Suchergebnisse

This paper investigates the nature of the causal relationships among interbank market interest rates and corporate loans interest rates in four countries from the euro area (Austria, Belgium, France and Italy), and in the Czech Republic. The paper also estimates a development of bank credit margin in banking industries of these countries in period from January 2004 to March 2010. Using Johansen cointegration and Granger causality tests on monthly data we investigate long-term as well as short-term causalities between the interest rates. The results suggest that interest rate relationships differ in all selected countries, and also that foreign majority owners of the Czech banks could affect interest rate policy of the subsidiaries to offset losses realized by the parent banks.

Due to the rebound effect caused by the improvement in energy efficiency, the decrease in energy consumption may not be translated as expected. This study is the first to estimate the magnitude of direct rebound effect for the long and short run and the impact of climate change on residential electricity consumption for the European Union countries. In order analyse the direct rebound effect a panel data from 1996 to 2017 was used, and a panel ARDL model was applied. The results show that the magnitude of the direct rebound effect in the long run is 35%. The climate changes have a positive effect on the electricity consumption both in the long and short run. This study suggests that policy makers should have both the rebound effect and the climate changes in mind when formulating their energy policies. ; Devido ao efeito rebound causado pela melhoria na eficiência energética, a diminuição no consumo de energia pode não ser traduzida como o esperado. Este estudo é o primeiro a estimar a magnitude do efeito rebound direto para o longo e curto prazo bem como o impacto que as mudanças climáticas têm no consumo residencial de eletricidade para os países da União Europeia. Para analisar o efeito rebound direto, foram utilizados dados em painel de 1996 a 2017 tendo sido aplicado o modelo ARDL em painel. Os resultados mostram que o efeito rebound direto no longo prazo é de 35%. As mudanças climáticas têm um efeito positivo no consumo de eletricidade tanto no curto como no longo prazo. Este estudo sugere que os formuladores de políticas, ao formular as políticas energéticas, devem ter tanto o efeito rebound quanto as mudanças climáticas em conta.

Defining, planning and achieving health goals including health promotion and health promotion for older people (HP4OP) are always the responsibility of the public authority. In European countries the public health and health promotion strategic framework, including HP4OP is provided by the ministry of health or others national public health organisations, which are responsible for defining of legal regulations on the different aspects of health promotion. The goal of this article is the analysis of the central and territorial government (CTG) sector's involvement in the issue of HP4OP, their functions, activities and responsibilities in this area. The analysis is focused on the main differences and similarities between CTG's institutions. The authors triangulated data collected using varied methods: literature review, questionnaire research (conducted in European Pro-Health 65+ project's countries) and in-depth interviews with national experts from selected countries. In the majority of analysed countries, the central government and municipalities are the main stakeholders responsible for providing funding for these programs. The operational level for the implementation of majority HP4OP is the local level. Research countries have been identified as strongly varying in institutional, legal and political specificity. The analysis shows the increasing position of HP4OP in public health policy. Many of the identified problems come from the implementation of a fragmented approach, the duplication of efforts undertaken by different stakeholders and the lack of a co-ordinated strategy and dedicated legal regulations at both the national and regional/local levels.

Along with the rapid development of industry and agriculture, growth of population, improvement of urbanization level, China has been confronted with increasingly serious deficiency and pollution of water resource. In order to deal with the challenge as well as reduce waste discharge, it is necessary to strengthen all the possible efforts in controlling water pollution. Therefore, the control and management of water pollution is of vital significance to the development of national economy and social society, which is worth doing research on academically and practically. Water pollution management, in a sense, results from the urbanization and cosmopolitanization process. In this aspect, the European countries have acquired a lot of successful experience in water pollution control, which provides plenty of useful knowledge and reference for China's ongoing efforts in water pollution control. This thesis, by taking a comparative analysis approach, looks into the European countries' experience of water pollution control, makes evaluations on their managerial strategies, system and methods. Then it reviews China's efforts on water pollution control, and analyzes the current situation of China's water management, especially the water pollution control system of Huaihe River Basin, and as a result puts forward suggestions to improve China's water pollution control system such as verification of property rights of water resources, enhancement of legal framework, investment and taxation policy preference, technological improvements, public participation and prevention measures. ; www.ima.kth.se

The countries of the European Union, which are final destinations or transit for refugees and migrants, face many social, humanitarian and financial challenges. They are expected to invest efforts and resources to enable migrant communities and the host society to activate their abilities, qualities and skills to build social cohesion and well-being between them. Local administrations provide many services that directly affect the integration of migrants and there-fore have a greater capacity to support the process of social cohesion, as opposed to governance at national level, which in many cases hinders local government initiatives to address social and economic problems arising from immigration. Integration is an extremely individual process and individual needs must be taken into account by the various institutions involved in this activity. Refugee integration is one of the indicators of democratic society, an indicator of the development and promotion of human rights and freedoms. It is a continuous and dynamic process that requires efforts and readiness on the part of refugees to adapt to their host society without having to give up their cultural identity, and therefore - readiness and understanding on the part of the host community and public institutions to perceive refugees as equal persons of themselves. Integration is a long-term two-way process of mutual adjustment of incoming immigrants and citizens of the host country.

International audience ; This introductory essay briefly summarizes the 11 empirical studies of price setting and price adjustment that are included in this special issue. The studies, which use data from several European countries, were conducted as part of the European Central Bank's Inflation Persistence Network.

This introductory essay briefly summarizes the eleven empirical studies of price setting and price adjustment that are included in this special issue. The studies, which use data from several European countries, were conducted as part of the European Central Bank's Inflation Persistence Network. ; Published in: Managerial and Decision Economics, vol. 31, iss. 2-3, 2010, pp. 63-66

Abstract
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.

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Intensive animal production systems are compromising current animal welfare standards. European societies' growing concerns regarding how animals are raised have resulted in continuous European Union (EU) policy reforms that have banned certain intensive farming methods. We investigated whether EU respondents, differentiated by their roles as citizens and consumers, believe that the current regulations on animal welfare should be more restrictive. Data were collected using a survey approach implemented in eight European countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and Sweden) with a sample of 3860 respondents. The results show that women citizens are more concerned with animal welfare and are prone to accept more restrictive regulations. Respondents from northern European countries (Poland and Sweden) are willing to accept regulations that are more restrictive than the current minimum standards than respondents from southern countries (Spain and Italy). Our results suggest that increasing knowledge of animal welfare is related to effective information campaigns that use the Internet to endorse the current animal welfare legislation. ABSTRACT: Increasingly, intensive livestock production systems have increased societal concern regarding the current animal welfare standards. We investigated whether individuals in their roles as consumers and citizens believe that the current European regulations regarding animal welfare should be more restrictive. Factors affecting this decision were assessed by analyzing respondents' understanding of animal welfare-related issues, their subjective and objective knowledge levels, the credibility they assign to different information sources, their perceptions toward the current restrictiveness of animal welfare standards, and their socioeconomic characteristics. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire distributed in eight European Union (EU) countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, ...

This aim of this work is to study the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade. FDI is a driving force for economic growth for host countries. The positive effects of FDI are seen in many aspects of the economy. However, the implications of FDI on foreign trade are questionable. Therefore, this study uses a Granger causality technique to test whether the relationship between FDI and foreign trade is complementary or substitutive. The findings of this study indicate that this relationship appears to be complementary, and FDI investment does cause an increase in trade flow in the countries that are taken into consideration. This research aims to make a comparison between the relations of FDI flows of three groups of countries from the European Union (EU)—Romania and Bulgaria, the Visegrád Group and the Euro area—for the period of 2005 to 2019. However, the results indicate that this link between the variables is not yet found for the three group of countries, and further research is required in this aspect. This leads to the conclusion that the FDI impact on foreign trade of the host country depends on the type of investment and absorptive capacity of the receiver, the economic development of host and home countries, and not every type of FDI leads to more trade.

Intensive animal production systems are compromising current animal welfare standards. European societies' growing concerns regarding how animals are raised have resulted in continuous European Union (EU) policy reforms that have banned certain intensive farming methods. We investigated whether EU respondents, differentiated by their roles as citizens and consumers, believe that the current regulations on animal welfare should be more restrictive. Data were collected using a survey approach implemented in eight European countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and Sweden) with a sample of 3860 respondents. The results show that women citizens are more concerned with animal welfare and are prone to accept more restrictive regulations. Respondents from northern European countries (Poland and Sweden) are willing to accept regulations that are more restrictive than the current minimum standards than respondents from southern countries (Spain and Italy). Our results suggest that increasing knowledge of animal welfare is related to effective information campaigns that use the Internet to endorse the current animal welfare legislation. ; Postprint (published version)

This aim of this work is to study the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade. FDI is a driving force for economic growth for host countries. The positive effects of FDI are seen in many aspects of the economy. However, the implications of FDI on foreign trade are questionable. Therefore, this study uses a Granger causality technique to test whether the relationship between FDI and foreign trade is complementary or substitutive. The findings of this study indicate that this relationship appears to be complementary, and FDI investment does cause an increase in trade flow in the countries that are taken into consideration. This research aims to make a comparison between the relations of FDI flows of three groups of countries from the European Union (EU)-Romania and Bulgaria, the Visegrád Group and the Euro area-for the period of 2005 to 2019. However, the results indicate that this link between the variables is not yet found for the three group of countries, and further research is required in this aspect. This leads to the conclusion that the FDI impact on foreign trade of the host country depends on the type of investment and absorptive capacity of the receiver, the economic development of host and home countries, and not every type of FDI leads to more trade.

Intensive animal production systems are compromising current animal welfare standards. European societies' growing concerns regarding how animals are raised have resulted in continuous European Union (EU) policy reforms that have banned certain intensive farming methods. We investigated whether EU respondents, differentiated by their roles as citizens and consumers, believe that the current regulations on animal welfare should be more restrictive. Data were collected using a survey approach implemented in eight European countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and Sweden) with a sample of 3860 respondents with approximately 240 respondents organized by group and country. The results show that women citizens are more concerned with animal welfare and are prone to accept more restrictive regulations. Respondents from Northern European countries (Poland and Sweden) are willing to accept regulations that are more restrictive than the current minimum standards than respondents from southern countries (Spain and Italy). Our results suggest that increasing knowledge of animal welfare is related to effective information campaigns that use the Internet to endorse the current animal welfare legislation. ; Postprint (updated version)

One of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic is the relationship between social distancing measures and increased use of the Internet, electronic services, and digital devices. How does digital inequality in the context of social distancing affect the COVID-19 pandemic? In this article, we assessed the impact of existing digital inequality as the cause of the changing number of cases of COVID-19 in the EU. We assessed the relationship between the increase in COVID-19 cases between the first and second waves in 2020 and the presence of digital inequality in Internet use and digital skills across sociodemographic factors: gender, age, education, generation, marital status, and place of residence. We applied the ordinary least squares method to data from the 2019 Eurobarometer survey, which reveals the digital maturity of EU citizens, and from the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control in 2020, which tracks COVID-19 cases. We found that the strongest relationship between the number of COVID-19 cases and digital inequality is related to Internet use rather than digital skills. The digital divide by age, between generations, and the geographic digital divide in Internet use show a strong positive relationship with the changing incidence of COVID-19 cases. The gender digital gap shows a negative relationship for both Internet use and digital skills, indicating the social role of women in households in the pandemic, caring for children and the elderly. A negative relation was also found in digital inequality by marital status for digital skills, which reflects preferences regarding living alone during the pandemic. These findings prove the importance of universal access to the Internet for older people and those living in rural areas. The results can contribute to policies aimed at reducing digital inequalities in the face of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Increasingly, intensive livestock production systems have increased societal concern regarding the current animal welfare standards. We investigated whether individuals in their roles as consumers and citizens believe that the current European regulations regarding animal welfare should be more restrictive. Factors affecting this decision were assessed by analyzing respondents&rsquo ; understanding of animal welfare-related issues, their subjective and objective knowledge levels, the credibility they assign to different information sources, their perceptions toward the current restrictiveness of animal welfare standards, and their socioeconomic characteristics. Data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire distributed in eight European Union (EU) countries (Spain, the United Kingdom, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, Italy, and Sweden) with 3860 total responses. The results showed that consumers are more reluctant to adopt more restrictive regulations than respondents in the role of citizens. Respondents from northern European countries (Poland and Sweden) are more likely to support regulations that are more restrictive than the current minimum requirements than respondents from southern countries (Spain and Italy). Women were found to be more concerned with the welfare of pigs and laying hens&mdash ; lending credibility to the Internet as an information source&mdash ; and were more likely to support more restrictive animal welfare legislation.