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The aim of the study is to determine the pace and directions of changes (understood as: improvement or deterioration) occurring in selected areas of sustainable development of EU Member States. The paper analyzes dynamics of changes in selected areas of sustainable development monitored on the basis of headline indicators published by Eurostat from 2008 to 2015. In the paper, three variants of reference points of synthetic measure of development were considered. On the basis of the obtained results, the countries in which the improvement in the sustainable development and its deterioration can be observed were identified. The results have confirmed the existence of significant developmental disparities between EU Member States in this field, but it should be noted that the obtained results depend on the methodological approach both to the selection of features and the adoption of a specific standardization formula, as well as the considered variants of reference points. The results obtained can be utilized in subsequent years to examine the directions of change observed both from the point of view of European Union as one organization, and the individual EU Member States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research, development and innovation hold a prominent position in national economies and the public sector. The aim of the paper is to evaluate the role of public research in EU countries with focus on selected indicators of research and development (R&D). The area in focus is total R&D expenditures and public R&D expenditures in years 2010 and 2015. The author also strives to analyze other R&D indicators in EU countries, pointing out the similarities and differences in the particular countries. The analysis concentrates on not only the selected indicators of public R&D, but also a comprehensive evaluation and role of public research in EU countries. EU countries are evaluated on the basis of indicators of public R&D by means of factor analysis, cluster analysis and box-plot, divided into four clusters depending on internal similarity in 2015. The most marked differences were observed in indicators of public research (R&D public expenditures as % of total R&D expenditures, researchers in public sector as % of total researchers, number of publications per 1000 researchers in the public sector, number of citable publications per 1000 researchers in the public sector) in the first cluster in comparison to the third cluster. In case of the indicator H-index (per 1000 researchers in the public sector) the most marked differences were observed in most countries of the second cluster in comparison to countries of the fourth cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local Action Groups (LAGs) represent a dynamic platform for inter-municipal cooperation in Europe. Their principal advantages include EU funding and the capacity to generate economic returns and stimulate the development of local communities. The methodology used for the evaluation of the performance of LAGs is defined by the EU on the one hand and by national authorities on the other. Furthermore, there are an entire array of evaluation tools and academic experiments available. The present paper does not aim at a comprehensive evaluation of LAGs, but instead only examines the technical efficiency of LAGs. Using the Czech Republic as an example, the paper introduces an evaluation tool to measure the technical efficiency of LAGs and describes how it can be applied. The adoption of this tool is seen as a means of improving one of the parameters of the performance of LAGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Socio-economic development of EU countries has been and remains a constant concern of specialists in the field in recent years, reflected in a country's welfare analysis by socio-economic factors. The study shows that while some European Union countries have a high level of GDP, it lags behind other countries if we consider other indicators showing the level of socio-economic development. The paper evaluated and compared disparities between the 28 EU countries based on a set of indicators that combine relevant economic and social data. The indicators used in research provide insight into three key areas for sustainable development- economic development, innovation, competitiveness and employment. The method used is that of real rank, resulting in a ranking of them according to the importance given to each indicator in terms of information content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether two popular poverty indicators, namely income poverty and material deprivation, reach similar conclusions about the poverty reduction effects of income transfers. Such evaluations generally use income poverty. It is well-known, however, that poverty indicators regularly disagree about a person's poverty status. What is less known is whether such disagreement also confounds estimates of a program's poverty reduction effects. This paper compares the targeting performance of social assistance, housing and family transfers in countries with different welfare states namely Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. It finds that a transfer's targeting performance does not differ much when defining the transfer's target group either as the poorest income quintile or the poorest material deprivation quintile. Yet, when combining the information from both indicators, transfers appear much more effective in reaching those groups that both poverty indicators identify as part of the target group. Transfers also appear much more efficient in excluding non-target populations. For the groups on which the poverty indicators disagree, more analysis is needed. Triangulation between poverty indicators thus improves the validity of program evaluations as it enables a better separation between (potential) poverty measurement issues and the measurement of a program's (potential) effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper designs a horizontal indicator‐based assessment methodology aimed at identifying those EU countries presenting a potential need and scope for shifting taxation away from labour to other tax bases less detrimental to growth. The assessment methodology, as a first step, selects a set of indicators measuring specific aspects of tax policy. Subsequently, for each individual indicator, performance thresholds are calculated based on a benchmarking approach. Finally, a screening algorithm based on commonly accepted findings from the relevant economic literature is used to assess the overall performance of a country in two policy areas, namely the need for a tax shift and the scope for it. Various robustness checks are performed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The EU produces and exports various types of cheese to all over the world. French, Dutch and Italian cheeses are very special and famous worldwide. By contrast, to date, the analysis of the competitiveness of EU cheese trade is understudied in the literature. Therefore, our paper is focusing on the evaluation of trade competitiveness in European cheese sector. First, our study analyses the revealed comparative advantages among the major European cheese producers by Balassa indices between 1990 and 2013. Second, we aim to explore the duration and stability of indices by the help of lagged indices and calculating Kaplan-Meier survival functions. Our results suggest that European cheese export is mainly internal in nature and highly concentrated. Regarding comparative advantages, indicators suggest that the Netherlands, Denmark, and Cyprus were the most competitive cheese traders in the EU. However, the survivor analysis revealed that the comparative advantages were very stable for the countries selected the overall stability of EU cheese trade had a declining tendency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses how changes in GDP in China, the USA, the EU15 and the USSR/Russia over a period of 50 years (1961-2011) were affected by change of intensive factors and change of extensive factors. Intensive factors consist primarily of technological progress. Extensive factors are the amounts of labour and capital. Th e analysis does not use growth accounting, but instead works with the 'dynamic parameters' of intensity and extensity. Contrary to the values of growth accounting, these parameters can be calculated not only for situations of GDP growth, but also for situations of GDP contraction and stagnation. They thus provide a complete picture of GDP development. Th e paper briefly explains the methodology for deriving the parameters. Their values for each territory are then analysed. Th e results show that the parameters are able to describe the real development of GDP and their information value is very high. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego 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.)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to assess the impact of the Great Recession (2008-2014) on the labor market profiles and integration process in the European Union (EU26) and in the 12 historical Eurozone countries.Design/methodology/approach This study assesses the impact of the crisis, and applies multivariate statistical methods containing a principal component analysis and an agglomerative hierarchical clustering. Two non-overlapping sub-periods are established: a pre-crisis (1999-2007) period and a crisis (2008-2014) period, and eight European indicators are considered.Findings The results are threefold. First, they bring strong evidence of a significant impact of the crisis on the process of integration. Second, they interestingly reveal more heterogeneity in the aftermath of the crisis across the EU countries, while more homogeneity across the Eurozone countries. Third, this apparent homogenization is accompanied by a polarization process into two main groups of countries including Spain, Portugal, Finland and the Netherlands in one group while the rest of the Eurozone in the other.Originality/value This study is unique as it does not only present a snapshot of the challenges posed by the Great Recession to the European Union and Eurozone labor market profiles, but it also assesses its impact on their integration process. In addition, using the, suitable yet ignored, multivariate statistical methods on the latest data to study such an impact is another contribution of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the process of implementing EU policy, Member States sometimes introduce new policy instruments in cases where this is not obligatory. To better understand this phenomenon, this paper reviews three cases in which new instruments emerged and develops a methodology to trace back the influence of EU Directives on instrument choice. The method is illustrated by a narrative of the emergence of new management planning instruments during the implementation of the EU Habitats Directive in three EU Member States: Finland, Hungary and the Netherlands. Three key features of a policy instrument are defined, namely, its authoritative force, action content and governance design. These are used to measure the contribution of the Habitats Directive compared to other potential explanatory causes for the emergence of the new policy instrument. In all three reviewed countries a nested causal relationship between the Habitats Directive and the introduction of the new policy instrument is identified. Based on the relative contribution of the Habitats Directive to the emergence of the new instrument a distinction is made whether the Directive acted as a cause, catalyst or if conjunction occurred. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper focuses on a debt crisis in Greece, the causes and impacts of this crisis and possible solutions to current situation. The Greek debt crisis is one of a number of current European debt crises and is believed to have been caused by a combination of structural weaknesses of the Greek economy coupled with the incomplete economic, tax and banking unification of the European Monetary Union. Throughout this thesis the Greece is compared with another European states regarding to important macroeconomics indicators and economic policy. The aim of this paper is analyze and make a comparison which is based on the cluster analysis. First part of this paper is about reasons, which cause financial crises in Greece. Second part focuses the theoretical background of the cluster analysis and selection of economical indicators. Next part evaluate findings with cluster analysis. The conclusion cautions against high state debts and shows indispensability reforms which are related with fiscal state policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of the presented paper is, in the first place, to look into the solution of current serious macroeconomic problems of member states of the European Union by laying down a new enforcement mechanism described in the Alert Mechanism Report (AMR). In recent years distinctive and persistent macroeconomic imbalances have accumulated that are reflected in high and persistent external deficits and surpluses, in the persistent loss of competitiveness, in the dramatic increase in indebtedness and in the increase in real estate bubbles, which were one of the causes of the current financial crisis. Macroeconomic problems of the European Union's economies are dealt with in the very AMR, which defines a new procedure for the prevention and reformation of macroeconomic dysfunctions. Based on compliance with ten selected indicators according to determined threshold values those economies are identified that are liable to undergoing various macroeconomic imbalances in years to come. In the end the paper uses selected statistic methods, namely cluster analysis, to look into the mentioned indicators of external imbalances and competitiveness and imbalances inside an economy in question. The article focuses on the analysis of the created clusters according to their similarity in the development of the mentioned macroeconomic indicators and on the assessment of the conclusions of the EU commission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Problems of Sustainable Development / Problemy Ekorozwoju is the property of Faculty of Environmental Engineering 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.)

The paper presents the progress made by Romania in the process of convergence1 in view of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims to assess the impact of regulations (measured by the Fraser Institute index of economic freedom) on economic growth in the world as well as in EU and post-socialist countries. The method of the analysis is based on growth regressions where economic freedom is included in the set of explanatory variables, along with some other control factors. The dependent variable is gross domestic product per capita growth rate. In order to be robust to the selection of explanatory variables, the paper uses Bayesian model pooling applied to Blundell and Bond's generalized method of moments system estimator. Other contributions are: the use of ‘overlapping’ panel data in which subsequent observations cover observations from partly overlapping periods and the inclusion of nonlinearities. The results show that the level of and the change in economic freedom both reveal a positive and nonlinear relationship with economic growth. The same applies to most of the component indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses the effect of income inequality on Europeans' quality of life, specifically on their overall well-being (happiness, life satisfaction), on their financial quality of life (satisfaction with standard of living, affordability of goods and services, subjective poverty), and on their health (self-rated health, satisfaction with health). The simple bivariate correlations of inequality with overall well-being, financial quality of life, and health are negative. But this is misleading because of the confounding effect of a key omitted variable, national economic development (GDP per capita): Unequal societies are on average much poorer (r = 0.46) and so disadvantaged because of that. We analyse the multi-level European Quality of Life survey conducted in 2003 including national-level data on inequality (Gini coefficient) and economic development (GDP) and individual-level data on overall well-being, financial quality of life, and health. The individual cases are from representative samples of 28 European countries. Our variance-components multi-level models controlling for known individual-level predictors show that national per capita GDP increases subjective well-being, financial quality of life, and health. Net of that, the national level of inequality, as measured by the Gini coefficient, has no statistically significant effect, suggesting that income inequality does not reduce well-being, financial quality of life, or health in advanced societies. These result all imply that directing policies and resources towards inequality reduction is unlikely to benefit the general public in advanced societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the EU development area for the year 2012, using main statistical indicators. The cluster analysis and the Principal Component Analysis are the methods used to compare the 28 EU countries, the EU members, with each other and to determine the resemblances and the differences between them. The results show that the optimal solution is to create three clusters, allowing a suitable differentiation between the countries, while keeping the homogeneity among the countries it comprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to study in detail the indicators for characterizing the agricultural holdings in the European Union and in Romania, to highlight the disparities between our country and the countries with a strong assimilation and development of agriculture. Standard gross margin and other indicators calculated for crop and animal production for their use at farm level, required the understanding of their content, the calculation and use in the evaluation activities at farm level. In the European Union, as well as candidate countries to Integration, including Romania, farms are numerous and varied as they are complex reality. To facilitate the unitary analysis of the structural and economic results is necessary to use proper terms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is to establish the future intervention priorities in building a new programme that would target the economic development in the research area. The used methodology included an adapted A'WOT analysis - an initial SWOT analysis and a prioritization of the items through an expert questionnaire. In the present paper we analyze the experts' opinions and the areas where intervention is needed for the optimum strategies for the 2014-2020 financial frame. These should rely on the strengths in the Guidelines for Applicants, the rules for projects implementation and the institutional system, it should consider changes on the weak points concerning the programme objectives, the Guidelines for Applicants and the beneficiaries consultations, it should make use of opportunities coming from the crossborder status, European Union frame and economic opportunities and overcome the differences coming from crossborder status, membership of two different supranational structures and the economic gaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wood-based industries are an important part of the European Union (EU) manufacturing sector because their growth can help in achieving EU's industrial policy goal of raising manufacturing's gross domestic product (GDP) to 20% by 2020. In this paper, special emphasis is placed on the influence of macro-economic factors on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) employment in the wood industry. The research objective was to test whether traditional macroeconomic indicators of economic growth are significant determinates of SMEs employment dynamics. For estimation of employment dynamics, a two-step Arellano-Bover/Blundell-Bond (a system generalized method of moments) estimator with robust standard errors was used. The model contained the following independent variables: real GDP growth rate; industrial production of wood processing industry; the number of wood processing enterprises; and exporting of manufactured goods of wood processing. The findings confirmed that the increase in GDP growth rate, the industrial production of wood processing, and exporting of manufactured goods of wood processing had statistically significant and positive impacts on SMEs employment. It was also found that the existence of a high number of enterprises had a positive impact on employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the analysis of the convergence indicators relative to fiscal area in the EU; subsequent to a description of the main peculiarities of the convergence criteria, the reseach develops a critical analysis on a comparative perspective of the actual values of fiscal convergence indicators registered in EU countries compared with the reference values of the indicators, with emphasis on the differences between emerging and developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University 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.)

This paper pursues to find whether there is a correlation between the funds spent for innovation and the general Romanian competitiveness in the global economy. We also propose that the number of patent applications by Romanian economic actors is the only pertinent metric for the respective expenditure effectiveness. We check a number of databases from Patent registration establishments (OSIM, EPO and WIPO) for the patent applications and we rely on the official report issued by the Romanian Government concerning the public expenditure to improve innovation processes. We find there is no direct correlation between the two, leading to the suggested conclusion that the public funding in not attaining its stated objectives, as not effectively or/and not efficiently allotted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper identifies methodologies and strategies appropriate for the development of indicators of well-being at the level of subnational regions, thus contributing towards the incorporation of the subnational dimension into public policy making. Considerations in adapting and augmenting country-level indicators for application at the regional level are discussed. Special technical procedures involved in this process are described. These include consolidation of measures defined with reference to different poverty line thresholds in the income distribution, cumulation of data or measures over multiple survey waves and use of small area estimation methods. Empirical illustrations using comparable survey data from European Union countries are provided, to the extent possible with the available microdata. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intention of the following paper is to present some stylized features of the financial integration of the four basin regions composed by the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions. It discusses the developments, trends and features of the International Investment Position (IIP) in the regions. Using volume based indicators we compare and identify the gaps in them, whilst distinguishing between the EU e non-EU members and providing an overview of the asymmetries and the convergence as a result of the integration in the different financial markets. After reviewing the trends, the final chapter points to those areas that need further efforts to achieve greater regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests whether the proposition that globalization has led to greater sensitivity of domestic inflation to the global output gap (the ‘global output gap hypothesis’) holds for the euro area. The empirical analysis uses quarterly data over the period 1979–2003. Measures of the global output gap using two different weighting schemes (based on purchasing power parities and trade data) are considered. We find limited evidence that global capacity constraints have explanatory power for domestic consumer price inflation in the euro area. Based on these findings, the prescription that central banks should specifically react to developments in global output gaps does not seem to be justified for the euro area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On 1 January 2007, Slovenia adopted the euro as the first of the ten new EU member states. By means of simulations with SLOPOL6, a macroeconometric model of the Slovene economy, this paper examines the macroeconomic consequences that can be expected from this event. It is shown that after a short period of minor turbulences related to the introduction of the euro, the adoption of the euro brings about higher real GDP growth, a higher GDP level, more employment, lower inflation, a lower price level and improved public finances in the medium run. On the other hand, the current account deteriorates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates how the dynamic adjustment of the European overnight rate Eonia to the term spread and the European Central Bank's (ECB's) policy rate is affected by rate expectations and the operational framework of the ECB. In line with recent evidence found for the US and Japan, the reaction of the Eonia to the term spread is non-symmetric. Moreover, the response of the Eonia to the policy rate depends on both, the repo auction format and the position of the Eonia in the ECB's interest rate corridor. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Union has not defined its limits in geographical terms. Each enlargement has led and will lead to a decrease of the European Union's per capita GDP. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transition countries went through a long and deep recession. However, they have reached a stage of positive growth and their tax levels are approaching the lower limit of the range of tax/GDP ratios in European Union countries. Differences exist in tax capacity and tax effort. In some countries, greater efforts are possible to improve tax revenues. Further examination of the timing of tax administration reform may shed light on tax effort in transition countries. The paper also suggests the existence of a negative relationship between tax effort and corruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper focuses on the influence of the institutions determinate of competitiveness in emerging and EU countries. Based on survey of literature including Scott's (2001) idea of three institutional pillars: regulatory, normative and culturalcognitive pillar, we constructed framework of institutional competitiveness index. Our framework also offers a modified methodology for the estimation of a theoretically grounded and empirically validated measure of the institutional competitiveness which is expected to contribute to the development of literature for emerging countries. This paper captures interrelated drivers that collectively represent each of these pillars and estimate this framework using multiple data sets covering 22 emerging economies and 14 EU countries over the period 2006-2014. The findings indicate and confirm a positive and separate influence between the institutional mechanism and competitiveness as both are very much interrelated and they depict the general level of efficiency of a particular country. While the institutional mechanism in emerging nations is developing, results for the EU countries present positive and significant relationship between rule of law and national competitiveness. These insights might be useful in the formulation of improved national economic policies and institutional reforms towards attainment of national competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the aspects of a study that examined the current account (CA) and real effective exchange rate (REER) misalignments in Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union between 2004-2014 using the International Monetary Fund Consultative Group on Exchange Rate Issues standard. The aspects are the measurement of equilibrium REER, the identification of CA determinants and the combinations of the determinants and possible misalignments of REER and CA.

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University 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.)

The paper makes an attempt at description of the impact of monetary integration on the most important macroeconomic indicators of the Euro area against the background of those countries which retained their national currency. As the main indicator describing changeability of economic growth in the EU countries the author assumed the average annual real GDP growth calculated in relation to the base value of GDP in 2003. The profile of payment balance (BPM5) of selected countries focuses on relations resulting from financing of trade turnover account balance by balance of the financial account and, particularly on direct and portfolio investments. The analysis was conducted in the context of basic relationships from the theory of the optimum payment area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study that examined the current account and real effective exchange rate (REER) misalignments in Central and Eastern European countries that joined the European Union between 2004-2014 using the International Monetary Fund Consultative Group on Exchange Rate Issues standard. The researchers also assessed the different methodologies that consist the standard, including Macroeconomic Balance and External Sustainability, to calculate the REER misalignments.

This paper examines modern economic growth according to the multidimensional scaling (MDS) method and state space portrait (SSP) analysis. Electing GDP per capita as the main indicator for economic growth and prosperity, the long-run perspective from 1870 to 2010 identifies the main similarities among 34 world partners' modern economic growth and exemplifies the historical waving mechanics of the largest world economy, the USA. MDS reveals two main clusters among the European countries and their old offshore territories, and SSP identifies the Great Depression as a mild challenge to the American global performance, when compared to the Second World War and the 2008 crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cohesion policy belongs among the most important fields of EU interests. Its objectives are achieved by many ways with respect to diversity among the European regions at the level of NUTS 2. The aim of this paper is to analyse relevant indicators, and via the evaluation of EU regional policy effectiveness to rewiev difference in the production-consumption patterns of behaviour of European regions; focussing on convergence and variabiliness of these regions. With defined goal in mind, the regions have been classified. To classify the regions, the relational indicator has been created. The relational indicator has been developed as the relationship between the index of relative performance and index of relative consumption sources. The changes of relational indicator, as well as the GDP per capita criterion, have been evaluated in two periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents evolution of the European Union fiscal system creation process as well as outlines problems in functioning thereof that have arisen during recent years and the main reforming (modification) trends. The analysis is primarily focused on creation of the fiscal union within the EU. In this regard, the idea of two different groups of countries moving to the common goal at different paces is becoming ever increasingly much-talked-about in the EU. The first group comprises donor countries that adhere to all treaties and fiscal discipline, while demonstrating respective positive macroeconomic indicators. The second group implies countries of Euro-periphery, where the above processes take place along with significant complications or do not occur at all. In these countries Eurosceptic positions are also quite strong, which often leads to taking measures contrary to the jointly adopted decisions. Currently, there is no clear understanding within the EU as to which way out of the crisis should be taken. However, profound understanding of the crisis causes and active work on preparation and implementation of measures to overcome the negative effects of this crisis suggest availability of sufficiently favorable prospects for further development of the EU fiscal system (including formal creation of the Fiscal Union). Based on the conducted analysis conclusions have been made as to potential vectors of action aimed at improving EU fiscal system, while specific recommendations on actions to be taken by Ukraine have been developed (particularly, as regards budget forecasting and planning) with the purpose of harmonizing Ukrainian financial institutions and mechanisms with the EU fiscal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The intensity of competition on internal and external levels currently influences the countries' competitiveness in all economic sectors. The competitive strategies were also dispute reasons for many economists in the studies undertaken. Thus, in terms of national competitiveness strategies for growth, there are two debates: attractiveness or aggression. Many countries are struggling to recover themselves after one of the most serious economic and financial crises, in 2010 and in conjunction with the project of Europe 2020 agenda that provides three formulas of economic growth in Europe: intelligent, durable and inclusive. The paper refers to the implications of a new EU goal, an addition increase of competitiveness in the next decade on foundation of the global economic crisis that imposed something new, proper to the times and to the challenges of new global competitors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The state budget is a financial plan at the macroeconomic level, and it is designed as a set of accounts of the nation, which reflects the current year and next year projections on all economic agents in the country / region. The size of the public sector varies significantly from one Member State to another, which means that the financial resources available to the public sector differ substantially at the European Union level. The paper includes an analysis of the evolution of the main indicators corresponding to public financial resources at EU level achieved between January 2009 - December 2012 or December 2013, where data processing was available. The information was taken from the Eurostat statistics database. The research methodology used in this work was done by the use of indicators: the share of total public revenue in GDP; the share of taxes in GDP of production and imports; the share of current taxes on income, wealth etc. in GDP; the share of social security contributions in GDP. In the analysis there were considered, of the total financial resources of government, only the taxes levied on production and imports, current taxes on income, wealth etc. and social security contributions. In conclusion, the share of government revenues in GDP increases, but there are states where it decreases, such as Estonia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Germany and Sweden. The public financial resources share in GDP at the level of the Eurozone was always higher in relation to the entire European Union, but always keeping the difference around 0.8 to 0.9 percentage points. France recorded the highest share of social security contributions in GDP (18.8% in 2009 and 19.4% in 2013) while Denmark has the lowest share of these financial resources in GDP, i.e. only 1.9% in 2009 and 1.8% in 2013. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are few attempts to benchmark job quality in a multi-dimensional perspective across Europe. Against this background, we have created a synthetic job quality index (JQI) for the EU27 countries in an attempt to shed light on the question of how European countries compare with each other and how they are developing over time in terms of job quality. Taking account of the multi-faceted nature of job quality, the JQI is compiled on the basis of six sub-indices which cover the most important dimensions of job quality as identified in the literature. The paper addresses the methods used to construct the JQI and make it comparable over time. It presents the results for 2010 and briefly addresses changes over time to illustrate the potential and limits of a multidimensional European JQI. It also considers alternative specifications for various sub-indices and tests for the impact of changes in the indicators used on the outcomes. Overall, the findings appear to confirm the feasibility and desirability of attempting to assess job quality by means of a composite index that can be periodically updated. The key strength of this approach is the possibility to monitor and benchmark EU countries' overall job quality performances and the outcomes in six sub-dimensions of job quality and compare them with each other, across gender and over time. At the same time, the limitations of such a composite index need to be borne in mind. The most important challenges are the availability (over time), timeliness and periodicity, comparability and disaggregation of data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu 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.)

Development of knowledge based economy has been contemporary ranked among the basic priorities. In this paper, we examine the convergence among some basic quantitative indicators of knowledge economy between the European Union member states and influence of the global economic crisis to this convergence. We analyze links between various indicators of the knowledge economy using a multidimensional linear regression model. In the next section, we use a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and Wilks' lambda distribution to determine whether there is convergence between the two groups of states simultaneously in several indicators. Suggested methodology can also be used for a large number of indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 1st, 2004, Poland and 9 other countries became members of the European union. The new economic and institutional conditions resulting from this event had a tremendous impact on Poland's macroeconomic performance. Poland is the biggest beneficiary of the European Cohesion Policy in 2007-2013. This paper aims at evaluating the scope and strength of cohesion policy's impact on the macroeconomic situation of Poland. Authors attempt to assess the economic benefits of Poland's membership in the Eu (focusing particularly on those related to impact of the cohesion policy's implementation). Additionally, the article presents the benefits derived by the Eu-15 countries from the implementation of the cohesion policy in Poland. Authors focus, inter alia, on assessing the impact of Poland's membership in the European union on macroeconomic situation of the country. The assessment of the said impact is based both on the analysis of selected studies of the subject and on authors' own research based on available statistical data. Within such a context, authors discuss the results of three research projects -- commissioned by the Polish Ministry of Regional Development -- which attempt to evaluate the impact of the Eu cohesion policy on selected macroeconomic indicators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scientific discussions in existing literature focusing on sustainable development are vast. The broad focus of sustainable development has raised the need to develop indicators which allow measuring the progress towards sustainability and evaluating policies intended to support sustainability. This research aims to analyse and determine the relationship between the Human Development Index (HDI) and some of the sustainable development indicators partly comprised in the Sustainable Society Index (SS1). Using data for the period of 2001-2010 from selected eleven EU countries, the goal of this paper to shed some light on the main shortages of the HDI as a measure of sustainable development. The findings of this research show that in most cases the HDI ignores sustainable development indicators, making it a partly fit measure and that there are no cases where the HDI can be described as an absolutely correct measure of sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Transformations in Business & Economics is the property of Vilnius University 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.)