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The relationship between export and economic growth is still a topic of discussion by researchers. Some studies have confirmed that export leads to economic growth, while others see economic growth leads to export. Many countries are still in a dilemma of whether to open up their economies to promote export or whether they should concentrate on economic activities, which will promote export. This paper has aimed to examine export – growth nexus in the European Union (EU) countries during the period of 1995 – 2015. Descriptive statistics analysis and econometric methods have been applied for this purpose. On the basis of correlation analysis, twenty-two countries have had significant relationships between export and economic growth. Granger causality test has been applied to detect the direction of causality. The research has found unidirectional causality running from export to GDP in Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Sweden. In contrast, unidirectional effects from GDP to export have been detected in eleven the EU countries, such as Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Romania and Slovenia. Moreover, the research also has noticed bidirectional causality in Denmark. That is, GDP causes export and vice versa. Finally, in six countries, such as Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and Malta Granger causality has not been found. It means that export does not cause economic growth and vice versa. The presence of a causal link between export and economic growth has implications of great importance on development strategies for the EU countries.

The electricity production sector has a significant share of final energy consumption and has a huge potential to use more renewable energy sources. Over the last two decades, the European Union (EU) reform of electricity markets has had positive results, and market liberalization acts as a stimulus for energy efficiency, lower prices, and technological progress. Today's EU policy for the development of electricity and the entire energy sector seeks to provide system modernization, stability, reinforcement of the single market, and implementation of climate change policy with an emphasis on the decarbonization of energy sources and the increase of energy efficiency. After all of the EU efforts to form an electricity sector in member states, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of the policy implemented and to identify the results achieved in shaping a sustainable electricity sector. The purpose of this article is to carry out a sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in the EU countries. A set of eight indicators designed to assess the sustainability of the electricity sector of different EU countries in 2017 has been drawn up. The assessment is made using the multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) Technique for Order Preference (TOPSIS). The assessment shows that the electricity market of Slovenia is the most sustainable, with Luxembourg in the second position in the EU.

The electricity production sector has a significant share of final energy consumption and has a huge potential to use more renewable energy sources. Over the last two decades, the European Union (EU) reform of electricity markets has had positive results, and market liberalization acts as a stimulus for energy efficiency, lower prices, and technological progress. Today's EU policy for the development of electricity and the entire energy sector seeks to provide system modernization, stability, reinforcement of the single market, and implementation of climate change policy with an emphasis on the decarbonization of energy sources and the increase of energy efficiency. After all of the EU efforts to form an electricity sector in member states, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of the policy implemented and to identify the results achieved in shaping a sustainable electricity sector. The purpose of this article is to carry out a sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in the EU countries. A set of eight indicators designed to assess the sustainability of the electricity sector of different EU countries in 2017 has been drawn up. The assessment is made using the multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) Technique for Order Preference (TOPSIS). The assessment shows that the electricity market of Slovenia is the most sustainable, with Luxembourg in the second position in the EU.

The electricity production sector has a significant share of final energy consumption and has a huge potential to use more renewable energy sources. Over the last two decades, the European Union (EU) reform of electricity markets has had positive results, and market liberalization acts as a stimulus for energy efficiency, lower prices, and technological progress. Today's EU policy for the development of electricity and the entire energy sector seeks to provide system modernization, stability, reinforcement of the single market, and implementation of climate change policy with an emphasis on the decarbonization of energy sources and the increase of energy efficiency. After all of the EU efforts to form an electricity sector in member states, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of the policy implemented and to identify the results achieved in shaping a sustainable electricity sector. The purpose of this article is to carry out a sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in the EU countries. A set of eight indicators designed to assess the sustainability of the electricity sector of different EU countries in 2017 has been drawn up. The assessment is made using the multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) Technique for Order Preference (TOPSIS). The assessment shows that the electricity market of Slovenia is the most sustainable, with Luxembourg in the second position in the EU.

The electricity production sector has a significant share of final energy consumption and has a huge potential to use more renewable energy sources. Over the last two decades, the European Union (EU) reform of electricity markets has had positive results, and market liberalization acts as a stimulus for energy efficiency, lower prices, and technological progress. Today's EU policy for the development of electricity and the entire energy sector seeks to provide system modernization, stability, reinforcement of the single market, and implementation of climate change policy with an emphasis on the decarbonization of energy sources and the increase of energy efficiency. After all of the EU efforts to form an electricity sector in member states, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of the policy implemented and to identify the results achieved in shaping a sustainable electricity sector. The purpose of this article is to carry out a sustainability assessment of the electricity sector in the EU countries. A set of eight indicators designed to assess the sustainability of the electricity sector of different EU countries in 2017 has been drawn up. The assessment is made using the multi-criteria decision-making method (MCDM) Technique for Order Preference (TOPSIS). The assessment shows that the electricity market of Slovenia is the most sustainable, with Luxembourg in the second position in the EU.

The study aims to determine whether the unexplained gender wage gap varies in the different sectors of the economy and to identify the possible causes of these differences. Firstly, we estimate average treatment effect on the individual sectors to identify the unexplained part of gender pay gap. To identify the possible causes of observed variability in unexplained gender wage differences, we use a linear regression model. Using European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) data for 24 European Union (EU) members, we conclude that the unexplained gender pay gap in the individual sectors varies both within the individual EU countries and among the countries. The most important factors in explaining the differences in the gender pay gap among the individual sectors are ownership and the proportion of women in the sector. On the other hand, the proportion of female managers and the proportion of small companies are not statistically significant factors for the explanation of the variation in the sector-specific gender pay gaps. To the best of my knowledge, this study is the first to present fully comparable estimates of the unexplained sector-specific gender pay gap for the 24 EU countries and to identify the causes of the differences in the unexplained gender pay gap at the sectoral level.

The present research performs the GDP per capita convergence analyses of Western Balkan (WB) countries to European Union (EU) countries. There are few testing convergence methods based on theoretical insights on the neoclassical model, however pairwise convergence method doesn't seem usually applied in the case of WB and EU countries. The test of convergence hypothesis in this research is based on the GDP per capita's data, constant 2017 international $ in PPP terms, made available by the World Bank. The pairwise convergence test suggested here can be considered as an extension of Webber and While (2003, 2004, 2009) methodology. The outcomes have been compared to Bernard, Durlauf (1995) and Pesaran (2006) methodology of the pairwise convergence, by adapting ADF time series tests of the stationarity. In conclusion, despite to the controversy of one pair case, the comparative process of both methods seems to be aligned. However, further investigation needs to be performed to confirm the effectiveness and efficiency of this suggestion.
Keywords: GDP per capita, pairwise convergence, Western Ballkan countries, methodology

The study analyses the impact of country's governance factors on the financial behaviour and performance of financial intermediaries operating in European Union countries, by covering the period 2000–2017. Empirical evidence provided by the paper relies on a set of financial and political factors that has not been previously studied. Four indicators are jointly used as proxies for capturing the various dimensions of a country's good governance, while 21 financial indicators represent the alternative dependent variables meant to comprehensively depict the banking sector and capital market development. Each panel regression has been controlled for country's degree of economic development and its membership to OECD and euro-zone. The findings indicated that various dimensions of political factor caused different effects on financial sector features. Control of corruption, solid political and economic stability determine significant effects on most financial variables considered (almost two-thirds of the financial indicators considered). Even after controlling for the lagged effect of governance factors the main results hold, in that monitoring corruption, maintaining political stability and designing sound economic policies still have an impact on most financial indicators considered. Another interesting conclusion supported by the results is that not all political instability indicators are detrimental for banking and stock market functioning.

Economic growth can be influenced by positive and negative externalities. In this study is analysed the relationship between gender inequality in the labour market and economic growth, using the European Union countries with annual data for the time span from 2000 to 2012. This research enriches the current literature by using. In the econometric approach, the Autoregressive Distributed Lag model. Such methodology allows the appraising of short and long-run relationships separately. To measure the influence of the labour force of men and women in the economic growth, two regressions are performed, the first model analyses the height of Labour Force of men in the economy, the second model analyses the women. To analyse the gender inequality a third model is estimated, using the difference of the labour force and education of both genders confronted with economic growth. In short, the main findings indicate that gender gap constricts the economic growth. ; O crescimento económico pode ser influenciado por várias externalidades positivas e negativas. Neste estudo é analisada a relação entre a desigualdade de género no mercado de trabalho e crescimento económico, utilizando um conjunto de países da União Europeia, recorrendo ao uso de dados anuais para o período de 2000 a 2012. Esta pesquisa enriquece a literatura atual pela análise econométrica aplicada, o modelo ARDL (Autoregressive Distributed Lag). Esta metodologia permite a avaliação das relações de curto e longo prazo entre as variáveis. Para medir a influência da força de trabalho de homens e mulheres no crescimento económico, realizaram-se duas regressões, um primeiro modelo que analisa o peso da Força de trabalho dos homens na economia, o segundo por sua vez analisa as mulheres. Por último, é realizado um terceiro modelo que estuda a desigualdade de género no mercado de trabalho e na educação. Usando a diferença da força de trabalho entre homens e mulheres e os índices de paridade para as taxas de matricular escolar dos três níveis de educação, confrontando esses diferenciais com o crescimento económico. Em suma, com esta investigação concluímos que a disparidade de género restringe o crescimento económico.

Eco-efficiency refers to the ability to produce more goods and services with less impact on the environment and less consumption of natural resources. This issue has become a matter of concern that is receiving increasing attention from politicians, scientists and researchers. Furthermore, greenhouse gases emitted as a result of production processes have a marked impact on the environment and are also the foremost culprit of global warming and climate change. This paper assesses convergence in eco-efficiency in greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union. Eco-efficiency is assessed at both country and greenhouse-gas-specific levels using Data Envelopment Analysis techniques and directional distance functions, as recently proposed by Picazo-Tadeo et al. (Eur J Oper Res, 220:798–809, 2012). Convergence is then evaluated using the Phillips and Sul (Econometrica, 75:1771–1855, 2007) approach that allows testing for the existence of convergence groups. Although the results point to the existence of different convergence clubs depending on the specific pollutant considered, they signal the existence of at least four clear groups of countries. The first two groups are core European Union high-income countries (Benelux, Germany, Italy, Austria, the United Kingdom and Scandinavian countries). A third club is made up of peripheral countries (Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Greece) together with some Eastern countries (Latvia and Slovenia), while the remaining clubs consist of groups containing Eastern European countries.

Building regulations set minimum requirements for safe, healthy, energy-efficient and accessible buildings. To guarantee that these requirements are applied, a building control system is indispensable. The trend towards a common market for construction products and services justifies gaining a better insight into the building control systems in the European Union (EU). This paper presents a comparison of the building permit procedures adopted in the 27 EU countries. To collect the necessary information, a questionnaire on building regulatory systems was distributed to national experts in each country and the major legal documents were reviewed. The information was organized in thematic tables containing all the countries. The main conclusion is that the organization of a regular building permit procedure is similar in the EU countries. No major differences were found concerning the several steps it takes to get a building permit and to carry out a construction work: pre-consultation, possibility of phasing, submission demands, checks carried out and maximum procedure time for plan approval, possibility and moment to object to a building permit being issued, start of construction works, frequency and moment of site inspections, fees, and completion of construction works. The main differences concern detail aspects in several of these steps. There is one basic type of building permit procedure in countries from continental Europe. The United Kingdom countries are those presenting more deviations from the common pattern. These deviations aim to reduce the burden of administrative aspects, while ensuring good levels of compliance. In the last 10 to 15 years, the dominant trends identified in the building permit procedure were a decrease in the types of construction works submitted to building authorities' control during plan approval, and the reduction in the maximum building permit procedure times. Building authorities' control during the construction phase has remained unchanged. Altogether, there is a movement towards simpler and faster building permit procedures. For the near future, no major changes are expected in the building permit procedures. ; 15 tabelas ; 415-438 p, ; DED/NAU ; 2011 ; 12-13 september

Various researches show that venture capital supports higher-risk investments in young, potential start-ups by reducing existing financing gap for companies without performance history, reinforces dynamic entrepreneurial spirit by producing innovative and cutting-edge technology and products for knowledge-based economy, boosts economic strength by creation of jobs and revenues in venture-backed companies. Considering the total impact venture capital could make on the long-term economic growth, most of the EU countries have pointed the development of venture capital as one of the major priorities as venture capital. Insufficient market of investors for venture capital funds do not allow to reach significant level of venture capital investments in EU countries. The higher level of venture capital investments can be achieved by stimulating investments of institutional investors into venture capital funds. Investments of well capitalized pension funds to venture capital could be very important source of long-term financing, which might ensure sustainable and continuous venture capital growth. From other side, pension funds stimulation is important not only to venture capital funds creation and development, but also to overall social insurance and pension systems in European countries, because of negative demographic Europe tendencies like aging society with increasing life expectancy, declining birth rates. Private pension systems creation and development, which would allow to get higher individual pensions, as financial stability for retired people, become one of the major priorities of governments. In many EU countries, there are quite many various legal restrictions for pension funds investments and assets allocation, which reduce the potential higher financial return from invested assets. This raised question, are there any research for pension funds investments into venture capital funds, how pension funds investments are related to venture capital, why pension funds do not invest into venture capital, what kind of ...

Abstract

Background and Purpose: The main purpose of this study is to find the key drivers of Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) in the European Union (EU-28) countries from the aspect of country's global competitiveness: institutions, macroeconomic environment, infrastructure, higher education, market effectiveness, market size, technological readiness, innovation and business sophistication.

Methodology: This paper investigates global competitiveness of the EU-28 countries with the use of GCI in the periods 2014-2015 and 2017-2018. The correlation analysis and regression analysis are applied for testing the set two hypotheses.

Results: The empirical results confirmed our hypotheses that GCI is particularly significantly positively correlated with innovation and business sophistication, and universities-industry collaboration in researches, and clusters development.

Conclusion: The paper contributes to the literature of global competitiveness, by examining the relationship of sub-indexes of competitiveness of the EU-28 countries, pointing out the influence of universities-industries collaboration in researches and cluster development with geographic concentration of companies. The results and findings can be relevant for science, economic and research policy, and managerial practices that enhance innovation and business sophistication for research in collaboration of companies, universities, higher education institutions, and decision makers. The implications of this study can be important for better understanding of drivers of the EU-28 countries global competitiveness.

Over the decades Europe has become a destination for different groups of migrants, including mobile citizens from the European Union Member States. At the same time European citizens have become more mobile with a growing number of cross-border practices connecting them to places and people abroad through migration, travel, social networks or consumption practices. The main contribution of this study is in analysing to what extent processes of Europeanization, at an individual and country level, matter for sentiments towards immigration. Data suggest that social globalization processes may produce a sense of threat, but individual transnationalism seems to provide a remedy against prejudice.

Over the past 40 years, the service sector has become the dominant area of market economies. The public sector and services financed from public financing represent a specific group within the services sector. This paper aims to evaluate the efficiency of EU countries and find the extent to which the volume of public services (and the respective financial allocations) can have an impact on selected economic indicators. To this end, the efficiency of public expenditure in five areas of public services (general public services ; health ; education ; social protection ; and recreation, culture, and religion) in 2009 and 2016 was evaluated in relation to selected economic indicators (GDP per capita and employment in services). In addition, the efficiency of public expenditure in EU countries was evaluated in relation to the size of the public sector and traditions of public administration. For cross-country analyses within the 27 European countries, data envelopment analysis and the input-oriented variable returns to scale (VRS) model were applied. The results demonstrated that in 2009, 13 out of 27 countries were efficient as opposed to 2016, where only seven countries were efficient. In countries with bigger size of public sector, the efficiency of public expenditure on services was not established. However, there was a similarity in the efficiency of public expenditure on services between groups of EU countries regarding the tradition of public administration.