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The new information age and the phenomena of digitalization and automation make investments in research and development (R&D) indispensable for economic and social progress. Meanwhile, increased inequality within countries and its effects on advanced countries is one of the consequences of the recent turbulences in the global economy. These two dynamics open debates around the still-unresolved nature of the relationship between innovation and inequality. This paper contrasts postulates from the existing theory and relevant empirical evidence to argue that the analysis of the positive and complex co-evolution of inequality reduction and technological progress in Europe implies a recombination of factors that highlights institutions as the backbone of the relationship. The results of this analysis based on time series / cross-section regressions with panel data from a sample of 20 European countries for the period 1995–2017 show the relevance of structural and institutional aspects within the region, while two sets of countries evince a dissimilar European behavior in the relationship under study. According to our findings, it is plausible to argue the existence of a virtuous circle defined by the combination of social protection contributions with innovation policies that certainly help settle the controversial relationship between innovation and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the development of rural peripheral areas in Europe. Rural areas can be defined in terms of a number of socio-spatial characteristics. The economic development of rural areas is closely associated with the interaction between the external environment and entrepreneurial agents. The key economic challenge for rural areas is how can a small number of entrepreneurial individuals adjust to and exploit the characteristics of their external environment.

This paper discusses the possibility of a spatial hierarchy of innovation and growth dynamics in Europe. A spatial hierarchy is understood as a geographical clustering of regions, where important differences exist in terms of innovation and growth dynamics between the clusters. The literature on regional growth and innovation is briefly scanned. After this, a database on European regional growth and innovation dynamics is presented. Spatial correlation analysis and spatial principal components analysis are used to explore the possibility of a spatial hierarchy in Europe. The results point to a hierarchy consisting of four groups: South Europe, East Europe, and two groups in West and North Europe. Growth and innovation performance in these clusters are discussed, and some policy conclusions are drawn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purposes of this paper are twofold: a presentation of the theoretical basis of benchmarking and a discussion on practical benchmarking applications. Benchmarking is also analyzed as a productivity accelerator. The authors study benchmarking usage in the private and public sectors with due consideration of the specificities of the two areas. Special attention is paid to the presentation of the current picture of higher education and conditions for the application of benchmarking. The chosen examples of benchmarking projects conducted in higher education illustrate the spectrum of benchmarking usage. The authors conclude the paper with a recommendation for the employment of benchmarking in the higher education environment, especially in the light of competition pressures and rapid economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a game theoretic model to explain empirical research which has revealed higher relational satisfaction among married couples than cohabiting couples, as well as among married couples who did not cohabit before marriage. Despite these findings, in recent decades cohabitation rates have dramatically increased in both Europe and the United States. Instrumental variables estimations on data from 28 industrialized countries and 50 U.S. states show cohabitation strongly correlated with increases in women's labor force participation, where a 10 percent increase in women's labor force participation results in a 6.4 to 14.6 percent increase in cohabitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Private health insurance is playing an increasing role in both high- and low-income countries, yet is poorly understood by researchers and policy-makers. This paper shows that the distinction between private and public health insurance is often exaggerated since well regulated private insurance markets share many features with public insurance systems. It notes that private health insurance preceded many modern social insurance systems in western Europe, allowing these countries to develop the mechanisms, institutions and capacities that subsequently made it possible to provide universal access to health care. We also review international experiences with private insurance, demonstrating that its role is not restricted to any particular region or level of national income. The seven countries that finance more than 20% of their health care via private health insurance are Brazil, Chile, Namibia, South Africa, the United States, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. In each case, private health insurance provides primary financial protection for workers and their families while public health-care funds are targeted to programmes covering poor and vulnerable populations. We make recommendations for policy in developing countries, arguing that private health insurance cannot be ignored. Instead, it can be harnessed to serve the public interest if governments implement effective regulations and focus public funds on programmes for those who are poor and vulnerable. It can also be used as a transitional form of health insurance to develop experience with insurance institutions while the public sector increases its own capacity to manage and finance health-care coverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most pressing economic problem in Europe today is the apparently endless surge in unemployment. Other industrial countries have also seen an increase in unemployment over time, though to a smaller extent. To the layman, the upward trend in unemployment is related to the slowdown in economic growth, which is also apparent in most industrial countries and in particular in Europe. Both trends are illustrated in Table 1, which contrasts Europe and the U.S. Over the last 30 years, the unemployment rate has risen by more than 7 percentage points in the EU, and by just 1.3% in the U.S. Per-capita GDP growth fell markedly in both Europe and the U.S., but the growth slowdown in Europe was clearly more pronounced. Moreover, U.S. growth has turned around dramatically since the mid-1990s. No such sharp acceleration is in sight in Europe. Given the long time period, these two trends are not simply the result of business cycle fluctuations, but reflect long run tendencies.

It is possible to achieve faster rates of social growth, greater developement, a better standard of living and narrow the gap between rich and poor countries by changing a government's economic policies so that they emphasize investments in the developement of human potential. An increase in motivation, knowledge, levels of education and team organization, as well as a strengthening of citizens' moral, intellectual and social potential will, as the results of investigations quoted in this article show, bring faster growth of the Gross National Product (GNP). There is still a paradigm prevailing in south-eastern European countries to invest more in physical capital than in human capital. This paradigm is the reason that these countries continue to fall behind the most developed countries in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]