Search

Transport infrastructure has represented one of the cornerstones of development and cohesion strategies in the European Union (EU) and elsewhere in the world. However, despite the considerable funds devoted to it, its impact remains controversial. This paper revisits the question of to what extent transport infrastructure endowment - proxied by regional motorways - has contributed to regional growth in the EU between 1990 and 2004. It analyses infrastructure in relationship to other factors which may condition economic growth, such as innovation, migration, and the local 'social filter', taking also into account the geographical component of intervention in transport infrastructure and innovation. The results of the two-way fixed-effect (static) and difference GMM (dynamic) panel data regressions indicate that infrastructure endowment is a relatively poor predictor of economic growth and that regional growth in the EU results from a combination of an adequate 'social filter', good innovation capacity, both in the region and in neighbouring areas, and a region's capacity to attract migrants. The meagre returns of infrastructure endowment on economic growth raise interesting questions about the opportunity costs of further infrastructure investments across most of Western Europe. Resumen La infraestructura de transporte ha venido siendo una de las piedras angulares de las estrategias de desarrollo y cohesión en la Unión Europea ( UE) y el resto del mundo. Sin embargo, y a pesar de los considerables recursos que se le ha dedicado, su impacto es un tema controvertido. Este artículo revisa el interrogante de hasta que punto ha contribuido la dotación de infraestructura de transporte - representada por las autopistas regionales - al crecimiento regional en la UE entre 1990 y 2004. Se analiza la infraestructura en relación a otros factores que podrían condicionar el crecimiento económico, como la innovación, la migración, y el 'filtro social' local, teniendo en cuenta asimismo el componente geográfico de la intervención en la infraestructura de transporte y la innovación. Los resultados de las regresiones de datos de panel de efectos fijos (método estático) de doble vía y MGM por diferencias (método dinámico) indican que la dotación de infraestructura es un pobre indicador del crecimiento económico y que el crecimiento regional en la UE tiene su origen en una combinación de un 'filtro social' adecuado, en una buena capacidad innovadora tanto en la región como en áreas vecinas, y en la capacidad de la región de atraer migración. Los escasos retornos para el crecimiento económico de la dotación de infraestructura suscitan cuestiones interesantes sobre los costos de oportunidad de futuras inversiones en infraestructura para la mayoría de Europa Occidental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper answers two questions: which innovation capabilities most strongly differentiate CEECs and highly developed European economies and to what extent CEECs’ performance within each of the innovation capabilities has changed over a decade. The research method is based on construction of composite indicators describing national performance within five innovation capabilities in two periods: 1998–2000 and 2010–2012 as well as regression analysis in order to test the accuracy of the main findings. The study has allowed to arrive at a conclusion that CEECs have been able to catch up to highly developed European economies with respect to absorptive capacity related to the existence and use of technological infrastructure as well as participation in inward technology transfer in the form of FDI and capital goods imports. There is, however, a lingering performance gap in new knowledge and innovation creation capabilities and R&D effort. Continuation of this trend and lack of considerable improvement also in terms of absorptive capacity related to the quality of human resources might result in CEECs’ permanent inability to catch up to their highly developed European counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Društvena Istraživanja is the property of Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Many European countries have used the investment model of Public Private Partnership (PPP, P3 or P3) to implement large-scale infrastructure projects and to accelerate development, but Romania has little experience with such type of projects, although there is a strong economic reason for implementing infrastructure investments, because it can easily be seen the need for investments in this field. This paper is determining the literature review on PPPs, how the regulations of the member states of the European Union is implemented by dedicated PPP units at the national level and, finally, presents the techniques and processes of the contract management. Financing Public Private Partnerships cannot ignore the international economic and financial context. As it could be seen in this paper, the data on PPP market shows that the crisis had a negative impact on their development and implementation at the level of the EU Member States. EU has been promoting PPPs as an important instrument of accomplishing the goals of Europe 2020 strategy. In Romania, the interest in PPPs must be encouraged and the knowledge in this field could increase the administrative capacity of the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The natural and built environment are very important for quality of life. The housing indicators are suitable to address the main issue of built environment. The indicators for assessment of natural environment reflecting the quality of life can be assessed by applying the following groups of indicators: environmental quality, environmentally responsible behavior and consumption of environmental services. The paper presents the concept of evaluation of natural and built environment in overall quality of life assessment and presents trends of the main indicators relevant to these dimensions of quality of life in EU member states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally, the effectiveness of European Cohesion Policy has been evaluated in terms of GDP growth rate. In this paper, we consider the effect of the regional policy in terms of its impacts on two specific fields of intervention, namely 'research, technological development and innovation', and 'transport infrastructure'. Our econometric approach involves the use of a non-parametric regression discontinuity design technique to a uniquely-disaggregated Cohesion Policy dataset broken down according to the specific objectives of each stream of funding. The analysis considers different time intervals and sub-samples. Our results demonstrate a positive impact of Cohesion Policy interventions in these two specific fields of intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the determinants of regional economic growth in the European Union adopting a non-parametric approach. Although the local-linear kernel estimator applied does not explicitly take into account the spatial dimension of the data, it is found to be consistent in our context. In addition, the geographically weighted regression turns out to be less efficient. We obtain evidence of a non-linear relationship between regional growth and its determinants in the form of parameter heterogeneity and threshold effects. These non-linearities mainly affect the initial productivity of labour, the human capital endowment and, as a novelty, the level of infrastructures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to monitor the use of Information Technologies and the Internet in particular, both at the population level and at company level, including developing regions in the period 2006-2012, using statistical data taken from Eurostat databases and the National Institute of Statistics. Before 2000 we cannot speak of an impact of IT or of any information infrastructure in Romania, and the interest of the population and of the companies was very low. Although Romania has made important steps in providing technological, economic and legislative parameters for the development of the information society, it is still in its infancy and has a long way to go in order to catch up with other EU countries among which Romania ranks last. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyze the effect of individual social capital on wage income in European countries. A number of studies have already tested the earnings effects of social ties but the majority of them have been limited to small samples and/or to certain occupations. The major contribution of the paper is its assessment of the earnings effects ofsocial capital in a multi-country context using a large international dataset, the EU-SILC. We estimate individual level earnings regressions for a pooled sample and for individual countries as well. Three indicators are used to measure social capital: memberships in voluntary organizations, the frequency of contacts with friends and frequency of contacts with relatives. Results indicate a significant positive association between social capital and wage income both for the pooled sample and the majority of the countries individually. The effect of social capital is stronger for post-socialist countries than for other countries while it is almost missing in the Nordic countries. Comparing the effects of memberships in voluntary organizations, friendship and kinship ties provides some support for the strength of weak ties hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to research conducted by global research teams, sophisticated threat designers are involved in attacking other groups to steal victims' data, borrow tools and techniques, and reuse infrastructure - making information about threats more difficult to detect for cyber security researchers. Exact threat information is based on identifying specific models and tools for a particular author. Such knowledge enables researchers to better identify the aims of offenders, targets and behaviors and help organizations to determine their level of risk. When the authors start attacking each other and take control of instruments, infrastructure, and even victims, this pattern begins to shake. Researchers believe that these attacks are most likely being carried out by state-supported assault groups targeting foreign or less prepared entities. It is important for IT security researchers to learn how to identify and interpret the signals of these attacks so they can put the information in context. The paper aims to bring to the forefront the cybercrime issue and some legal aspects of cybercrime in the European Union (EU). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contains a presentation of new approaches to solving the problem of identifying critical infrastructure elements in the railway sub-sector. The research objective was to analyse the procedures which are used to identify the potential elements of critical infrastructure in the transportation sector. Specific attention is paid to criteria of methods developed in Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The objective of the work is based on the analysis of the current state of art. The research also attempted to design an effective methodology which allows assessing the significance of rail infrastructure elements. The developed methodology should help to set a group of potential elements of critical infrastructure in the railway sub-sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public-Private Partnership (PPP) policies and projects have diffused across Europe and public authorities seem increasingly to be involving the private sector in financing, building and operating new infrastructures. The global and rapidly growing interest in partnerships comes out of the financial crisis which exerts a strong pressure on public finances around the world, having negative effects on the development of necessary infrastructure in different areas. Many countries have adopted the public-private partnership (PPP) model as a means of implementing large-scale infrastructure projects and have launched dedicated PPP units to support the uptake of PPPs. As a result, a wide divergence in national PPP aproaches can be noticed but the lack of processes, procedures an enabling institutions, i.e "governance", is the main barrier to extending their use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Short sea shipping performs 40% of EU internal transport of goods and transport at sea grows with the same rate as land transport. European short sea shipping is thus already a strong reality, especially from the industrial point of view. The positive development is also to a large extent due to the fact that short sea shipping is an integral part of the effective global maritime transport system. In spite of its strong development and its significant contribution to the European modal redressing, short sea shipping continues to suffer outdated and penalizing procedures and practices that are hindering its further development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]