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This paper reassesses the long-debated relationship between the financial system development and economic growth. We use not only indicators for financial access, efficiency, stability and depth of the bank-oriented financial sector, but we also consider Eurozone membership, corruption perception and competitiveness of countries to examine the determinants of economic growth. We apply a panel data approach to 27 European countries over the 2004–2017 period. By splitting the time span, we examine whether the effect of financial system development, Eurozone membership, corruption perception and competitiveness on economic growth is affected by the occurrence of financial and debt crises. Our results indicate that loans to private sector do not always support economic growth. Our research also reveals that corruption perception has a negative impact on economic growth, and so does membership in Eurozone during a crisis.

The water and wastewater services, usually provided in a monopoly regime, do not offer the operators natural incentives toward efficiency and innovation. Therefore the main aim of the regulatory institutions is to stimulate a competitive environment. The contribution measures technical efficiency of 21 water and waste water companies in the Czech Repulic. For the period 2018–2020, the two-stage slacked-based model (SBM) by Kaoru Tone and Miki Tsutsui (2009) was applied. The results of this study are heterogeneous. Only one company out of 21 can be identified as an overall technically efficient unit during all three analyzed years. It is Vodohospodárská společnost Olomouc (VSO) followed by Pražské vodovody a kanalizace (PVK) that is very close to full technical efficiency. Our results therefore reveal a strong potential for the decrease of ineficiency of the water sector in the Czech Republic. Another important outcome is the fact that regulation of the water industry in the Czech Republic is highly fragmented.