Search

With Russian troops gathering at the Ukrainian border at the time of writing, Europe and the West are facing a real possibility of a full-scale continental war unprecedented for our generation. The purpose of this paper is to bring forth arguments that the security in the Black Sea area is of vital importance for both the present and future developments in the entire continent. Most recent studies on this topic focus on Russia's intentions in Ukraine and the weak responses coming from the West. Scholars are divided when it comes to Mr. Putin's ultimate goals. While some view the recent developments as a bluff, others are concerned that the troop movements might pave the way for a full invasion of Ukraine which will lead to a domino effect. This paper will focus on qualitative analysis. Mr. Putin's and Russia's intentions in the Black Sea will be analyzed from primary sources (such as Presidential speeches), while scholarly articles, research papers and policy documents will be used to build a bridge between history, politics and current affairs. The focus will be to establish the extent to which the recent developments in the area are a prelude to an 'old' Russian dream of access to the Mediterranean. A compare and contrast approach to appeasement will be used in order to make predictions on the possible outcomes. Our results will show that Mr. Putin is using the Black Sea security as a bargaining chip in his confrontation with the West with the ultimate goal of gaining dominance in the Mediterranean space. This paper will contribute to the recent literature on Eastern European security and how the West continues to misinterpret the dynamics and history of the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the field of economics, work is typically considered a form of barter for wages. This perspective reduces work to a mere activity serving profit, productivity, and, ultimately, the economy. Such a reduction also diminishes the person performing the work, treating them merely as a "cog in a machine." To fully appreciate its true meaning, work must be seen as labor serving temporal goods and as a pathway to contemplation. This paper argues that personalist economics is necessary to achieve contemplative labor, affirming the totality of the person--as composed of both body and soul--involved in work and economic activity. Consequently, both the person and their work are irreducible to mere profit, productivity, and economic activity. In this light, the paper seeks to answer the question: Is it possible to retrieve the meaning of the person in today's economy through labor? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical background: As of 25 May 2018, every entrepreneur doing business in the EU is obliged to adapt the operation of the business to the requirements under Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (hereinafter: GDPR). The objective of the EU is to provide uniform protection for the personal data of individuals (hereinafter: personal data) residing in the EU. Entrepreneurs with larger than medium-sized operations have successfully adapted their operations to comply with the legal requirements However, it has been observed that micro, small, and medium-sized entrepreneurs have faced challenges in implementing the changes brought about by the GDPR regulation. Purpose of the article: The paper aims to answer the question of what is the relationship between the adaptation of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises from the Opolskie Voivodeship to the GDPR and characteristics of the entrepreneur such as the size of the enterprise, the location of the entrepreneur, the predominant activity and the gender of its managers. Research methods: This research paper provides an analysis of the outcomes of an empirical study. The study was conducted using a questionnaire technique on a sample of 425 micro, small, and medium-sized entrepreneurs from the Opolskie Voivodeship. It aimed to investigate the influence of particular individual characteristics of an entrepreneur on the ability of their enterprise to adapt to the legal environment on the example of the GDPR. The study selected four characteristics for analysis: enterprise size, entrepreneur’s location, prevailing economic activity, and gender of enterprise managers. Hypothesis verification was performed using Pearson’s non-parametric χ^2 independence test and the V-Cramér correlation coefficient. A significance level of 0.05 was adopted. Main findings: Based on the analysis, it has been confirmed that the adaptation of micro, small and medium-sized businesses from Opolskie Voivodeship to comply with the GDPR is subject to the unique characteristics of the entrepreneur. However, the verification of the hypothesis that the characteristics determining enterprise adaptation to GDPR by micro, small, and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the Opolskie Voivodeship are their size, predominant business activity, location, length of business activity and gender of enterprise managers, showed that it is only partially correct. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores in which ways Imran Khan after no-confidence motion was depicted in two leading English and Urdu newspapers of Pakistan. The sample of the study was comprised of 249 editorials from Dawn newspaper and 99 from Jang newspaper (from April 2022 to April 2023). The findings of the research revealed that Dawn newspaper gives more coverage to the issues of the economy as highlighted by Imran Khan then Jang newspaper. The data demonstrates that the two newspapers' coverage varies significantly. The Daily Dawn publishes a greater number of editorials on numerous political concerns including regime change, economic difficulties, and fair elections. However, Jang newspaper tends to focus more on Imran Khan's perceived flaws and shortcomings. Despite Dawn's perspective, Jang constantly presents Imran Khan negatively, especially after the no-confidence motion. Further findings reveal that the Dawn newspaper gives more prominence to the agenda relating to Imran Khan following the no-confidence vote than the Jang newspapers, which indicates the power of the press in affecting public opinion and setting the agenda for Pakistani political discourse. It is recommended that the quantitative analysis be included in the study to improve its comprehensiveness. Additionally, broadening the research scope to include different media sources other than newspapers, as well as taking into account Pakistan's historical background and political landscape, will provide a more comprehensive view of media portrayal. Furthermore, investigating audience views and potential biases within newspaper editorial boards would help to provide a more comprehensive understanding of media coverage and its impact on public opinion and political debate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental objectives of this research paper are to explore the enduring patterns of China's strategic competition in the Asia Pacific and to understand the interplay between states and their struggle for power from the lens of offensive realism. China and the US are currently the largest and the most powerful states. There was a time when the world was bipolar as the Soviet Union and the US during the Cold War were at loggerheads, but with the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, the US became the only superpower. However, in recent times, China has also demonstrated a promising rise in its economic and military power, and owing to its active engagement in Asia Pacific. In response, the US has also sharpened its interests in the given region. This research focuses on the broader analysis of China's Strategic Competition in Asia Pacific from the prism of Offensive Realism. This research has employed the qualitative method. Analytical literature (books and journal articles) for descriptive and historical research methods provide ample fresh information on the debate discussed in the research paper. Looking at the power play between the US and China, all states more or less have offensive capacities, but they fall into different levels of interest. With the realpolitik technique, China aspires to maximize cooperation with Russia, China, and India, though currently, China has flared territorial disputes with India. Through its economic and security capabilities, China would try to dominate the Asia Pacific region and exclude the US. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a pioneering approach for simulation of economic activity, policy implementation, and pricing of goods in token economies. The paper proposes a formal analysis framework for wealth distribution analysis and simulation of interactions between economic participants in an economy. Using this framework, we define a mechanism for identifying prices that achieve the desired wealth distribution according to some metric, and stability of economic dynamics. The motivation to study tokenomics theory is the increasing use of tokenization, specifically in financial infrastructures, where designing token economies is in the forefront. Tokenomics theory establishes a quantitative framework for wealth distribution amongst economic participants and implements the algorithmic regulatory controls mechanism that reacts to changes in economic conditions. In our framework, we introduce a concept of tokenomic taxonomy where agents in the economy are categorized into agent types and interactions between them. This novel approach is motivated by having a generalized model of the macroeconomy with controls being implemented through interactions and policies. The existence of such controls allows us to measure and readjust the wealth dynamics in the economy to suit the desired objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic activities' efficiency represents the level of performance that uses the lowest quantity of inputs to achieve the highest possible amount of output. This paper presents the process of calculating the relative efficiency of separate non-financial activities in an economy using the DEA methodology. The purpose of this paper was to create the DEA model for monitoring the relative efficiency of individual non-financial activities of the economy. The purpose was achieved through the realization of two objectives. The first one included the determination of the relative efficiency of the above-mentioned activities in the period from 2002 to 2020 using the data from non-financial entities in the Republic of Croatia. The second objective consisted of ranking the economic activities according to their relative efficiency. An output variable that measures the efficiency was presented using the return on assets, while the total debt to EBITDA, EBITDA per employee, assets turnover and human capital efficiency were used as input variables. Research results indicate that the DEA methodology could be used as an economic activity's relative efficiency measurement tool, giving the possibility to rank it according to its relative efficiency using the accounting ratios. Research results show that service sectors' economic activities were the most efficient ones according to the lower assets engagement and the respective sources of financing that dominate. The highest average relative efficiency in 19 years was scored using wholesale, retail and repair activities as well as information, communication and education. The lowest average relative efficiency was achieved in construction, water supply, sewerage, waste management and remediation activities as well as accommodation and food service activities, which is the consequence of their low level of activity and profitability and high indebtedness in the analyzed period. The relative efficiency scores calculated using the DEA methodology could be used as a benchmark for companies on a micro level, while on the macro level decision-makers can obtain a deeper insight into the relative efficiency of the nonfinancial activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial Symbiosis (IS) and Process Integration (PI) are important activities with the potential to save resource intake and environmental footprints. Process Integration has been done theoretically and in practice for several decades but is still missing an efficient tool for multi-actor documentation and information preservation. The current paper sets out to develop data structures and tool prototypes for data preservation and transaction recording in process designs and Industrial Symbiosis (IS) to support the advancement of decentralised information tracking. The blockchain concept is utilised in this paper, where the information on the key properties of the streams and process stages can be stored in a secured block, and the transaction of resources can be dealt with using the information from the chain of blocks. Each block can represent the actors of the process in the IS, and an actor can request to join the blockchain by mining the blocks and going through the Proof-of-Work (PoW) verification of the new block. This paper introduces several terms to formulate a proper blockchain to store the information and showcase a simple simulation of adding/removing blocks for an IS system. The illustrative case study demonstrates that the method can evaluate Industrial Symbiosis and Process Integration solutions and track the key properties of the streams and process stages, costs, revenues, and environmental footprints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of clean energy, the demand for natural gas is increasing. However, China's natural gas resources are limited, and their demand growth rate is much higher than the supply. The coal-to-natural gas project alleviates the shortage of natural gas in China by using the abundant coal resources, but it has the problems of single product and poor ability to deal with risks. The coal-to-synthetic natural gas (SNG)/methanol polygeneration process can solve this by coproducing chemicals and have the advantages of high economic benefit and energy saving. The impact of polygeneration process design on carbon emission reduction is still the key issue to be solved urgently. Regarding the coal-to-synthetic natural gas (SNG)/methanol polygeneration process, this paper explores the interaction between polygeneration process design and carbon emissions by using life-cycle assessment method. From the perspective of life cycle, the amount of climate change is evaluated systematically, and the emission factors of each stage are listed. Through sensitivity analysis and Monte Carlo analysis, the breakthrough points of energy saving and carbon emission reduction are found, and the effective carbon emission reduction strategy is also proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the exergy analysis of Heat-Integrated Water Networks (HIWNs) rarely addressed in the literature. Two objective functions were analyzed, with the first minimizing the total annualized cost (TAC) and the second minimizing the exergy losses of the network. The exergetic objective function minimizes exergy losses due to non-isothermal mixing, heat exchange, and exergy losses due to friction. The HIWN was optimized under a constant pressure assumption. However, exergy losses due to pressure drops are considered to balance network complexity. The proposed nonlinear programming (NLP) model and iterative solution strategy showed that by using exergetic criteria as an objective function, good solutions could be obtained compared to the solution of the mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model minimizing the TAC. The advantage is that exergy-based model is an NLP, and cost data for the utilities and equipment are not required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of globalization, rural tourism offers diversity in close connection with regional specificity. In this sense, there is an increase in the tourist offer oriented towards the traditional, towards the authentic. The entrepreneurial attempts to reflect the local authentic in the field of tourism are not well defined, often the specific traditional elements are not respected, creating an inappropriate mixture of architectural, gastronomic and cultural styles. Thus, the need to define the concept of authenticity in rural tourism based on vernacular culture is noted and this is the main aim of this paper. Also, theoretical items such as rural space, rural tourism, vernacular, and authenticity are defined and systematized, and essential parameters like elements, principles and methods for substantiating authentic rural tourism are synthesized. These ideas are critically analyzed, and discussed, based on representative documentation from Romanian and foreign literature to which the authors added their modest contribution. Authentic rural tourism offers interesting experiences precisely through originality, local specificity, diversity, in a cultural and geographical framework that completes the knowledge and offers the tourist a truly authentic experience. In this way, an increase in tourist interest is achieved and the foundations are laid for sustainable, representative economic activities at the rural level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of labour incomes on economic activity and growth in Poland. The thesis of this paper is rooted in the hypothesis of underconsumption and it claims that a proportion of labour incomes to the domestic product exerts an influence on the structure and the value of the aggregate demand and thus it eventually has an effect on economic activity. The simple empirical analysis provided refers to macroeconomic data for the period 2010-2019; recent data at the time of the analysis and a very illustrative period with respect to the thesis. The analysis supports the thesis; relatively low growth of labour incomes is followed by low rates of economic growth and investment and higher rates of unemployment. However, reasons behind the fluctuations in the participation of employees in the domestic product are far from being obvious. Market, economic policy and regulatory aspects of the problem deserve further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digital economy is integral in driving economic growth, particularly of high-quality standards. Against the backdrop of the ''Double Carbon'' project, exploring the impact of the digital economy on green agricultural development bears tremendous practical significance. Thus, this study aims to investigate how the digital economy affects agricultural green total factor productivity (GTFP). The entropy-TOPSIS method and SBM-GML index are used to measure core variables quantitatively. In addition, two-way fixed effects panel data models, Tobit, and intermediary effect models are implemented. Three research findings emerge. First, China's agricultural GTFP level generally experiences an upward trend, and the development of the digital economy has a significant positive effect on increasing agricultural GTFP. Second, the digital economy mainly promotes agricultural technology innovation that boosts agricultural GTFP. Third, Western China experiences a more significant positive effect of the digital economy on agricultural GTFP than Central and Eastern China. Finally, based on the findings, this paper proposes relevant policy recommendations to promote green and sustainable agriculture development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place names have the potential to reveal the identity of a place and people. This paper investigates the place names of Baruten, focusing on their socio-onomastic characteristics and how they reflect the economic activities of the region. Using the gatekeeper research procedure of historical toponomastics and conducted within the socio-onomastics theory, the paper identifies the underlying meanings embedded in the place names and what they reveal about identity, the region's economic potentials, and its people. It also analyses their morphological concatenations, pointing out implications on language, economy, and identity. The paper calls for documentation of the place names of indigenous people to preserve their original cultural, economic, and linguistic significations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the current development status of the Romanian capital market and the opportunities it offers for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to finance their growth strategies through the stock exchange. It is well known that SMEs represent a growth engine for any economy in terms of contribution to GDP, employment rate, and tax contribution to the state budget. Their primary role of supplying goods and services dynamises the market landscape and creates the proper context for competition, innovation, and research and development. However, in this context, they are the most affected by the economic crisis, inflationary pressures, post-Covid uncertainties, and the war in Ukraine. Thus, their access to finance is now more important than ever. The paper's focus is on SMEs from the Romanian information technology (IT) sector and how their growth since listing could be a driver for other Romanian IT companies to list on the Bucharest Stock Exchange. The stock exchanges offer SMEs medium and long-term financing opportunities, regardless of market conditions. Therefore, the more successful the SMEs business, the more significant their role as an economic growth engine is. The research is based on a quantitative approach-content analysis provided by Bucharest Stock Exchange and local and international financial institutions. The SMEs' performance profile is determined by using trading evaluation indicators for IT SMEs listed on the Exchange. Results show that, by listing, companies benefit from contextual market conditions, highlighting the recommendation for other companies from the IT sector to list their business on the stock exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present a bibliometric analysis of the literature focusing on the role of the intellectual capital in the organizational agility and performance. The methodology used is based on a bibliometric analysis that was performed with the specialized software VOSviewer. The analysis graphically illustrates nine semantic clusters that are presenting the co-citation distances between various concepts that are related to the search expressions that were used, including "intellectual capital", "performance" and "agility". When it comes to the database, there were used the papers published in journals that were indexed in Scopus. The outcomes of this research paper are the graphical representation of the semantic clusters for the already mentioned searched expressions and a series of tables that include the content analysis of the nine clusters and other data of interest concerning the publications (such as the top 10 countries that published articles related to the topic of interest and the types of documents retrieved). The findings are demonstrating that there is a consistent link between innovation, intellectual capital, knowledge management, performance and agility. The contribution of this research comes from the fact that it is the first bibliometric analysis of the correlation between intellectual capital, performance and agility, as reflected in the papers retrieved from Scopus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, both researchers and management specialists along with human resources specialists have tried to explain, understand, measure and evaluate the consequences of the main organizational phenomena considered to be responsible for the employee performance, for their intention to stay within or to leave the organization, as well as for other phenomena with notable implications on the performance of organizations, such as absenteeism and scrap's reduction. Organizational commitment is one of the most important organizational behaviors that leads to a better employee performance and a decrease intention to leave the organization, to reduce absenteeism and to reduce the negative behaviors manifested by employees in relation to the organization. Also, the existence of a high organizational commitment leads to the creation of an innovative working environment. Currently, organizational commitment is one of the most important topics, analyzed both in the academic literature and among practitioners. This is the reason why, in this paper, we aimed to analyze the evolution and structure of the scientific papers that approached this subject, using the method of bibliometric analysis. The data needed in order to perform this analysis was extracted from both the Web of Science and Scopus. Based on the collected data, the evolution in time of the number of publications that approached this subject was analyzed, also the names of the authors who with the most contributions in approaching this subject, the countries where these publications were present, the countries of origin of the authors between which most collaboration relations were established. Also, the intensity of the links between the most used keywords in relation to the analyzed keyword was analyzed, as well as the intensity of the links between the main keywords related to the term organizational commitment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research and Development investments are critical to fostering innovation, driving economic growth, and achieving sustainable development goals. Horizon 2020 is the largest European Union research and innovation program, which has funded numerous R&D projects across different countries. This paper presents a comparative study of R&D investments in Romania and the EU, based on insights from Horizon 2020 projects. Using a composite indicator approach, we assess Romania's performance in the R&D sector and compare it with other EU countries. The paper provides an overview of the number of projects and entities that participated in Horizon 2020, with a focus on the Romanian business sector. Our findings indicate that the success rate of Romanian projects is slightly higher than the EU average, and there is a significantly higher percentage of Romanian business sector entities that have participated in Horizon 2020 than in the EU. Moreover, some limitations of the Romanian R&D sector are highlighted, such as the low level of R&D expenditure, one of the lowest in the EU, and the low involvement of the business sector in funding R&D, despite being the primary sector under Horizon 2020. The comparative analysis sheds light on the opportunities and challenges for Romania in improving the performance of its R&D sector. By providing a comparative analysis of the performance of Romania and other EU countries in Horizon 2020 projects we can gain insights which can be useful for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners in developing and implementing policies and strategies to improve R&D investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability, an increasingly addressed business principle, has begun to take place in modern business systems and become a focus for ways of assessing corporate performance in all three dimensions of the environmental, social, and economic spheres. Thus, the accounting profession and accountants have a key role in the core of active business for the achievement of sustainable development objectives. This aim at enabling financial and non-financial activities to be carried out in an honest way towards society the environment and according to universally valid principles that want to improve the quality of life and business. The literature frequently highlights the need to expand the evolution of sustainable development through various spheres of action. This paper intends to outline the current context on the contribution made by accounting professionals towards sustainable development and their efforts towards this direction. Using a qualitative research methodology, the initiatives organized by accounting regulatory bodies and representatives of the accounting profession will be analyzed. The aim of the current paper is to contribute to the literature in the field of finance and accounting by highlighting the role of accountants around sustainable development and presenting the various attempts, which have started from the accounting profession, to support the goals for sustainable development, presented in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - 2015 by UN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The tourism industry is a leading sector interested in the 2030 Agenda and represents one of its primary constituencies. It is increasingly acknowledged as the driving economic force in several nations, there has arisen the need for a sustainable paradigm for this industry, being included in two of the 17 goals for sustainable development- 8.9 and 12.7b with the most relevance to the tourist industry. In this light, this study aims to investigate the research area of the most significant consequences of tourism in connection to the objectives of sustainable development by mapping the relevant literature based on an analysis of its content. To accomplish the goal of the study, 245 papers from the Google Academics database spanning the years 2015-2021 have been taken out. The empirical findings revealed that the body of the scientific articles contains the terms "tourist," "sustainable development," "environment," "SGDs," "culture," "local," "industry," and "community" most often. The empirical data stress the following word combinations as being the most encountered when looking at the most correlated words within the scientific content of the papers. These word combinations are as follows: sustainable-development-tourism, economic-goals, tourismsupport- impact-future, local-resources-management, sustainable-community, or study-related-sustainabilityenvironmental are some topics that might be discussed. In addition, the findings of the topic modeling showed the presence of four primary categories of subjects that are covered by this region, as follows: The first topic, "Topic 1," investigates the connection between tourism and the environment. In contrast, the second topic, "Topic 2," examines the implications of tourism regarding the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Topic 3, "Topic 3," is about the connection between tourism and local economies, and the final topic is about the connection between tourism and cultural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing climate changes have determined governing bodies from all around the globe to set ambitious targets for CO2 reduction. In recent years, renewable energy technologies have proven themselves to be a method of CO2 reduction that is competitive in terms of both costs and efficiency, which led to the technologies becoming affordable and practical for residential use. Since the adoption of the Clean Energy for all Europeans Package in 2019, consumers were encouraged to have an active role in the power sector. This has led to the emergence of a new participant in the energy system, the power aggregator. From the scientific literature that has been covered so far, many articles focus on the economic benefits that different aggregator business models bring to the aggregators, their clients, and the system. Other scientific papers focus on optimizing how aggregators participate in energy markets by taking into consideration the technologies included in their portfolios and pricing mechanisms. Regardless of the subjects tackled, the articles mostly present theoretical aspects since, in practice, residential power aggregators are still not present in many countries. For all the reports that have been turned in so far, secondary research was carried out to gain a better understanding of the current power sector context. Renewable energy technologies were reviewed to uncover synergies that would prove valuable for power aggregator portfolios, existing business models of aggregators were examined to have a grasp on regulatory and economic limitations, and academic papers related to mathematical optimization models were studied. The doctoral research, for which this paper presents the progress, aims to use secondary research to understand aggregators at a European level and then to perform primary research into implementing the aggregating activity in Romania in the context of an accelerated shift to a decentralized power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of Ukraine towards European integration implies the existence of a high-quality and effective legal framework that guarantees the safeguarding of fundamental rights and liberties. Given this, it is necessary to clarify the essence of building a social state and the principles underlying it. The objective of the study was to investigate the main postulates of building a social state and their normative consolidation in national legislation. The following methods were used in the study of the issue: historical, system, modelling, analysis, and synthesis, comparative, statistical. The study’s findings were intended to ascertain how the idea of creating a social state developed on the territory of Ukraine and other states, and how this concept was reflected in modern countries. The paper examines the basic principles underlying the construction of a social state and their constitutional consolidation; which essential liberties and rights of an individual or citizen are protected by the way the idea of a social state operates, etc. Statistical data on life satisfaction indicators of people in different countries are also provided in light of different methods of social policy implementation. Various models and options for further building a social state on the territory of Ukraine are presented, considering the current situation associated with a full-scale war. The paper describes the experience of European countries in successfully reforming the social sphere, in particular, Denmark, Switzerland, etc. The authors also present a model of the social state of the future, taking into account the changing needs of society, digitalisation, well-being, etc. The outcomes can be applied to further enhance Ukraine’s social policy legislation by lawyers, sociologists, and scientists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to assess the association between macroeconomic factors and house prices in selected OECD countries. In this paper, authors describe selected socioeconomic factors, adapt a transparent methodology based on the OECD database and derive results shedding a light on the main drivers shaping the trends of the real estate prices. Two main economic aggregates, inflation and gross domestic product (GDP) were analysed for the OECD member and non-member countries for which complete data have been made available for the period of 1990-2020. The OECD provides data for 60 countries in total, out of which 38 are members of the organization. Nevertheless, due to missing observations in certain countries, the analysis was carried out in 19 of them. The aim of the study was to determine how GDP and inflation dynamics are correlated with changes in property prices. Among the analysed countries, Japan and South Africa could be distinguished as outliers in terms of inflation, whereas in the case of GDP, Italy, Japan, Ireland and Norway stood out. Additionally, 12 representative countries were described in detail. These countries comprised four groups of three countries divided across two dimensions: the first, based on the highest and the lowest correlation coefficient, and the second, based on the measure used to calculate the correlation coefficient (correlation of the house prices with GDP and correlation of the house price with inflation). On the basis of the analyses, it was shown that the association between GDP and house prices is stronger than that between inflation and house prices - in most cases, prices increased at a similar rate as GDP. A particularly high correlation between GDP and house prices was found for Norway, New Zealand and Sweden, indicating a potentially higher marginal housing consumption responsiveness to changes in housing wealth in these highly developed countries, characterised by particularly low housing transaction costs and efficient mortgage market. It was deduced that such characteristics lead to a higher wealth elasticity of demand for new houses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a commentary on papers dealing with the structure of the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA). All of the papers emphasize the need for coherence, completeness, comprehensiveness, and integration a national accounting system. In terms of accounts, all assume coverage corresponding to the flow accounts of the 1968 SNA - that is, as a minimum, production, income and outlay, capital formation, and capital finance accounts. All assume sectoring as in the 1968 SNA, with a few minor adjustments in some cases. Also, all recognize the need to make some provision for supplementary information or alternative classifications. So far, there are no surprises. All of these conditions are met by the present SNA, and if there were no other considerations there would have been no need for these papers. But there are other considerations, and on two of them there is still agreement among the papers. In the first place, all three papers agree to some extent on the desirability of showing market transactions separately from imputations and attributions. They do not altogether agree on what market transactions are, and they certainly do not agree on the form of presentation, but they do agree on the need.

This paper examines the geographical distribution of regional state aid in Slovakia between 2004 and 2021, while focusing on projects realized in the least developed districts. The purpose is to answer the following research question: how much investment support is provided to areas with high rates of long-term unemployment to promote local economic activity? The investigation was conducted using a spatial distribution analysis and descriptive statistical methods. The findings demonstrate that the level of support in less developed districts is below the level of aid directed into more developed regions not only in terms of the number of supported projects, but also regarding the total amount of aid and the number of created jobs. Out of the 20 least developed districts we monitored, only the results for Košice-okolie significantly outperformed the results of the other districts. This article provides possible explanations for these findings and contributes to the literature by providing insights into the practical application of state aid in Slovakia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In this paper, we present the zooarchaeological and taphonomic study of a new Bronze Age site in the inland of the Iberian Peninsula. This study represents a significant contribution within the studied area, as it analyses the Pista de Motos faunal collection, one of the few representative samples from this period. This paper significantly contributes to completing the scarce information available for the Bronze Archaeology in the Middle Tagus Valley, located inland of the Iberian Peninsula. The Bronze Age zooarchaeological research for the interior and other regions of the Iberian Peninsula is currently limited. Despite several sites with known zooarchaeological profiles from the period, the main issue is that most of these derive from fragmentary and unrepresentative faunal records or are biased profiles from old excavations. New work has yielded novel zooarchaeological results in recent years that could help fill the existing zooarchaeological information gap in the Iberian inland, particularly in the Middle Tagus Valley. However, these projects are in the initial research stages and have not published much of their results. This paper presents the zooarchaeological profile of the Pista de Motos Bronze Age site to help fill this information gap. It analyses the taxonomic representation, skeletal profiles, and human activity patterns associated with faunal use. These observations suggest that animal exploitation at the site followed two primary purposes. One was linked to economic activities, mainly to obtain meat, milk, wool, or animal labour. The other was probably associated with symbolic-ritual practices suggested by the complete animal burials in some excavated units. We contextualise these interpretations with evidence from other Bronze Age sites in the Middle Tagus Valley. Finally, the paper assesses to what extent Pista de Motos is a relevant site for the zooarchaeology of the Bronze Age in the Iberian inland. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To be considered sustainable, tourism in rural destinations should provide long-term economic benefits and have a push-up effect on the population's determination to engage in sustainable tourism. Also, sustainable tourism must reduce the negative effects of business activities on the natural environment and improve the quality of life as well as the standard of living of the local population. In order to check the impact of sustainable tourism on the development of rural destinations, economic indicators of sustainability are most often used, as measurable indicators of sustainable development. In the paper, we examined the attitudes of 421 local residents using the TIAS scale, in 17 Vojvodina villages. Only those who declared that they are involved in the tourism economy were taken for further analysis. It was concluded that positive economic indicators of sustainable development are "wind in the sails" of the development of rural destinations, and that sustainable tourism is a desirable economic activity in the villages of Vojvodina to whom more and more residents are turning, especially women as of very sensitive category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The financial system has an important component which adds to social welfare. Investment and consumption expenditures contribute to the increase in production by meeting the capital requirement. The study examines the impact of financial development on income inequality for 13 member nations of the OECD between 1993 and 2017 in light of the panel data method. In the study, income inequality is used as a proxy for the GINI coefficient, while the banks' domestic credit to the private sector is utilized to represent financial development. In addition, the model utilizes control variables, including per capita income, trade openness, inflation, and public spending. The panel data regression results reveal that financial development has a positive effect on income inequality. The results of the paper support the Income Inequality Widening Hypothesis, which suggests that the situation which favours individuals with high income levels who have access to financial resources continues when financial development increases, which in turn increases income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research background: The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted the global banking sector, leading to shifts in operational dynamics and customer interactions. This study explores the pandemic's dual impact, emphasizing the rapid transition from traditional to digital and mobile banking, and the resultant decline in physical branch banking. Purpose of the article: The main of this paper is to examine the changes in customer behaviour and bank operations, with a focus on the integration of digital and physical channels through omnichannel strategies. The research also addresses the increased credit risks, operational challenges, and regulatory hurdles banks now face, alongside the potential for digital innovation and enhanced customer engagement. Methods: At the core of this analysis is the pandemic's effect on banking distribution channels, with a marked acceleration towards digital and mobile banking, fundamentally altering the banking service landscape. The study investigates how these shifts have influenced customer behaviour and bank operations, noting the decline in traditional branch banking and the emergence of omnichannel strategies that blend digital and physical banking channels. Additionally, the paper assesses the wider implications of these changes for the banking sector, including increased credit risks, operational disruptions, and regulatory challenges, against the backdrop of opportunities for digital transformation and innovation. Findings & Value added: By synthesizing insights from academic and industry sources, the study aims to provide a comprehensive view of the banking sector's adaptation in the post-pandemic era. This includes a nuanced understanding of the evolving banking landscape and its implications for the future, offering valuable insights for banking professionals, policymakers, and academics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main principle of sustainability means being able to meet the needs of today's society without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development implies the interdependence of its main components: society, economy, and ecology. The prosperity of a society depends on economic progress and the development of new technologies, but in a way that the natural environment is protected and preserved. This concept is inextricably linked to the concept of ecology and, consequently, to all types of transport, given that transport is considered one of the main pollutants of the ecosystem. Due to its rapid development through history, and as the youngest and safest type of transport, air transport is particularly subjected to the environmental impact assessment. At the same time, air transport affects the global economy due to its connection with other sectors, which in turn enables faster mobility of people, services, and goods. This was especially evident with the increased need for faster medical supplies and protective equipment delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic. The European Union's transport policy is geared towards sustainable development by linking all environmental and social goals in a balanced way. Considering the negative long-term impact of COVID-19 on the air transportation sector, the question posed in this paper is whether this can be done in an appropriate way. As part of the European Green Deal, the "Fit for 55" package is a set of proposals to revise and update EU legislation with the purpose of introducing new initiatives regarding the climate goals agreed by the Council and the European Parliament. Regarding air transport, the emphasis is on contributing to reducing CO2 emissions and noise pollution and their impact on other sectors and competitiveness. The EU Commission White Paper: "Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area -- Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system" emphasizes that the EU aviation industry should become a frontrunner in the use of low-carbon fuels to reach the set targets, as well as that the majority of medium-distance passenger transport should go by rail by 2050. There are also initiatives that aviation taxes should subsidize high-speed rail (HSR), which potentially may cause a decrease in the air transport and benefit an increase the rail transport. The paper will also address the questions as to whether existing legislation, measures, and proposals are appropriate, considering that aviation is one of the industry sectors that is most affected by COVID-19 and could be most affected by the "Fit for 55" package, as well what impact this duopoly might have on the market for travel served by air transport. Does really "Fit for 55" fit air transport? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 2014, PPP policy has been promoted rapidly in China. Based on the theory of policy innovation diffusion, this paper explores the formation mechanism of PPP spatial disequilibrium at the micro level using Chinese municipal-level panel data from 2014 to 2019. According to the research, the innovation diffusion of China's PPP policy at the local-government level exhibits R-shaped non-progressive characteristics and is influenced by both internal and external factors. On the internal side, the debt pressure of local governments is an important determinant with an inverted U-shaped influence on PPP policy. On the external side, imitation and competition among neighboring local governments are the main external determinants. This spatial strategic interaction occurs not only in same-province regions with close proximity and similar economic development but also in different-province regions with close proximity. The above studies offer certain insights into optimizing the spatial distribution pattern of PPP and guarding against fiscal risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Economic activity as a measure of development is generally estimated in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). But the propriety of GDP as a measure of development has been subject to debate. Different theoretical as well as empirical evidences have hinted towards a relationship between geography and economic growth. This paper attempts to test the geographical proximity hypothesis (i.e., economic growth of a region is determined by its geography in general, and its proximity to other developing or under developed regions in particular) in context of India. This paper argues that the growth rate of a region is determined by the proximity to developed or under-developed states and such clusters of proximate states grow together as a whole. This inference has huge policy implications and makes a favourable case for inclusion of geography as a significant determinant of economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Timely and accurate rainfall prediction is crucial to social life and economic activities. Because of the influence of numerous factors on rainfall, making precise predictions is challenging. In this study, the northern Xinjiang region of China is selected as the research area. Based on the pattern of rainfall in the local area and the needs of real life, rainfall is divided into four levels, namely 'no rain', 'light rain', 'moderate rain', and 'heavy rain and above', for rainfall levels nowcasting. To solve the problem that the existing model can only extract a single time dependence and cause the loss of some valuable information in rainfall data, a prediction model named DFFNet, which is based on dual-branch feature fusion, is proposed in this paper. The two branches of the model are composed of Transformer and CNN, which are used to extract time dependence and feature interaction in meteorological data, respectively. The features extracted from the two branches are fused for prediction. To verify the performance of DFFNet, the India public rainfall dataset and some sub-datasets in the UEA dataset are chosen for comparison. Compared with the baseline models, DFFNet achieves the best prediction performance on all the selected datasets; compared with the single-branch model, the training time consumption of DFFNet on the two rainfall datasets is reduced by 21% and 9.6%, respectively, and it has a faster convergence speed. The experimental results show that it has certain theoretical value and application value for the study of rainfall nowcasting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista de Estudios Empresariales Segunda Época is the property of Editorial de la Universidad de Jaen 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.)

Health and the environment are complex components of the countries, influenced by several factors, especially transport, and economics. Thus, this paper assesses the role of transportation and economic complexity in the environment and public health for the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD) countries from 2001 to 2020. This study also focuses on the relationship between transport and economic complexity with environmental and healthcare expenditures. Precisely, transport and economic activities stimulate healthcare expenditures through multiple channels. The current study employs the STIRPAT model to investigate the association with transportation, economic complexity, transport–carbon intensity, and healthcare expenditure. Besides, the current research confirms the plausible cross-sectional dependency across countries, and it adopts a second-generation technique. Analytical findings suggest that transportation-carbon intensity is positively and significantly associated with healthcare expenditures. Healthcare and transport–household expenditures increase transport–carbon intensity (TCI) by 75% and 45%, respectively, in the long run. In the contrast, TCI and transport–household expenditures have also a remarkable impact on healthcare expenditures and are estimated approximately 95% in the long run. Moreover, economic growth also upsurges TCI and healthcare expenditures through multiple economic activities. Besides, transport–household expenditures (THE) drastically impact transport–carbon intensity and healthcare expenditures (HEX) through passenger traffic (PTF). Diagnostic upshots unveil that the joint effect of THE and PTF increases TCI and HEX by 4 and 3%, respectively. Finally, findings recommend some policy implications and future research directions for the countries based on empirical outcomes. Countries should regulate economic activities to reduce transport carbon emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this introductory paper of the Special Issue, we explore how India's political economy is moving in a new direction by focusing on three key political economy issues: development, welfare, and governance. India has undergone a substantial political transformation in recent years, especially since Bharatiya Janata Party led by Narendra Modi formed the first majoritarian government in three decades in 2014. In this paper, we first demonstrate that this political transformation has a significant impact on the Indian political economy, given that the country is witnessing the rise of a new developmentalism, a new welfarism, and the new modes of governance. After that, we summarize the collections of articles of the Special Issue and situate them in relation to our central theme, new directions in the Indian political economy. This paper, and this Special Issue more broadly, seeks to contribute to the existing literature by introducing new analytical frameworks to understand recent changes in the Indian political economy and providing new empirical evidence on this topic drawing on content analysis and field research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]