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The article aims to provide some answers based on scientific data to two questions that deeply disturb the current Romanian society, namely: whether “It was better before 1989”; and, subsequently, whether “It would be better outside the European Union”. These are also the favorite themes exploited by the misleading propaganda of Russian-inspired Romanian extremist groups and parties. According to data and economic evaluations provided by specialized national and international institutions and the relevant academic literature, the answers to both questions are categorically negative.

The aim of this article is to present the changes in the literature and practice of competitiveness, pointing out that a distinction must be made between competitiveness at the firm level and competitiveness at the national level, both in terms of objectives and methods. On the other hand, it highlights the new elements that have been introduced into the understanding of competitiveness due to geopolitical, social and environmental changes, and which are becoming more prominent in our time due to technological change. The article quotes, without claiming to be exhaustive, the main findings of recent studies by the best-known competitiveness research organisations, illustrating the differences in interpretation between them. Occasionally, findings on domestic performance are also discussed. The article did not aim to provide a comprehensive analysis of Hungarian competitiveness based on proprietary research, as it considers the presented MNB Competitiveness Report as a good research basis for describing the competitiveness situation and for developing a national competitiveness strategy. However, it does point out some additional indicators that should definitely be included in a national competitiveness strategy. It argues that the aim of improving national competitiveness should not be merely to improve economic outcomes, such as GDP. The central issue of improving competitiveness can only be the harmonious expansion of all elements of national wealth together. Therefore, the Hungarian National Competitiveness Strategy should set development targets for those elements of wealth where Hungarian competitiveness performance is weak. The article lists these in the summary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Question: The paper examines the impact of specific Hofstede's dimensions of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, depending on the wealth of the national economy. Motivation: Based on the results of some previous research focused on the relationship between national culture and various indicators associated with entrepreneurship (Hayton, George & Zahra, 2002; Pinillos & Reyes, 2011; Zhao, Li & Rauch, 2012; Hayton & Cacciotti, 2013), the paper analyses the impact of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, as a category closely related to entrepreneurship. The identification of the national culture's dimensions contributing to the affirmation of entrepreneurial culture, provides an insight into the entrepreneurial potential of a particular national economy. Idea: The main idea of the paper is to examine whether selected Hofstede's dimensions of national culture (power distance - PD, uncertainty avoidance - UA, individualism - IDV) affect entrepreneurial culture (EC) in a manner identical to that affecting the other indicators of entrepreneurship. The mentioned relationship is not examined as unmediated, but in the context of the effect that national wealth (measured as Gross National Income per capita - GNI) has on it. Data: The survey covered a total of 108 countries for which the data on the values of three selected dimensions of national culture, the index of entrepreneurial culture and the Gross National Income per capita are available. Tools: In order to examine the effect of three selected Hofstede's dimensions of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, correlation and standard multiple regression analyses were conducted. For data processing, statistical software SPSS (version 22.0) was used. Findings: The obtained results of the research show that in national economies with higher levels of IDV and lower levels of UA, higher scores of the EC index are manifested, regardless of the national wealth. On the other hand, the impact of PD on EC is determined by the level of a particular economy's wealth. In high-income economies (HIE), the index of EC is higher if PD is lower. In low- and middle-income economies (LIE), higher values of EC index are manifested if PD is higher. Contribution: The paper expands the knowledge and research base on entrepreneurial culture and the influence that national culture has on it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore to what extent previously observed pan-cultural association between dimensions of self-construal and personal life satisfaction (PLS) may be moderated by three national-contextual variables: national wealth, economic inequality, and religious heritage. The results showed that Self-reliance (vs. dependence on others) predicted PLS positively in poorer countries but negatively in richer countries. Connectedness to others (vs. self-containment) predicted PLS more strongly in Protestant-heritage countries. Self-expression (vs. harmony) predicted PLS more weakly (and non-significantly) in Muslim-heritage countries. In contrast, previously reported associations of self-direction (vs. reception-to-influence), consistency (vs. variability), and decontextualized (vs. contextualized) self-understanding with personal life satisfaction were not significantly moderated by these aspects of societal context. These results show the importance of considering the impact of national religious and economic context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We predicted that the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction would depend partially on the wealth of the country in which one lives. We argue that wealthy societies provide a wide range of welfare provisions for assisting their citizens. By contrast, people living in poorer countries with associated lower individualism, lower generalised trust, and higher religiosity have fewer financial and institutional supports for their daily welfare. They thus receive greater personal and interpersonal rewards for helping strangers in their societies and experience greater life satisfaction. Using a 137‐country sample, we found that the relationship between helping strangers and life satisfaction was weaker in wealthier nations and in nations with more individualistic, more trusting, but less religious citizens. When all four moderators were used, only trust and religiosity remained significant moderators. In a supplementary mediated moderation model, we also found that trust and religiosity mediated the effect of national wealth on the relationship between kindness and life satisfaction. We conclude that the relationship between kindness and life satisfaction depends on various aspects of national culture that may reduce or increase people's dependence in their daily lives on the help of others as opposed to dependence on welfare institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research Question: The paper examines the impact of specific Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, depending on the wealth of the national economy. Motivation: Based on the results of some previous research focused on the relationship between national culture and various indicators associated with entrepreneurship (Hayton, George & Zahra, 2002; Pinillos & Reyes, 2011; Zhao, Li & Rauch, 2012; Hayton & Cacciotti, 2013), the paper analyses the impact of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, as a category closely related to entrepreneurship. The identification of the national culture's dimensions contributing to the affirmation of entrepreneurial culture, provides an insight into the entrepreneurial potential of a particular national economy. Idea: The main idea of the paper is to examine whether selected Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture (power distance - PD, uncertainty avoidance – UA, individualism – IDV) affect entrepreneurial culture (EC) in a manner identical to that affecting the other indicators of entrepreneurship. The mentioned relationship is not examined as unmediated, but in the context of the effect that national wealth (measured as Gross National Income per capita - GNI) has on it. Data: The survey covered a total of 108 countries for which the data on the values of three selected dimensions of national culture, the index of entrepreneurial culture and the Gross National Income per capita are available. Tools: In order to examine the effect of three selected Hofstede’s dimensions of national culture on entrepreneurial culture, correlation and standard multiple regression analyses were conducted. For data processing, statistical software SPSS (version 22.0) was used. Findings: The obtained results of the research show that in national economies with higher levels of IDV and lower levels of UA, higher scores of the EC index are manifested, regardless of the national wealth. On the other hand, the impact of PD on EC is determined by the level of a particular economy's wealth. In high-income economies (HIE), the index of EC is higher if PD is lower. In low- and middle-income economies (LIE), higher values of EC index are manifested if PD is higher. Contribution: The paper expands the knowledge and research base on entrepreneurial culture and the influence that national culture has on it.

An enormous amount of time and energy has been spent assessing the extent of transformation of ownership of the South African private sector. To date, the exercise has not moved much beyond squabbling over numbers. In doing so, the debate has ignored an estimated two thirds of the private sector. Business and government have talked past each other about the same set of regulatory compliance targets -- the former focused on arguments for maintaining or reducing the targets; the latter on reasons to extend them. One point of consensus is that in the 25 years since South Africa achieved democracy, the pace and extent of transformation of private sector ownership has been wholly inadequate. This paper seeks to examine how we should be thinking about listed equity, which has had more focus as a result of clearer metrics being available; the transformation of unlisted business sector; the impact on private sector ownership of government's range of goals since 1994; and proposed policy amendments intended to develop a view on equity ownership in South Africa shared by government, business, organised labour and other key stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the state and the historical-geographical and socio-political processes of its emergence, citing the earliest states that have existed in human history as examples. Among the factors contributing to the political independence of the state, the factor of economic development is of particular importance. In this context the issue of economic independence of sovereign Kazakhstan is considered on the basis of comparative advantages of the country in relation to other countries in the international geo-economic system after the transition to a market economy. Comparative advantage is based on the country's geographical position, natural resource potential, development in the economic, transport and social and technical spheres. It is also influenced by the development of economic and political-cultural integration processes. In particular, the location of Kazakhstan in the centre of Eurasia; its large natural territories and natural resource potential, including energy, land, soil, water, forest, biological, mineral, climatic and recreational resources; transit potential, connecting West and East, South and North; the presence of enterprises established during the Soviet Union; mass population literacy, availability of highly qualified citizens; international relations formed during the years of independence; a favourable investment environment; and the fact that the country has a well-developed economy. The article also considers the importance of using these potentials in defining and strengthening Kazakhstan's position in today's complex and unstable global geopolitics and geoeconomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The relationship between culture and corruption has been the focus of various studies, producing inconsistent results. We suggest that these inconsistencies might be due to the conceptualization and measurement of culture. Drawing on the possible value/fact dichotomy discussed in ethical philosophy, we introduce the construct of cultural discrepancy--the difference between cultural values ("ought") and practices ("is")--as a predictor of pervasive (i.e., fully institutionalized and predictable) and arbitrary (i.e., uncertain and relatively unorganized) corruption. Examining the relationship between the discrepancies observed in the GLOBE cultural dimensions and the Corruption Perception Index shows that in-group collectivism discrepancy is negatively related to pervasive corruption; future orientation discrepancy is positively related to arbitrary corruption. Further, we show that these relationships are contingent on national wealth. The negative relationship for in-group collectivism discrepancy is most pronounced in poor and moderately wealthy countries, and the positive relationship for future orientation discrepancy is most pronounced in rich countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article deals with the problems of the domestic and foreign market of objects of art as objects of national heritage. The structure of the sphere of circulation of art objects is shown, participants and agents of the art values market are described. Particular attention is paid to the activities of world auction houses and galleries. Methodical approaches are specified and methods for estimating the market value of art objects, including objects of painting, are listed. The article illustrates the authors’ attempt to evaluate the cost of the most mystical pictorial canvas in the history of the national museum science “Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan” by the famous Russian artist I. E. Repin. The picture with a tragic-psychological plot was twice attacked by vandals with an interval of a hundred years and experienced a long-term costly restoration, even with not quite successful attraction of the author of this work.

The study of the category of national wealth is necessary because the wealth of the nation is an important indicator of the economic power and potential of the country. However, today there are no equal views regarding the definition of the essence of national wealth. The aim of the article is to study the concept and structure of national wealth, the methods of its assessment, and most importantly – the ways to increase the national wealth of Ukraine. The main objective of this article is also to highlight the approaches of human capital measures and assessing its importance in the structure of national wealth. The article highlights the modern understanding of the essence and value of the category ‘national wealth’. The evolution of the methodological approaches to assessing national wealth and determining its components is considered. The need to include human capital to the national wealth has been confirmed and substantiated. Bettering human capital benefits individuals and their country and leads to improved sustainability for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of national intellectual capital (NIC) is in its early stage of development. NIC has a complicated and heterogeneous nature with NIC models displaying varying levels of aggregation and structure as well as inconsistent accuracy. As a result, the authors’ standpoints differ according to definition and NIC taxonomy. The aim of this article is to analyze NIC taxonomy and to organize and classify the scattered and often inadvertent intangible generators of the country’s wealth. The results of the research confirm a lack of a generally accepted definitional and taxonomic approach to NIC making a search for an acceptable solution necessary since without it the measurement and comparability of results or even the management and control of the intellectual capital of the country will not be possible. Besides contemplating the existing approaches of NIC division, the authors create their own NIC taxonomy and describe its components by presenting an original understanding of NIC components. This is extremely important because the subject of NIC has not yet been scientifically sufficiently exhausted.

In today’s world there is a rapid process of intellectualization of the economy. With limited natural resources intellectual property is one of the main engines of the modern economy. The capitalization of intellectual property is highly relevant given the increasing significance of results of intellectual activity as the transition to an innovative economy. The capitalization of intellectual property at the regional level has not been studied. In the Republic of Dagestan has accumulated a scientific and technical, creative potential, including the technical, technological, industrial, scientific, creative intellectual activity, which represent a certain value on the domestic and foreign markets. There is a lack in the region, a key element in the formation of an innovative economy - intellectual property market. The authors are needed to proposals involving intellectual property into economic circulation. In conclusion, the authors concluded that the efficient use of the intellectual potential to be an important resource for economic development, will enable the republic to obtain real economic income, which is extremely important in terms of subsidies republican budget.

The lake Baikal, as an object of the global nature heritage is facing an ecological disaster of the national scale. This is one of the most important conclusions drawn by the Baikal International Ecological Water Forum while discussing problems of preserving the ecosystem of the lake Baikal and rational use of its resources. In spite of serious attention on the part of federal and regional authorities to this problem, first of all by preparing, adopting and implementing the Water Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2020, the Principles of Ecological Policy of the Russian Federation and by efforts aimed at practical realization of important programs, such as the Federal program ‘Protection of the Lake Baikal and Social and Economic Development of the Baikal Natural Territory for 2012–2020’, the Federal program ‘The Development of the Water Industry of the Russian Federation in 2012–2020’ (the program ‘Water in Russia’), the problem of preserving the ecosystem of the lake Baikal is deteriorating and could reach the critical point. On the basis of the new concept of managing national wealth the article describes the Eurasian reserve system, an absolutely new form of financing, which differs from the current form, i.e. state-private partnership. The authors explain the concept and key structural elements of the new investment mechanism of financing socially important ecological projects and programs functioning on the basis of the reserve system and its essential component – regional mortgage funds of development. They assume that proposed investment mechanisms of financing infrastructural ecological projects and programs of developing water industry in Russia could decline considerably global resource risks and would ensure effective realization of the program ‘Protection of the Lake Baikal and Social and Economic Development of the Baikal Natural Territory for 2012–2020’, the program ‘The Development of the Water Industry of the Russian Federation in 2012–2020’ to reach prosperity of people in Russia and guarantee the development of economy in Russian regions.

Measures of personality have been shown to predict employee satisfaction at work and in life, but these findings arise mostly from research conducted in national cultures of Anglo heritage. To broaden the generality of such findings, we explore the relationships between Big Five dimensions of personality and satisfaction with life across representative samples of 13,265 employed persons in 18 nations. We argue that the strength of relationships between these personality dimensions and life satisfaction will be moderated by a national economic culture characterized by wealth and by competitiveness, since employees derive their satisfaction with life from the personality qualities especially valued in such economic systems. Using data from the World Values Survey and its Wave 6 short-form measure of the Big Five, we find that the dimensions of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability predict higher life satisfaction pan-nationally for employed persons. Cross-level moderation effects were found: national wealth enhances the linkage of conscientiousness and emotional stability to life satisfaction; agreeableness links to life satisfaction in wealthier but not in poorer nations; extroversion predicts life satisfaction in more competitive nations but not in less competitive nations. To explain this variability in the relationships of Big Five personality dimensions with the life satisfaction of employed persons, we reason that the national cultures of wealth and of competitiveness surrounding working life establish an incentive context within which enactments of these personality dispositions will generate greater social and personal rewards from the experience of work, yielding higher levels of life satisfaction among employed persons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study is to determine the main factors and prerequisites for inequality and poverty of the population of Ukraine, as well as to identify the main consequences of this phenomenon and finding out of the main directions of the socio-economic policy of the state. Methodology. The article considers theoretical approaches to the definition of social inequality and poverty, as well as issues with fair distribution of national wealth. The results of the study confirmed the thesis of the authors that the problems of poverty and social inequality adversely affect the functioning of national socio-economic systems. It is proved that the most effective state is one which has a broad layer of the middle class, which ensures the rationalization of consumption, saving and investment processes. Practical significance. Based on official statistical data of the main macroeconomic indicators of the state development, this article studies main trends in the development of Ukrainian economy and its social component. The coefficients of the correlation dependence between the indicators of development of the social and economic systems of Ukraine are calculated and conclusions regarding the absence of a state system of equal distribution of national wealth are drawn. Value/originality. The result of the study is a statement about the need to modernize and reform the existing system of redistribution of national wealth in Ukraine with a view to reducing poverty and social inequality in the country.

The accumulation of human capital is an important factor of economic growth. It seems to be useful to include «human capital» as a factor of a macroeconomic model, as it helps to take into account the quality differentiation of the workforce. Most of the models usually distinguish labor force by the levels of education, while some of the factors remain unaccounted. Among them are health status and culture development level, which influence productivity level as well as gross product reproduction. Inclusion of the human capital block to the interindustry model can help to make it more reliable for economic development forecasting. The article presents a mathematical description of the extended dynamic input-output model (DIOM) with a human capital block. The extended DIOM is based on the Input-Output Model from The KAMIN system (the System of Integrated Analyses of Interindustrial Information) developed at the Institute of Economics and Industrial Engineering of the Siberian Branch of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation and at the Novosibirsk State University. The extended input-output model can be used to analyze and forecast development of Russian economy.

Can income equality and national wealth go hand in hand? This issue has long marked the distance between the neoliberal and the social democratic policy paradigms. By combining so far unrelated streams of literature, we sketch a theoretical framework in which fiscal policies shape four "fiscal worlds", each of them characterized by a special balance between income equality and national wealth. Then, we resort to Boolean algebra and fuzzy sets to develop a measure that encompasses both these policy outcomes at once without assuming any a priori functional relationship. Last, we assess the heuristic capacity of our measure by mapping the EU countries' membership to the four fiscal worlds from 2007 until 2016 and the trajectories they followed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Gallup World Poll data, we examined whether national income inequality moderated the effects of affluence on individual subjective well-being (SWB). Multilevel analyses found that people reported higher life evaluation in years when their nation had higher GDP. Between-nation effects showed that people in wealthier nations reported greater SWB (but also more negative feelings) than those in poorer nations. Furthermore, people in unequal nations (i.e., greater income inequality) reported higher life evaluation and positive feelings than those in more equal nations. National income inequality also moderated the effects of individual-level income on SWB— income showed stronger associations with SWB in more equal nations than in nations with higher income inequality. People who earned higher incomes had higher life evaluation and positive feelings, and lower negative feelings than those who earned lower incomes, but the effects were stronger in more equal nations. These findings suggest that money matters less to the SWB of people in unequal nations than those in equal nations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Disasters affect significant numbers of people in the poorest parts of the world. The main impediment to progress in reducing the extent of disaster outcomes appears to come from inabilities to address macro-economic drivers of vulnerability. This study examines the association between three key drivers of vulnerability, i.e. wealth/poverty, income inequality and the absence/presence of social welfare systems, and short-term and long-term disaster outcomes. Drawing on lengthy time-series data, we apply a data driven approach, focusing only on those countries that have experienced major natural or technological disasters, to generate new understanding of these drivers. Our study finds that in relation to natural hazards: less developed countries experience worse human impacts than more developed countries; developed countries suffer larger economic losses; countries with greater levels of income inequality have more people affected than in more equal countries; and social welfare (using both Sen's indexes and public social spending) in OECD countries appears to reduce the human impacts of disasters. We also conclude that the human impacts of natural disasters delay economic growth in poor countries. For the technological hazard-associated disasters, while there is no evidence that national wealth and income inequality determine human impacts, we find that larger human impacts in poor countries undermines economic growth. Our key finding is the unequivocal and central role of income inequality in shaping disaster outcomes. Future research and policy on disaster risk reduction has to acknowledge this 'elephant in the room'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Privacy (or the lack of it) is an important feature of the interview. Researchers rely on interviewers to ensure a private setting. In reality, interviewers are guests in respondents’ homes and might find it difficult to achieve privacy. Thus, a substantial proportion of interviews are conducted in the presence of a third party. We investigate whether there are cultural and interviewer variations in interview privacy and whether respondent characteristics associated with interview privacy vary by culture. We analyzed data from 14 countries. The results highlight the direct and indirect role the country-level characteristics (level of individualism and wealth) play in explaining cultural differences in rates of interview privacy and the significant between-interviewer variation in interview privacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change cannot be successfully mitigated solely through individual-level actions. Structural change is urgently needed. While wealthy countries have the greatest capacity to implement structural change, the question remains to what extent perceived country wealth is associated with support for structural climate policies over individual-level behaviour change policies. We found in Australian (Study 1) and UK (Study 2) samples (N = 967) that perceived national wealth positively predicts people's support for structural (vs. individual-level behaviour) change policies. In an experimental (Study 3, N = 401) and a quasi-experimental study (Study 4, N = 400; comparing South African and UK participants), we found that people in both wealthy and poor countries more strongly prefer wealthy (vs. poor) countries to implement structural (vs. individual-level behaviour) change policies. There was some evidence that these effects are mediated by perceiving wealthy countries to have a moral obligation to contribute to the solution of global issues. The findings suggest that there is considerable public support for wealthy countries to spearhead structural transformations to limit climate change. These insights can help environmental organisations and policymakers to gain public support for climate policies by emphasising their countries' moral obligation to implement change and by countering blame-deflecting narratives. • Perceived national wealth increases support for structural climate policies. • Moral obligation to contribute to the solution of global issues mediates the effect. • Emphasising wealthy countries' moral duty can boost climate policy support. • Highlights the importance for psychology to focus on structural climate solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]