from the early 1990s, in proceedings of internal financial liberalization that joined the so-called neoliberal reforms. In Brazil, many banks were privatized, while in India, despite the sale of part of the capital from various public institutions, the government kept the control of these institutions. Thus, even after the reforms, the presence of public banks in both countries continued relevant, especially in India. Given the contagion of the crisis, most economic policy initiatives had a common denominator that was the anti-cyclical action, contrary to the standard adopted in previous situations of instability. In these two countries, the existence of banking systems with a significant presence of public banks allowed the adoption of countercyclical actions by these institutions, helping to mitigate the contraction of credit by private institutions, which adopt a cautious behavior in moments of reversal of cycle. Despite the specificities of each country, the public banks ensured the maintenance of credit flows after the contagion effect, which resulted in a increasing of the involvement of this kind institution in stock of domestic credit of the two studied economies Mestrado Política Econômica Mestre em Ciências Econômicas

Economic crises throughout history have often given an impetus for health and social reforms leading to the introduction of general healthcare systems and social equality in a large number of countries. The aim of this paper is to present the major economic crises and their effect on healthcare and social system chronologically. Bismarck’s and Beveridge’s model, the two most prominent healthcare models, which emerged primarily as a response to major economic crises, constitute the basis for the functioning of most health care systems in the world. An overview of historical events and experiences may be valuable in predicting future developments and potential effects of the crisis on healthcare systems and health in general. An analysis of past crises as well as current health and economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and their impact on the healthcare system can facilitate the comprehension of the mechanisms of action and consequences of economic recession. It may also help identify guidelines and changes that might reduce the potential damage caused by future crises. The historical examples presented show that a crisis could trigger changes, which, in theiressence, are not necessarily negative. The response of society as a whole determines the direction of these changes, and it is up to society to transform the negative circumstances brought about by the recession into activities that contribute to general well-being and progress.

Graphical abstract, This paper provides preliminary evidence of the effects of fiscal and monetary policies designed to mitigate and contain the adverse economic impacts of COVID-19 on supplier-customer relationships during the first two quarters of 2020. We compare the impacts of various intervention policies on corporate trade credit for a sample of 14,623 firm-quarter observations, representing 56 countries, after controlling for quarter-, country-, industry-, and firm-fixed effects. We find that, overall, the monetary interventions are associated with lower levels of trade credit, while fiscal interventions increase the use of trade credit. Our results suggest that trade credit is lower in periods of less-restrictive bank credit. This finding has important policy implications for governments as they attempt to help financially constrained businesses survive the pandemic.

Agriculture and related activities generate a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions with environmental and biodiversity implications. Based on the European objectives proposed by the Green Pact, this paper assesses the carbon footprint of agricultural chains for European OECD member countries. The period analysed is 2000–2019, and the method applied is panel data, specific to OLS models. We opted for three research directions: one is general, one is geographical and one is in temporary dynamics. The general analysis shows that in the European region, the organically cultivated area and economic growth reduce the carbon footprint, while fertilisers, aquaculture production, investments in road infrastructure and agricultural area determine its increase. The geographical analysis outlines the existence of two clusters, one consisting of Member States where agricultural chains reduce their carbon footprint and one consisting of a larger number of Member States, including the major European agricultural powers, where agricultural chains increase the carbon footprint. The temporary analysis reveals that the EU has changed its paradigm since 2008–2009. Economic growth has been slowly decoupling from the carbon footprint since 2016, and the rest of the factors analysed have become more environmental since the late 2010s. The EU has positioned itself towards achieving the objectives set by the Green Pact at a slow pace, justified by the heterogeneity of members’ national characteristics, in addition to its purpose not to harm the food security of the population. In order to achieve the objectives proposed by the Green Pact, it is necessary to focus on more extensive organic farming and traditional production methods, more extensive efforts to reduce nitrogen surplus in fertilizer content, to support short agri-food chains and to identify new production techniques, including the use of nanotechnology and high-performance technologies. Local agricultural chains are crystallizing into a possible solution to the insecurity generated by energy and food crises, political conflicts, pandemics, under the observation that organic products should be excluded from the category of luxury commodity.

This article shows the possibility of applying short-term (fast) indicators of economic security to analyze crisis phenomena in the economy of Russia. The system includes the indicators adopted in the Strategy for the Economic Security of the Russian Federation up to 2030. It is proposed to jointly analyze these indicators through new nonlinear normalizing functions that contain their threshold and target values as parameters. The fast indicators system is used to analyze four economic crises in Russia, including their prerequisites and the pace and depth of the recession and subsequent recovery of the real economy and other sectors, such as the financial and social sectors, and foreign trade. Integral indices are synthesized for these sectors, the composite index of economic security is calculated, and the patterns of their joint movement are considered. The RTS index is singled out among the forward-looking indices that can be potential forerunners of a crisis.

The Coronavirus pandemic is changing our reality, from individuals' daily lives to the global order. A majority of countries worldwide are going through unexpected socio-economic crises while trying to tackle the impacts of the virus. Yet, the pandemic is not only creating new problems, but is also exacerbating existing systemic issues. This paper engages with the case of Georgia and analyses major challenges and the government’s response to the crisis, as well as raising fundamental questions about rethinking the pre-Coronavirus socio-economic and political order. The article argues that, while the Georgian government might be preventing the worst through tackling the immediate causes of the crisis, it is not responding to mid- and long-term challenges of an unsustainable economic model. The Georgian state and its socio-economic order require rethinking now more than ever.

This work received institutional support from the Spanish Science and Technology System (projects CSO2016-77449-R, ECO2016-78991-R, ECO2015-71981-REDT and RTI2018- 095799-B-I00), the European Commission (Joint Programming Initiative (JPI), 'More Years Better Lives (2016)', project PCIN-2016-151 WELTRANSIM) and the XREPP (Xarxa de Referència en Economia i Polítiques Públiques) of Catalan Government (Spain). Elisenda Renteria also thanks the funding from the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship RYC-2017-22586. The welfare state has been shown to be a powerful, effective mechanism in the fight against poverty and social exclusion. Yet, it retains a surprising bias towards the elderly, as identified in more than one strand of the social sciences literature. We construct the National Transfer Accounts (NTA) for Spain before and after the Great Recession to determine how this bias might have shifted during the crisis. Our results confirm that children have borne the brunt of the economic decline. The rise in unemployment and the fall in wages inevitably led to the impoverishment of families, deprived of adequate social policies to act as a counterbalance. In contrast, the elderly were by far better protected, thanks to the well-established public pension and health care systems. The question arises as to why high-income societies appear to be so averse to old-age poverty while they seemingly accept child poverty almost without flinching.

Aims: The so-called “Great Recession” in Europe triggered widespread concerns about population health, as reflected by an upsurge in empirical research on the health impacts of the economic crisis. A growing body of empirical studies has also been devoted to socioeconomic inequalities in health during the Great Recession. The aim of the current study is to summarise this health inequality literature by means of a scoping review. Methods: We have performed a scoping review of the research literature (English language) published in the years 2012—2017. Only empirical papers with (1) health status measured on the individual level, (2) information on socioeconomic position (i.e. employment status, educational level, income/wealth, and/or occupational class), and (3) data from European countries in both pre- and post-crisis years were considered relevant. In total, 49 empirical studies fulfilled these inclusion criteria. Results: The empirical findings in the 49 included studies predominantly show that socioeconomic inequalities in health either increased or remained stable from pre- to post-crisis years. Two-thirds (65 percent) of the studies found evidence of either increasing or partially increasing health inequalities. Thus, people in lower socioeconomic strata fared worse overall in terms of health during the Great Recession, compared to people with higher socioeconomic status. Conclusions: The Great Recession in Europe tends to be followed by increasing socioeconomic inequalities in health. Policymakers should take note of this finding. Widening socioeconomic inequalities in health is a major cause of concern, in particular if health deterioration among ‘vulnerable groups’ is caused by accelerating cumulative disadvantages. The present literature review is a part of the project “Health Inequalities, Economic Crisis, and the Welfare State”, funded by the Research Council of Norway [grant number 221037].

The scope of the present article is to analyze whether austerity measures developed during severe economic crises that arise restrictions to social and fundamental rights may be considered valid under the basis of the Legal Pragmatism. In order to achieve these goals, we intend to investigate if general principles such as equality and the prohibition to the “ratchet effect” may prevent these measures to the adopted, as well as to offer parameters under which the validation of anti-crises actions should be scrutinized. Under these constraints, we intend to demonstrate that, although there may be room to adapt the legal system into the reality, anti-crises measures cannot be seen as non-juridical spaces; instead, they must be surrounded by basilar values to the Rule of Law, such as human dignity and democracy. Finally, we intend to offer limits and parameters applicable to moments when, due to the severity of the economic crises, the public institutions cannot provide the minimum necessary to guarantee the preservation of human dignity, in order to reestablish it as quickly as possible or, at least, to not deteriorate the scarcity situation., O escopo do presente trabalho reside em verificar se, em momentos de grave crise econômica, as medidas de austeridade que restrinjam direitos fundamentais, especialmente os de cunho social, podem ser consideradas constitucionalmente válidas, à luz do pragmatismo jurídico e da realidade fática e econômica em que são editadas. Para tanto, investigaremos se princípios como isonomia e vedação ao retrocesso podem ser considerados impeditivos a essas restrições, bem como buscaremos oferecer parâmetros para a análise da validade jurídica de tais medidas. A partir dessa moldura, pretendemos demonstrar que, embora haja margem para a conformação do direito pela realidade, as ações de enfrentamento a crises econômicas não podem ser consideradas espaços ajurídicos, devendo ser permeadas por valores caros ao ordenamento, sobretudo a dignidade da pessoa humana e a democracia participativa. Por fim, pretendemos trazer balizas para contextos em que, diante da gravidade do cenário de crise, o mínimo existencial não possa ser resguardado, visando a seu restabelecimento ou, ao menos, ao não agravamento da situação de escassez.

This study aims at exploring the factors associated with workaholism. A total of three hundred and sixty one (N=361) (W orkaholics=175, Non-workaholics=186) working adults, ranging from 25 to 59 years of age with educational background of at least bachelor’s degree from different departments in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan were recruited. In this report workaholics were compared to non-workaholics on measures of test for workaholism and self-designed questionnaire. It was found that educational level, age, economic crisis during childhood, and health-related problems such sleep disorders and hypertension were independently associated with workaholics as compared to non-workaholics. Childhood family experiences were also investigated and it was found that workaholism was an outcome of disturbed family experiences in early years of life. It was concluded that workaholism plays an important role in improving the standard of workaholics’ personal, family and professional life materially but at the cost of their own health. This study recognizes workaholism in Peshawar and would help recommend policies and health awareness in this region.

The paper aims to present the information in the Bulgarian National Revival Press on the economic crisis of 1875. A problem that has been ignored by Bulgarian scholars so far. Hundreds of issues of Revival newspapers were reviewed, containing a large number of reports, orders from the Ottoman authorities, analyzes, and so on. The article can’t be quite exhaustive. The materials are thousands and it is impossible all of them to be presented here. The records are divided into several major thematic groups: the famine in Asia Minor in 1874, the harsh climatic conditions of the winter of 1875, the extinction of farm animals, the uprising in the Ottoman provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the bankruptcy of the Porte in the same year. I hope that the article will increase the interest in the digital editions of the Bulgarian newspapers, which we receive as an inheritance from the Revival period.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze the mortality trend in Spain before, during and after the economic crisis and austerity policies in the working-age population. METHODS: From 2005 to 2016 we calculated the annual all-cause mortality rate and the annual mortality rate from the main causes of death in the population aged 15 to 64. We also estimated the linear trends in mortality rates during four time intervals-2005-2007 (before crisis), 2008-2010 (first part of the crisis), 2011-2013 (second part of the crisis and implementation of austerity policies) and 2014-2016 (after the crisis)- by the annual percentage change (APC). RESULTS: The all-cause mortality rate in men and women showed the greatest decline in 2008-2010 and the smallest decline in 2014-2016. The decline in 2011-2013 was higher than in 2014-2016. The APCs in 2005-2007, 2008-2010, 2011-2013 and 2014-2016 were -2.8, -4.1, -3.0 and -1.5 in men and -1.0. -2.1, -1.1 and -0.6 in women, respectively, although the APC in 2014-2016 in women was not significant. In 2014-2016, cancer mortality showed the largest decrease, mortality from cardiovascular diseases (men), respiratory diseases and traffic accidents reversed and showed an upward trend, and the downward trend in mortality from infectious diseases and digestive diseases was equal to or greater than that observed before the crisis. CONCLUSION: The decline in all-cause mortality in the working-age population during the economic crisis and the introduction of austerity measures was greater than that observed before and after the economic crisis. The slowing of the decline after the crisis was due to the reversal of the trend in mortality from cardiovascular and respiratory diseases. This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI16/00455) and the European Regional Development Fund. Sí

[EN] The purpose of this research was to analyze open-air mural painting museums in Uruguay as a model of tourism resilience, sustainability, and social development, being one of the first Latin American examples to demonstrate the ability to adapt to change and overcome external shocks through the creation of creative community landscapes. To do so, documentary research, photographic documentation, and field research were carried out in order to explore the opportunities of mural tourism in small locations in Uruguay. In the nineties, a new type of artistic production was created in Uruguay, initially characterized by its decentralization. This was somewhat of a revolution in the muralist field as, until this time, Montevideo had been the center of cultural tradition, considered the intellectual focus of the country, and had concentrated the largest number of murals. For this reason, the birth of new muralist nuclei in small rural enclaves, which traditionally had not had much access to culture and no link to muralism, is remarkable. Secondly, this new movement sought to diversify economic activity given the consequences of the severe economic crises and environmental catastrophes that were and are still prevalent in these areas. Therefore, these new creative landscapes were conceived as important examples of the resilience of cultural tourist destinations. The results emphasize that, until now, the idea of giving muralism a new use as a tool for local economic development had not been envisaged with reference to mural art in Uruguay. This new rethinking has given rise to the so-called Regionalization Processes of Uruguayan wall production. The most relevant cases are those developed in the municipalities of San Gregorio de Polanco (1993), Rosario (1994), and Pan de Azúcar (1998)., This research includes some of the results of the social innovation project "Social function of Uruguayan muralism in the 20th century as a vehicle and model of sustainable heritage activation: Decentralization, identity and memory", funded by the Ministry of Economy and Business and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain, as well as the Polytechnic University of Valencia, between 2010 and 2016. It was developed by the Microcluster of Cultural and Creative Industries Research, Tourism and Technology (www.ccis.upv.es (accessed on 26 March 2021)) under the direction of Professor Virginia Santamarina-Campos with the help of the National Directorate of Culture of Uruguay (National System of Museums project); the Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Nation (RestorationWorkshop); the National Institute of Fine Arts (IENBA) of the University of the Republic; and the Municipalities of Maldonado, Tacuarembo, and Colonia. This project was characterized by the participation of society in the innovation process with the objective of aligning its results with the real values of society and the objectives of sustainable development (SDG). This implied the participation of all the actors (universities, government, central government, local associations, educational centers, etc.) through inclusive and participatory methodologies at all stages of the innovation processes, contemplating aspects such as open access, gender equality, scientific education, ethics, and governance, with the aim of supporting the democratization of their culture and economic development through their heritage.

The rise of Asian and the stagnation of Western middle classes over the last thirty years have resulted in gradual convergence of income of large parts of the world’s population. Recent global crises—the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic—have led to a decline in income and increase in income uncertainty. Rise in consumption of lower quality goods of shorter durability and an overall decline in demand and economic activity resulted as challenges to the global economy. In this paper, we argue that generational responsibility in consumption can be an environmentally sustainable response to crises which enables the economies to overcome the crisis of confidence and reaffirms community ties. As an element of long-term orientation in consumption, generational responsibility is a cultural phenomenon dependent on solidarity within family and the wider community. It is characterized by consideration of consequences of consumption choices on the environment, and the abundance of savings and the usability of goods to be inherited by future generations. For companies, willing to revisit their traditional business models and incorporate principles of sustainability in their competitive strategies, promotion of generational responsibility can become a new source of competitive advantage and a driver of economic recovery.

Negative interest rates appeared as a consequence of economic problems that countries with market economy came across after the crises of2007-2008. The attempts of monetary authorities to stimulate economies with the help of quantitative easing didn't bring the desired result. That's why the central banks once again resorted to a traditional tool of their monetary policy of changing interest rates. But this time they launched an experiment, they used negative interest rates. The European Central Bank, the Swedish Riksbank, the Bank of Japan, and the National Bank of Hungary introduced negative rates in order to stimulate economic growth and fight the threat of deflation, the Danish National Bank and the Swiss National Bank tried to deter appreciation of their currencies. Negative rates of the central banks brought about negative yields of government and nongovernment securities in several countries. The problem acquires an aggravated form due to the fact that negative rates appeared in several European countries simultaneously at the moment when global financial markets were not in crises. Some questions arise concerning the negative rates, for example, how low can central banks bring down the rates in the future, what is their influence on the stock markets, what is the reaction of depositors to the introduction of negative deposit rates by commercial banks, must one consider a negative rate as a rate of interest or payment to store money of the depositor, in which circumstances negative rates can be justified to fight deflation. The last question plays an important role, because recent studies find that positive economic growth is possible during deflation. If central banks don't take this nuance into consideration, they can create economic imbalances by increasing liquidity. Negative rates are not as inoffensive as it may seem at first glance. Not far ago an investor, who tried to averse risk, was buying government securities. Their yields according to theory could not become lower than zero. By introducing negative rates, the central banks told in fact that the lower bound of the interest rate didn't exist any more. Thus, now investors find themselves in a situation of complete uncertainty, and risk becomes an absolute dominance. They can't averse it even in government securities. Such situation influences financial markets in a negative way. If we go up to a higher level of abstraction and imagine an economy as a live organism, which tries to rehabilitate itself, then the negative rates can be considered as a way through which the economy tries to solve the task of reducing liquidity. Studies show that so far the introduction of modestly negative rates have not affected the functioning of money markets much. In anticipation of the forthcoming cyclical crisis it is possible to give advice to the central banks to make one more step in the issue of the development of new tools of monetary regulation. Such new tools could be represented by futures contracts on interest rates securities.

The media have promoted the idea that the economic crisis is strongly associated with a decline in mental health and with family important consequences. However, this seems to be a “truth” poorly studied in Portugal, despite being almost dogmatically assumed.Thus, this study analyses a sample of people (N = 287) which perceives the economic crisis as its main family problem, according to the following variables: family difficulties (SCORE-15), quality of family life (QOL), marital adjustment (DAS), marital satisfaction(EASAVIC), congruence (EC) and psychopathological symptoms (BSI). The results show that, although the crisis affects the quality of life, participants are resilient in terms of their family functioning, thus being conjugality the most affected relational area. Though theyare sadder and more worried, the participants show themselves emotionally healthy. This study has some limitations, such as the sample characteristics, but nevertheless it contributes to fill the gap in scientific evidence concerning the impact of the economic crisis onthe Portuguese families by means of a more psychosocial and less pathological approach., Os meios de comunicação têm promovido a ideia de que a crise económica está fortemente associada a uma deterioração da saúde mental e a consequências familiares importantes. No entanto, esta parece ser uma “verdade” muito pouco estudada em Portugal, apesar de ser quase dogmaticamente assumida. Assim, este estudo analisa uma amostra de pessoas (N = 287) que considera a crise económica o seu principal problema familiar, atendendo às seguintes variáveis: dificuldades familiares (SCORE-15), qualidade da vida familiar (QV),ajustamento conjugal (DAS), satisfação conjugal (EASAVIC), congruência (CE) e sintomas psicopatológicos (BSI). Os resultados mostram que, apesar de a crise afetar a qualidade de vida, os participantes são resilientes em termos do funcionamento familiar, sendo a conjugalidade, a área relacional mais prejudicada. Embora mais tristes e preocupados, os participantes mostram-se emocionalmente saudáveis. Este estudo apresenta algumas limitações, como as características da amostra. Apesar disso, contribui para preencher a lacuna de evidências científicas sobre o impacto da crise económica nas famílias portuguesas, através de uma abordagem mais psicossocial e despatologizante.

This article analyzes the productivity growth of the Spanish dairy processing industry from 1996 till 2011, which concerns the period of increased EU regulation regarding food safety as well as economic crisis. Data envelopment analysis is used to compute the Malmquist index and its components. The results suggest that productivity on average declined during the period under investigation. The decomposition of the Malmquist index finds that technical regress contributed to productivity decline despite improvements in technical and scale efficiencies. Our results also suggest that food safety regulations did not have a negative impact on productivity growth. Technical change and scale efficiency change made significant negative contributions to productivity growth in the period under crisis, whereas firms significantly improved their technical efficiency in that period.

The aim of this study is that analyzing the relationship between IMF Stabilization Programs and its effect on the experienced world economic crises. The Great Depression and World War I and II faced by the world caused to be deeply shaken of the economies. Eventually, the countries were forced to create barriers against each other to protect the war-damaged economies. The world countries agreed with establishment of IMF to surpass the economic crisis. This article is concentrated on a question is that “Whether the IMF stabilization Programs effected positively or triggered into worse situation and crisis the war-damaged economies?” The examples crises are Mexican Crisis in 1994, South-eastern Asia Crisis in 1997, Russian Crisis in 1998, Argentina Crisis in 2001 and Turkey Crises in 1994, 2000 and 2001.

A renewed interest in the link between business cycle and tax revenues has recently emerged, especially during economic crises. In this paper, we provide an empirical analysis on 35 OECD countries over the period 1995–2016 to estimate both short-run and long-run tax buoyancies, taking into account the macroeconomic framework, changes in governments’ tax policies, budgetary and political variables possibly affecting how taxes react to GDP fluctuations. By adopting the dynamic common correlated effects estimator, we find that both short- and long-run tax responses are lower than those reported in previous cross-country studies. We suggest that this slightly lower than expected reaction of tax revenue can be interpreted as a reduced power of both automatic stabilization in the short-run and fiscal sustainability in the long-run. Results are robust to possible endogeneity issues between tax revenues and business cycles.

The economic crisis in Greece resulted in high unemployment and the dismantlement of social protection policies. How does society respond to the collapse of both welfare-state and market mechanisms? I examine these issues through the study of one working class community in Athens over 2012–13. Since the onset of the crisis, my informants experienced a simultaneous drop in living standards, loss of social status, and debasement of their symbolic construction of reality. To respond to these pressures, they relied on a combination of material survival strategies, the reconfiguration of social resources, and the reconstruction of cultural imaginaries. To explain these findings, the article draws on Karl Polanyi’s analysis of countermovements to marketization and commodification. I argue in favour of augmenting the definition of countermovements to capture local-level responses, emphasising cultural aspects of social protection, and tracing the micro-foundations of countermovements that are nonetheless shaped by the macro-institutional context shaping action. This reading of Polanyi’s work seeks to integrate many moving—and potentially contradictory—parts into a holistic analysis of societal responses to rapid and radical socioeconomic change.

In this paper, we study the effects of the 2008 economic crisis on general health in one of the most severely affected EU economies-Ireland. We examine the relationship between compositional changes in demographic and socio-economic factors, such as education, income, and financial strain, and changes in the prevalence of poor self-assessed health over a 5-year period (2008-2013). We apply a generalised Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach for non-linear regression models proposed by Fairlie (1999, 2005). Results show that the increased financial strain explained the largest part of the increase in poor health in the Irish population and different sub-groups. Changes in the economic activity status and population structure also had a significant positive effect. The expansion of education had a significant negative effect, preventing further increases in poor health. Wealthier and better educated individuals experienced larger relative increases in poor health, which led to reduced socio-economic health inequalities.

Background Since 2015, a major economic crisis in Brazil has led to increasing poverty and the implementation of long-term fiscal austerity measures that will substantially reduce expenditure on social welfare programmes as a percentage of the country’s GDP over the next 20 years. The Bolsa Família Programme (BFP)—one of the largest conditional cash transfer programmes in the world—and the nationwide primary healthcare strategy (Estratégia Saúde da Família [ESF]) are affected by fiscal austerity, despite being among the policy interventions with the strongest estimated impact on child mortality in the country. We investigated how reduced coverage of the BFP and ESF—compared to an alternative scenario where the level of social protection under these programmes is maintained—may affect the under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and socioeconomic inequalities in child health in the country until 2030, the end date of the Sustainable Development Goals. Methods and findings We developed and validated a microsimulation model, creating a synthetic cohort of all 5,507 Brazilian municipalities for the period 2017–2030. This model was based on the longitudinal dataset and effect estimates from a previously published study that evaluated the effects of poverty, the BFP, and the ESF on child health. We forecast the economic crisis and the effect of reductions in BFP and ESF coverage due to current fiscal austerity on the U5MR, and compared this scenario with a scenario where these programmes maintain the levels of social protection by increasing or decreasing with the size of Brazil’s vulnerable populations (policy response scenarios). We used fixed effects multivariate regression models including BFP and ESF coverage and accounting for secular trends, demographic and socioeconomic changes, and programme duration effects. With the maintenance of the levels of social protection provided by the BFP and ESF, in the most likely economic crisis scenario the U5MR is expected to be 8.57% (95% CI: 6.88%–10.24%) lower in 2030 than under fiscal austerity—a cumulative 19,732 (95% CI: 10,207–29,285) averted under-five deaths between 2017 and 2030. U5MRs from diarrhoea, malnutrition, and lower respiratory tract infections are projected to be 39.3% (95% CI: 36.9%–41.8%), 35.8% (95% CI: 31.5%–39.9%), and 8.5% (95% CI: 4.1%–12.0%) lower, respectively, in 2030 under the maintenance of BFP and ESF coverage, with 123,549 fewer under-five hospitalisations from all causes over the study period. Reduced coverage of the BFP and ESF will also disproportionately affect U5MR in the most vulnerable areas, with the U5MR in the poorest quintile of municipalities expected to be 11.0% (95% CI: 8.0%–13.8%) lower in 2030 under the maintenance of BFP and ESF levels of social protection than under fiscal austerity, compared to no difference in the richest quintile. Declines in health inequalities over the last decade will also stop under a fiscal austerity scenario: the U5MR concentration index is expected to remain stable over the period 2017–2030, compared to a 13.3% (95% CI: 5.6%–21.8%) reduction under the maintenance of BFP and ESF levels of protection. Limitations of our analysis are the ecological nature of the study, uncertainty around future macroeconomic scenarios, and potential changes in other factors affecting child health. A wide range of sensitivity analyses were conducted to minimise these limitations. Conclusions The implementation of fiscal austerity measures in Brazil can be responsible for substantively higher childhood morbidity and mortality than expected under maintenance of social protection—threatening attainment of Sustainable Development Goals for child health and reducing inequality., In a modeling study, Davide Rasella and colleagues investigate the possible consequences for child illness and mortality of different levels of coverage by social protection programs in Brazil., Author summary Why was this study done? There is little evidence on the health impacts of economic crisis and fiscal austerity measures in low- and middle-income countries with fragile social protection systems and high poverty rates. Furthermore, there is poor understanding of how austerity measures could threaten attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in these countries. A platform of long-term fiscal austerity measures is underway in Brazil in response to acute economic and political crises. Little is known about the possible impact of the planned reductions (as percentage of country GDP) in expenditure on social welfare programmes over the next two decades on health outcomes. What did the researchers do and find? We forecast the effects of the economic crisis and austerity measures on two key social welfare programmes (the Bolsa Família Programme [BFP] and Estratégia Saúde da Família [ESF]) and on child morbidity and mortality in Brazil using a synthetic cohort of 5,507 municipalities using a robust modelling technique—discrete-time microsimulation—with municipality-specific time trends and parameters. Our forecasts indicate that over the period 2017–2030, reducing coverage of the BFP and ESF, compared with maintaining their coverage, could result in a higher child mortality rate—up to 8.6% higher in 2030. These austerity measures would then be responsible for almost 20,000 avoidable childhood deaths and 124,000 avoidable childhood hospitalisations between 2017 and 2030. According to our estimates, poorer municipalities would be disproportionately affected, ensuring that Brazil’s already high inequalities would persist until at least 2030. In contrast, maintaining BFP and ESF coverage would contribute to reducing these high inequalities, in line with the SDGs. A range of sensitivity analyses show that, even under different simulated intensities and durations of economic crisis and reductions in BFP and ESF coverage, the numbers of avoidable childhood deaths and hospitalisations under austerity measures are expected to be high. What do these findings mean? Our study suggests that reduced coverage of poverty-alleviation and primary care programmes may result in a substantial number of preventable child deaths and hospitalisations in Brazil. These austerity measures will disproportionately impact child mortality in the poorest municipalities, disrupting previous declines in inequality in child health outcomes. The implementation of austerity measures in LMICs during economic crises is likely to threaten achievement of the SDGs related to poverty reduction, improving health, and reducing health inequality.

Background: Time trends are one of the most studied phenomena in suicide research; however, evidence for time trends in the Dutch population remains understudied. Insight into time trends can contribute to the development of effective suicide prevention strategies.Methods: Time trends in national daily and monthly data of 33,224 suicide events that occurred in the Netherlands from 1995 to 2015 were examined, as well as the influence of age, gender, and province, in a longitudinal population-based design with Poisson regression analyses and Bayesian change point analyses.Results: Suicide incidence among Dutch residents increased from 2007 until 2015 by 38%. Suicide rates peak in spring, up to 8% higher than in summer (p < 0.001). Suicide incidence was 42% lower at Christmas, compared to the December-average (IRR = 0.580, p < 0.001). After Christmas, a substantial increase occurred on January 1, which remained high during the first weeks of the new year. Suicide occurred more than twice as often in men than in women. For both genders, the results indicated a spring time peak in suicide incidence and a trough at Christmas. Suicide rates were highest in the elderly (age group, 80+), and no evidence was found of a differential effect by season in the age groups with regard to suicide incidence. No interaction effect was found with regard to province of residence for both season and Christmas, indicating that no evidence was found that these time trends had differential effects in the Dutch provinces in terms of suicide incidence.Conclusion: Evidence was found for time trends in suicide incidence in the Netherlands. It is recommended to plan (mental) health care services to be available especially at high-risk moments, at spring time, and in the beginning of January. Further research is needed to explore the protective effect of Christmas in suicide incidence.

The recurring financial crises and intensive financialisation force a reconsideration of theories of justice. This article analyses financial capitalism as an ideal-type. In ideal-typical financial capitalism, risks and positions of vulnerability take a pronounced role in the determination of social positions. Risks also come in a specific ontological form. Further, the analysis extends to the production of value in financial capitalism and its relation to a particular logic of determining social positions. The article discusses, how should theories of justice be updated to accommodate this particular ontology of risks. This requires also making a distinction between explicit and implicit priority orders in a society.

This article describes a set of problems of evolution of the modern state. Tendencies modification of the territorial state in the context of globalization. Explore the possibility of going to the institutions of the new world order, marked their shortcomings, not to effectively solve the accumulated social problems. It is shown that the crisis of the modern welfare state is not predetermined by the state as a social institution of society; the causes are genetic properties of a market economy.

José Manuel Barroso est un homme politique portugais. Il a notamment été Président de la Commission européenne de novembre 2004 à octobre 2014.

The relevance of this topic is associated with the diversity of causes behind crisis processes in economics and the individuality of each particular crisis. This necessitates classifying them in a detailed fashion. The present downturn is a manifestation of the cyclicity of the development of the global economic system amid present-day globalization and the established architecture of the institutional space. The formal (legislation, contractual rules, corporate norms, etc.) and non-formal institutes (rules, customs, traditions, behavior as a whole, etc.), undergoing changes in their structure and mechanisms, caused the emergence of financial innovations whose yield surpassed that of the real sector of the economy multifold. This facilitated the concentration of money in financial markets and transforming them into a thing-in-itself. The theory of economic cycles is one of the theories of economic dynamics which explain the movement of the national economy. While the theory of economic growth explores factors and conditions for growth as a long-term trend, the theory of cycles deals with causes behind fluctuations in economic activity through time. Results. In accordance with the aims of this study, the authors established that crises can have the following causes: objective, which are associated with the cyclical development of the system, modernization and restructuring needs, and the impact of external factors, and subjective, which reflect errors in management, shortcomings in the organization of production, and the imperfections of innovation and investment policy. A crisis can take its course manifestly and be easily detected or can be inconspicuous and take its course in a latent form. The most dangerous are crises that affect the system as a whole. In a situation of this kind, there forms a train of complex issues resolving which depends on the timeliness of detecting them and professionalism in managing the organization, municipal education, and the state.

Objective. The aim of the present work is to describe the state of the art of tobacco habits in Italy, eight years after the law was introduced.Methods. Time series analyses, based on estimates of smoking prevalence/consumption derived from the openly available data of national surveys performed during the 2001–2013 period, were performed. Data have been expressed in percentage of smokers and daily cigarettes consumption. Time changes are expressed as expected annual percentage change (EAPC).Results. Over time, the percentage of Italian smokers shows a constant and statistically significant decrease (from 28.9% in 2001 to 20.6% in 2013, EAPC = −2.6%, andP<0.001). Regarding data stratified by gender, we found a stronger reduction among men (EAPC = −2.9%,P<0.001) than in women (EAPC = −2.5%,P<0.001). Similarly, the consumption of tobacco smoking, measured as the number of daily cigarettes smoked, registered a downward trend (P<0.001). No join point (time point when a significant trend change is detected) resulted from the trend analysis.Conclusions. Data show a constant decrease of tobacco consumption in Italy, with no join point related to the introduction of the banning law. These findings require to reflect on the priorities of the smoking banning policies that may be focused on other intervention activities such as to increase the price of cigarettes.

The article considers the modern tendencies and prospects of development of global integration in the global economic environment. It is shown that post-socialist transformation do not fit the classic model of transformational crossings, as have other stages, different specific hierarchy of procedural and structural factors are mixed, implement simultaneous transformations in various fields, save the importance of powerful items, stimulate the emergence of complex conflicts. Great attention is paid to the peculiarities of integration processes in Europe, in North America, the Asia-Pacific region. On the example of the European Union (EU), the North American free trade agreement (NAFTA), the Asia-Pacific economic cooperation (APEC), which are the centers of global integration, which focused on large-scale economic, financial, scientific-technological and human resources, by their importance comparable to their political, military-strategic values, analyzed the stages of formation and development of the integration of the unions further directions of their strategic development.

ResumenEl tema de la administración e inspección del trabajo ha ganado una notoriedad creciente en los últimos años, tanto a nivel nacional como internacional. Éste es el resultado de un mayor reconocimiento, en donde un sistema eficaz de administración de la inspección de trabajo es esencial en todas las etapas del desarrollo económico, especialmente durante un periodo de crisis económica. El crecimiento en dicho interés también se puede atribuir a una preocupación nueva o renovada acerca de la justicia social “real” en muchos de los países que están experimentando o contemplando importantes cambios económicos en sus respectivas sociedades. Lo que se propone con el presente artículo es analizar de una forma comparada las tendencias y desafíos de la inspección del trabajo en un número seleccionado de países miembros de la OIT.AbstractThe theme of the labour administration and labour inspection has gained increasing notoriety in recent years, both nationally and internationally. This is the result of greater recognition, where an effective management system of labour inspection is essential at all stages of economic development, especially during a period of economic crisis. Growing interest in this area may also be attributed to a new or renewed concern about “real” social justice in many of the countries which are experiencing or contemplating significant economic changes in their societies. What is proposed in this article is to analyse from a comparative viewpoint trends and challenges of labour inspection in a selected number of ILO member states.

The main aim of this article was to analyse the possible intensity of dependency of the Czech Republic, or more precisely, its total economic indicator Gross Domestic Product on realized Sales sector of the automotive industry before crisis, during the crisis period (2007-2010) as well as after the crisis. There was also used the development analysis of individual total economic indicators in the Czech automotive industry in time. On the other hand, in the article there were found and analysed impacts of the global recession on the functioning of several chosen companies associated in the Automotive Industry Association of the Czech Republic at their interaction with this way developed macroeconomic surroundings. The investigation was based on the development of company result indicator value (Sales) of the selected companies and the chosen macro indicator (Gross Domestic Product) when looking for their reciprocal dependency in the period mainly connected with the financial and economic crisis. In the contribution, an elementary analysis of the chosen indicator Sales was carried out. With the help of regress and correlation analysis there were further researched the relationships among this chosen indicator of company performance reciprocally with all the companies, the Automotive Industry Association of the Czech Republic as a whole, and the chosen macro-indicator representing the development of selected markets. For the following calculation of tested criteria, Cohen’s Coefficient was used to be able to assess the effect of the group on the value variability of studied random quantity, Internal Grant Agency of FaME TBU [IGA/FaME/2012/042]

Today, few doubt the social character who has the right to education and the need that this fundamental right is met at the global level in the best possible way; moreover, from the economic point of view, does not create any controversy regarding the role that the education and training on growth and economic development of countries. Despite this, when moments of economic crisis, there is a tendency to neglect education policy and training without realizing is that this is an automatic damper to prevent the negative effects that are generated with these crises. This article will discuss how evolved the policy of education and training a Social policy, with a view to the fulfilment of a fundamental right, to an economic vision that education and training, along with the possible research, development and innovation, they are fundamental instruments for growth and economic development. In addition, education will be exposed to what extent and training have been gaining importance within the economic sphere. To analyze this issue will prove the evolution that has taken in the European Union policy of education and training, as it is one of the environments in which more clearly shows how this policy has gone from being a complementary tool to make some economic objectives, considered to be one of the fundamental pillars in the new European strategy. Finally, to reinforce the importance that has this policy stands an aspect little considered in relation to education and training: dampens economics crises. This function is not usually take into account when he speaks of policies anti-crisis short-term. However, it is essential to consider it since you can avoid many of the negative socio-economic effects that occur in these crisis situations. This cushion character gives to education policy and training, especially for quality, a new role within the socio-economic policies that apply traditionally countries and requires a reconsideration of the place the same within these. En la actualidad, pocos dudan del carácter social que tiene el derecho a la educación y de la necesidad de que este Derecho Fundamental se cumpla a nivel global de la mejor forma posible; es más, desde el punto de vista económico, no se crea ninguna controversia respecto al papel que tiene la educación y la formación en el crecimiento y desarrollo económico de los países. Pese a esto, cuando llegan momentos de crisis económicas, existe una cierta tendencia a descuidar la política de educación y formación sin darse cuenta que ésta es un amortiguador automático para evitar los efectos negativos que se generan con estas crisis En el presente artículo se analizará cómo ha ido evolucionando la Política de educación y formación desde una Política Social, con una visión destinada al cumplimiento de un Derecho Fundamental, hasta una visión económica en la que la educación y la formación, junto con la posible investigación, desarrollo e innovación, son instrumentos fundamentales para el crecimiento y desarrollo económico. Además, se expondrá en qué medida la educación y formación han ido cobrando importancia dentro del ámbito económico. Para analizar esta evolución se comprobará la evolución que ha tenido en la Unión Europea la política de educación y formación, ya que es uno de los entornos en los que más claramente se observa cómo esta política ha pasado de ser un instrumento complementario para lograr algunos objetivos económicos, a considerarse uno de los pilares fundamentales en la nueva Estrategia europea. Por último, para afianzar la importancia que tiene esta política, se destaca un aspecto poco considerado en relación con la educación y formación: es amortiguadora de crisis económicas. Esta función no se suele tener en cuenta cuando se habla de políticas anticrisis de corto plazo; sin embargo, es fundamental considerarla ya que puede evitar muchos de los efectos socioeconómicos negativos que se producen en situaciones. Este carácter amortiguador dota a la Política de educación y formación, especialmente la de calidad, de un nuevo papel dentro de las Políticas Socioeconómicas que se aplican tradicionalmente en los países y exige una reconsideración del lugar que la misma ocupa dentro de éstas.

Nowadays, the international characteristics of the environment cannot be ignored. The process of learning is forced to adapt to these new approaches. Everyone that is aspiring to have a job in a multinational company must be prepared to face a lot of challenges. He or she must learn foreign languages in order to communicate accurately, must be able to work in a multi-cultural team, to build easily a personal network, to travel and especially to really understand different cultures. The academic institution have to learn also to adjust their courses to these new student requires.

The continuing failure of many countries to adequately mitigate the adverse labor market impacts of economic downturns is of concern, since labor market volatility can exacerbate poverty and stunt growth. This article aims to identify potentially effective policies responses to crises by navigating the potential tradeoffs between offsetting adverse short-term impacts of economic downturns on the quantity and quality of jobs, and preserving incentives for economic recovery. The authors propose a taxonomy that categorizes interventions depending on whether they mitigate the negative short-term impact of crises or whether they stimulate recovery. The taxonomy helps policymakers to identify “win–win” policies that avoid potential tradeoffs between these objectives by simultaneously serving both. Common elements of effective interventions are feasibility, flexibility (for example the capacity for scaling up and down), and incentive compatibility—and there is no substitute for being prepared. Having sound safety nets in place before a crisis is superior to haphazardly implementing responses after a crisis hits. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.

The strategies for structural-systemic crisis management have generated, to a geographical level, a number of differences between EU countries. These cleavages are the result of differential macroeconomic policies. In this context, this article has the aim of achieving a comparative approach between countries of the south, west and east of the EU space. Also our approach is focused on observing the nature of macroeconomic policies and also on identifying a "pattern" associated with a common ideal -type of "rational choice" in the efficient and effective management of systemic crises. This article aims to identify areas of growth and economic stability of a particular model of public policy and political-economic ideology, to set up a mechanism for "economic engineering”. From the methodological point of view, this article uses a quantitative methodology, derived from mathematical analysis, statistics and stochastic, in order to explain, understand and predict the possible evolution of the systemic crises in the EU countries. The interest lies in the possibility of giving a model of macroeconomic policy for the adjustment of inflationist imbalances, labor market and price policy, and also in regulating the equation of production-consumption.