It is widely recognized that achieving highly productive employment is a serious challenge facing inclusive and sustainable development. In this context, the aim of this article was to highlight the main characteristics and mechanisms of productive employment, focusing on the interrelationships between productive employment, and inclusive and sustainable development in European Union countries, during the recent economic crisis and recovery period (2007&ndash ; 2016). The results of the correlation and regression analysis suggest that the high level of inclusive and sustainable development in some European Union countries can be mainly explained by high labor productivity, an efficient sectoral structure of employment, a low level of vulnerable and precarious employment, and low working poverty. Moreover, the results of the principal component analysis and cluster analysis show that there are common features and differences between the European Union member states in terms of their interrelationship between productive employment, and inclusive and sustainable development, which emphasizes the need to take specific actions to transform unproductive employment into productive employment, especially in southern countries and some central and eastern European countries, so that productive employment will be the driving force for development.
The phenomena of democratic backsliding in enlarged European Union countries of central, eastern, and southeastern Europe tend to be lumped together. These paradigms fail to capture differences across countries and time, and the differences in backsliding among the subcomponents of liberal democracy. This study analyzes this issue from several indicators provided by V-Dem for 18 countries. The results indicate that democratic backsliding has been occurring in Poland, Hungary, Serbia, and Turkey, while not as much in other countries. What has been observed in these four countries is that the violation of the liberal component of democracy, the weakening of judicial control and restrictions on freedom of expression, comesbeforethe violation of the cleanliness of democracy and the full breakdown of democracy. Through a comparative weighing of multiple indicators, this study clarifies the nuanced reality of democratic regression in the region.
Türkiye'de laiklik, cumhuriyetin değişmez bir niteliği ve özel öneme sahip bir ilkesidir, ancak Avrupa Birliği ülkelerinden farklı bir uygulamaya sahiptir. Türkiye'nin AB'ne üyelik sürecinde laikliğin nasıl etkileneceği ve Türkiye'de uygulanma biçimiyle laikliğin bu süreçte ne gibi tartışma ve açılımlara yol açacağı araştırılması gereken önemli konulardan biridir. Bu çalışmada Avrupa Birliği ülkelerinde uygulanan laiklikle Türkiye'de uygulanan laikliğin karşılıklı analizi yapılmaya çalışılmıştır. ; Secularism in Turkey is a permanent characteristic of the republic and a principle of special importance, while there is different understanding and implementation of secularism in the European Union countries. Therefore, the questions of how the understanding of secularism, as it is implemented in Turkey will be affected by Turkey's integration process to the EU and what kind of debates might take place as a result should be addressed. This study makes a comparative analysis of the implementation of secularism in Turkey and in the European Union.
The paper presents the analysis of the convergence of household final consumption expenditures on food in the European Union countries in the period of 1999–2015, considering spatial and spatio‑temporal tendencies and dependencies. The aim of this research is to verify whether space significantly influences the convergence of the considered process. The subject of the investigation is the share of household final consumption expenditures on food in total final consumption expenditures of European countries. Spatial and spatio‑temporal tendencies and dependencies are surveyed using the conception of spatial and spatio‑temporal trends and spatial autocorrelation. The convergence of the process is investigated with the use of β‑convergence models for panel data (also in the spatial terms). Absolute and conditional convergence approaches are applied. For the conditional approach, the models are expanded to incorporate the influence of additional determinants, including space, disposable income and the level of food prices.
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 better insight into the building control systems in the European Union. This paper presents a comparison of the tasks and responsibilities of public and private parties in the building control systems of the 27 European Union countries. To gather 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 that contain all the countries. The themes are as follows: regulatory framework, application, plan approval, site inspection, completion and supervision. The main conclusion is that the building control systems of EU countries have many similarities. Public parties set the regulatory framework, check planning demands, issue building permits, conduct final inspections, grant completion certificates and supervise the system. The main difference concerns the involvement of private parties in checking technical requirements and in site inspections. Three basic types of building control systems were identified: public building control, mixed building control and dual building control. The majority of the countries have mixed systems. Although several variations were found among the mixed systems, the most common situation is for public parties to check the technical requirements and private parties to be involved in site inspections. Additional uniformity among building control systems would help to support a single market for services in the construction industry, in which architects, developers and builders are no longer limited to working within national markets. ; 14 quad. ; 17 p. ; DED/NAU ; 2009 ; 10 and 11 September
ÖZETBu tezin temel amacı Lizbon Strateji'sinin Eğitim ve Öğretim hedefleri doğrultusunda Avrupa Ülkeleri'nin ve Türkiye'nin performanslarını ve ilerlemelerini analiz etmektir. Eğitimin sosyal ve ekonomik faydalarının yanında ekonomik büyümedeki rolü de incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Araştırma, aşağıdaki sorulara cevap aramıştır: (1) Eğitimin rapor edilmiş sosyal ve ekonomik faydaları nelerdir?, (2) Eğitim ile ekonomik büyüme arasında kanıtlanmış bir ilişki var mıdır?, (3) (a) Lizbon Stratejisi nedir, (b) Stratejinin başlıca amaçları ve bölümleri nelerdir, (c) Nasıl bir gidişata sahiptir?, (4) (a) Lizbon Strateji'sinin eğitim ve öğretim hedefleri nelerdir, (b)Bu hedefler doğrultusunda ülkelerin gelişmelerini takip etmek ve ülkeler arası karşılaştırma yapmak için gereken kriter ve göstergeler nelerdir?, ve (5) Lizbon Eğitim-Öğretim kriter ve göstergeleri doğrultusunda, ülkelerin karşılaştırmalı performans ve gelişimi nasıldır? Bu tez dokuman analizine dayanmaktadır. Avrupa Birliği, OECD ve UNESCO'nun veri, araştırma ve yayınları tezin ana dokümanlarını oluşturmaktadır. Bu kronolojik doküman analizi; yeni büyüme teorilerinin, insan sermayesinin en önemli boyutu olan eğitimi, ekonomik büyümenin motoru olarak tanımlanmadığını göstermiştir. Bununla beraber, eğitimin faydalarını ölçmeye dayanan yeni çalışmalar, eğitimin önemini çok daha açık olarak göstermektedir. Buna göre ileri eğitimin; gelir artışı, verimlilik artışı ve yüksek özel ve kamu geri dönüşleri gibi ekonomik faydalarının yanında daha iyi kişi ve kamu sağlığı, daha gelişmiş demokratikleşme, daha fazla politik istikrar, daha gelişmiş çevre kalitesi, daha az doğurganlık ve suç oranları , açlık ve eşitsizlikte azalma gibi sosyal faydaları da vardır.Avrupa Birliği 2000 yılında, günümüz bilgi çağının engellerini aşmak için "Lizbon Stratejisi" adı verilen 10 yıllık bir stratejik plan ortaya koymuştur ve "Eğitim ve Öğretim" ayağı bu stratejinin gelişmesinde ve başarılı olmasında hayati bir öneme sahiptir. Tezin son bölümünde, Avrupa Konseyi tarafından sürece rehberlik etmek ve süreci izlemek amacıyla oluşturulmuş eğitim alanındaki beş kıstas ve on altı gösterge kullanılarak uluslararası bir karşılaştırma yapılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçları, eğitimde ülkeler arasında önemli farklılıklar olduğunu göstermiştir. İskandinav ülkeleri en iyi performansa sahip olurken; birliğe yeni katılan ülkelerin, AB ortalamalarıyla karşılaştırıldığında önemli eksiklikleri olduğu görülmektedir. Hemen hemen tüm eğitim göstergelerinde, Romanya ve Bulgaristan ile beraber Türkiye'nin performansı Avrupa ve OECD ülkeleri arasında en alt sıralardadır.ABSTRACTThe main aim of this thesis is to analyze the performance and progress of European Union Countries and Turkey towards the Education and Training Objectives within the context of Lisbon Strategy. It also attempts to explore the social and economic benefits of education as well as the role of education in economic growth. Following research questions are intended to be answered: (1)What are the reported social and economic benefits of the education?, (2) Is there any documented relationship between education and economic growth?, (3)(a)What is the Lisbon Strategy, (b)What are its main objectives and pillars, (c)How does it progress?, (4) (a)What are the Education&Training Objectives of the Lisbon Strategy, (b)What are the benchmarks and indicators that are required in order to analyze the progress and make a comparison between countries towards these goals?, and (5) What are the compared results of countries' performance and progress according to Lisbon Education and Training benchmarks and indicators?" This study is based on chronological document analysis. These documents mainly consist of data, surveys and publications of EU, OECD, and UNESCO. The document review indicated that new growth theories define the education, which is the main dimension of human capital, as an engine of the economic growth. Recent studies which measure the benefits of education demonstrated the importance of education more obviously. Accordingly, further education has economic benefits such as increase in earnings, productivity and high private and public returns as well as social benefits such as better private and public health, enhanced democratization, greater political stability, improved environment quality, the reduce of poverty and inequality, lower fertility rates, and lower crime rates .European Union set a ten-year year strategic goal -The Lisbon Strategy- in 2000 to overcome the challenges of today's information era. "Education and Training" objectives have been essential for the development and success of this process. In the last section of this thesis, an international comparison was made by using the five benchmarks and sixteen indicators of education, that are set by European Council in order to guide and monitor the progress towards these objectives. The results demonstrated that there are significant variations among countries in the field of education. Nordic countries perform the best, while EU's newcomers show significant shortfalls compared to EU averages. The performance of Turkey together with that of Romania and Bulgaria are in the lowest levels among European and OECD Countries according to almost all education and training indicators.
The concept of avoidable mortality is intended to assessing health care system performance. It is defined as premature deaths from selected disease groups that are considered either treatable through the timely and effective health care (amenable mortality), or preventable by public health interventions (preventable mortality). The purpose of study is to analyse the impact of four lists of causes of death created by researchers on amenable mortality by country, sex and cause of death. Data on deaths were obtained from the WHO database for 20 European Union countries in 2014. We applied the method of direct standardisation using the European Standard Population, Spearman rank‐order correlation with statistical significance tests and confidence intervals. We found that the selection of diseases considered as amenable has not significantly impact on the cross‐country comparison, but the weight of selected list of causes of death is significant at the national level. The concept has several limitations relating to selection of diseases and setting age threshold over time, availability of health care resources, prevalence of diseases or variation of causes of death coding among countries. However, indicator of avoidable mortality offers a way of the evaluating effectiveness of health systems in maintaining and improving population health.
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to compare the tasks and responsibilities of public and private parties in the building control systems of the 27 European Union (EU) countries. Design/methodology/approach – To gather the necessary information, a questionnaire on building regulatory systems was distributed to experts in each country, and the major legal documents in each jurisdiction were reviewed. The information was organized into thematic tables that describe all the countries studied. The themes within the tables are: regulatory framework, application, plan approval, site inspection, completion, and supervision. Findings – The paper finds that there aremany similarities between the building control systems of the various EU countries. Public parties in all countries set the regulatory framework, check planning applications, issue building permits, conduct final inspections, grant completion certificates, and supervise the operation of the system. The main difference between them concerns the nature of the involvement of private parties in checking technical requirements, and in site inspections. Three basic types of building control systems are identified: public, mixed, and dual. The majority of the countries have mixed systems. Although several variations are found among the mixed systems, the most common situation is for public parties to check the technical requirements and private parties to be involved in site inspections. Originality/value – The analysis provides a global picture of the building control systems of all EU countries. The results can be useful for situating the systems of each country within the European panorama, assessing the main trends and developments and guiding strategic choices on possible improvements in each country. ; 14 tabelas ; p. 45-59 (20) ; Vol. 2. No. 1 ; DED/NAU
Tourism is a major economic activity in the world. However, while tourism has a noticeable positive impact on economic development, it also contributes to environmental degradation by increasing energy consumption and therefore emissions. This paper analyzes the relationships between Hotel and Restaurant electricity consumption and tourism growth in 11 European Union countries for the period 2005–2012, for which there is sufficient data availability. Panel data techniques are used to test an electricity consumption function for this sector, which depends on tourism, its squared value, energy price, income and a climate variable. The results show that the Energy–Tourism Kuznets Curve hypothesis is not supported. Instead, an increasing relationship is observed between the Hotel and Restaurant sector electricity consumption and overnight stays. Results also show the effects of income and low temperatures in increasing electricity consumption, while prices have no effects. Energy efficiency measures and the adoption of renewable energy systems are recommended, with further investments therefore being necessary.
The estimation of sovereign risk indicators has a key role for the investment decisions. We were witnesses of inaccurate ratings before the last economic crisis, which altered significantly the results expected by many investors. Thus, we propose an improved rating estimation justifying the insertion of new variables, specifically, the shadow economy as a percentage of the GDP. We find that by taking it into account, the credit rating estimation improves. Our estimation assigns a higher sovereign risk to the new European Union member states, whereas the old European Union member states see their sovereign risk decreased.
The estimation of sovereign risk indicators has a key role for the investment decisions. We were witnesses of inaccurate ratings before the last economic crisis, which altered significantly the results expected by many investors. Thus, we propose an improved rating estimation justifying the insertion of new variables, specifically, the shadow economy as a percentage of the GDP. We find that by taking it into account, the credit rating estimation improves. Our estimation assigns a higher sovereign risk to the new European Union member states, whereas the old European Union member states see their sovereign risk decreased.
This paper assesses the convergence process in the health care expenditure for selected European Union (EU) countries over the past 50 years. As a novel contribution, we use bound unit root tests and, for robustness purposes, a series of tests for strict stationarity to provide new insights about the convergence process. We make a comparison between public and private health expenditure per capita and as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), with a focus on six EU countries with different health care systems in place. When we consider the health expenditure per capita, we report mixed findings. We show that the spread from the group average is stationary in the cases of Finland and Portugal when the overall and public expenditure is considered. In terms of private expenditure, the convergence process is noticed only for Austria. For all other countries included in our sample, we document a non-stationary process, indicating a lack of convergence. This result is robust to the different tests we use. However, when we assess the convergence in terms of the health-expenditure-to-GDP ratio, the convergence process is recorded for Austria only. The robustness check we performed using strict stationarity tests partially confirmed the mixed results we obtained. Therefore, our findings highlight the heterogeneity of the EU health care systems and the need for identification of common solutions to the EU health care systems' problems in order to enhance their convergence processes.
This paper has examined the relationships between insurance and economic growth across the European Union countries which belong to the European Insurance Federation. Using annual data over the period of 2004–2015, the authors have done this by applying descriptive statistics analysis and econometric methods as well. This research has contributed to understanding the importance of the insurance–growth nexus and combined different approaches prevailing in the recent scientific literature. The research has led to the following broad conclusions: (1) descriptive statistics analysis has shown that the insurance sector development is higher in economically rich countries, such as the UK, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, France and The Netherlands; (2) a positive statistically significant relationship between insurance penetration and economic growth has been detected in Luxembourg, Denmark, The Netherlands and Finland. Besides, a negative statistically significant relationship has been identified in Austria, Belgium, Malta, Estonia and Slovakia; (3) Granger test has shown unidirectional causality running from GDP to insurance in Luxembourg and Finland; and unidirectional causality from insurance to GDP in The Netherlands, Malta and Estonia. The case of Austria has shown bidirectional causality between the variables. The analysis has presented the absence of causality between insurance and economic growth in Slovakia.
This paper has examined the relationships between insurance and economic growth across the European Union countries which belong to the European Insurance Federation. Using annual data over the period of 2004–2015, the authors have done this by applying descriptive statistics analysis and econometric methods as well. This research has contributed to understanding the importance of the insurance–growth nexus and combined different approaches prevailing in the recent scientific literature. The research has led to the following broad conclusions: (1) descriptive statistics analysis has shown that the insurance sector development is higher in economically rich countries, such as the UK, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, France and The Netherlands; (2) a positive statistically significant relationship between insurance penetration and economic growth has been detected in Luxembourg, Denmark, The Netherlands and Finland. Besides, a negative statistically significant relationship has been identified in Austria, Belgium, Malta, Estonia and Slovakia; (3) Granger test has shown unidirectional causality running from GDP to insurance in Luxembourg and Finland; and unidirectional causality from insurance to GDP in The Netherlands, Malta and Estonia. The case of Austria has shown bidirectional causality between the variables. The analysis has presented the absence of causality between insurance and economic growth in Slovakia.
