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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.

The paper analyzes the problematic issues of improvement of legal support and stimulation of scientific, technical and innovative activity in the Russian Federation on the basis of positive experience of the USA, Canada, Japan and countries of the European Union.

AbstractThe literature on fiscal policies is paying increasing attention to the impact of the composition of public expenditures on long‐term economic growth. Public policy endogenous growth models recommend to change the composition of public expenditures to items considered productive expenditures. In this sense, European institutions are encouraging the rise in the share of productive outlays like public investments, R&D, and active labor market policies, among others. The article analyzes whether these recommendations are followed by European Union countries and whether a convergence to a new pattern of public finances with a higher share of those items considered productive expenditures by European institutions is arising.

Innovation and unemployment are two economic elements related to each other that have been constantly analyzed in the economic debates from the beginning of the 21st century. A classical question is whether innovation creates or destroys jobs. The conventional approach contemplates innovation as a transformation instrument of an economy, resulting in economic growth and jobs creation. Another approach points out to various mechanisms which can compensate the primary effect of innovations and cause an ultimate effect of innovations on labour demand to be unclear. In view of the fact that there are many different explanations about the impact of innovations on labour demand, this paper, after the analysis of theoretical and empirical scientific literature in this field, provides an empirical analysis with unemployment as the dependent variable. The authors use data from 28 European Union countries for the period of 1992–2016 and pursue to research how technological innovations affect unemployment rate. There are two core independent variables – expenditure on R&D (research and development) and number of patent applications – as the main proxies for technological innovations. Control variables that affect unemployment are included to the model as well. The model was estimated using a dynamic two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) of a panel data system. After the composition of 12 different estimations of the model, the results suggest that, in some cases, technological innovations affect unemployment ; Ekonomikos katedra ; Vytauto Didžiojo universitetas

Innovation and unemployment are two economic elements related to each other that have been constantly analyzed in the economic debates from the beginning of the 21st century. A classical question is whether innovation creates or destroys jobs. The conventional approach contemplates innovation as a transformation instrument of an economy, resulting in economic growth and jobs creation. Another approach points out to various mechanisms which can compensate the primary effect of innovations and cause an ultimate effect of innovations on labour demand to be unclear. In view of the fact that there are many different explanations about the impact of innovations on labour demand, this paper, after the analysis of theoretical and empirical scientific literature in this field, provides an empirical analysis with unemployment as the dependent variable. The authors use data from 28 European Union countries for the period of 1992–2016 and pursue to research how technological innovations affect unemployment rate. There are two core independent variables – expenditure on R&D (research and development) and number of patent applications – as the main proxies for technological innovations. Control variables that affect unemployment are included to the model as well. The model was estimated using a dynamic two-step System Generalized Method of Moments (GMM-SYS) of a panel data system. After the composition of 12 different estimations of the model, the results suggest that, in some cases, technological innovations affect unemployment.

This paper deals with the issue of demographic aging of the European Union. Its aim is to describe the process of demographic aging, and to evaluate the demographic situation of the European Union at the turn of the third millennium. Today, demographic aging is considered one of the most important challenges of many developed economies. Its range and speed are particularly dependent on the development of average life expectancy, the level of fertility and migration process. The demographic changes rank among the most important future challenges of the European Union as a whole and its member states. Demographic aging impacts the society and its economics, infrastructure and government. Hence, the great scope strategies in the fields of economics, spatial planning, education, transportation, accommodation, and social inclusion having to take into account all the factors provoked by an aging population. It is appropriate to remember that the increasing share of the older population leads an increase in both their contributions to society and their needs from society or consumers' and citizens' requirements and expectations. ; Tento příspěvek pojednává o problematice demografického stárnutí v prostředí Evropské unie. Jeho cílem je popis problematiky demografického stárnutí a následné zhodnocení demografické situace v zemích Evropské unie na přelomu druhého a třetího tisíciletí. Demografické stárnutí patří k významným problémům mnoha vyspělých států současného světa, jeho rozsah a tempo je závislé zejména na vývoji střední délky života, úrovni porodnosti a migraci. Demografické změny jsou považovány za jeden z největších budoucích problémů Evropské unie jako celku i jejích jednotlivých zemí. Demografické stárnutí má neoddiskutovatelný dopad na společnost, její ekonomiku, infrastrukturu i správu. Pro úspěšný rozvoj společnosti je nutností zohlednit faktory vyvolané stárnutím populace a začlenit jejich řešení do širokého spektra strategií v oblastech jako jsou hospodářství, územní plánování, vzdělávání, doprava, bydlení a sociální začlenění. Je vhodné pamatovat na skutečnost, že se zvyšujícím se podílem zastoupení v populaci roste důležitost starších lidí a jejich přínosů ve prospěch společnosti, ale také jejich požadavků jako spotřebitelů a očekávání jako občanů.

In the last two decades, feed-in tariffs (FIT) and renewable portfolio standards (RPS) have emerged as two of the most popular policies for supporting renewable electricity (RES-E) generation in the developed world. A few studies have assessed their effectiveness, but most do not account for policy design features and market characteristics that influence policy strength. In this paper, we employ 1992-2008 panel data to conduct the first analysis of the effectiveness of FIT policies in promoting solar photovoltaic (PV) and onshore wind power development in 26 European Union countries. We develop a new indicator for FIT strength that captures variability in tariff size, contract duration, digression rate, electricity price, and electricity generation cost to estimate the resulting return on investment. We then regress this indicator on added RES-E capacity using a fixed effects specification. We find that FIT policies have driven solar PV and onshore wind capacity development in the EU. However, this effect is overstated without controls for country characteristics and may be concealed without accounting for the unique design of each policy. We provide empirical evidence that the interaction of policy design and market dynamics are more important determinants of RES-E development than policy enactment alone.

For many countries the Industrial Revolution was an opportunity for a dynamic economic development, but it was accompanied by deep social changes. Inequalities between regions have deepened, pollution has increased and also conjunctural fluctuations have intensified. In contemporary view at the social welfare there is a tendency to abandon identifying it with the level of income. Also, the research on the causes of socio-economic success is developing. One of the aspects of the research, which the article refers to, is the role of the institutions (within the meaning of institutional economics) in the socio-economic development. The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between indicators of institutional environment and indices related to socio-economic development. For the analysis of the institutional environment the indices published by the World Bank under the name of Worldwide Governance Indicators were used. The analysis of socio-economic level of the countries is based on Sustainable Society Index and its components, which include a wide range of factors related to well-being. The analysis was conducted in two stages. The first stage is a general study of the correlation between WGI and SSI for 151 countries from different continents. The second stage includes a more detailed analysis conducted for the European Union, using the cluster method and the analysis of the level of indicators in groups of countries. The study is based on the data from 2010.

For many countries the Industrial Revolution was an opportunity for a dynamic economic development, but it was accompanied by deep social changes. Inequalities between regions have deepened, pollution has increased and also conjunctural fluctuations have intensified. In contemporary view at the social welfare there is a tendency to abandon identifying it with the level of income. Also, the research on the causes of socio-economic success is developing. One of the aspects of the research, which the article refers to, is the role of the institutions (within the meaning of institutional economics) in the socio-economic development. The aim of the paper is to examine the relationship between indicators of institutional environment and indices related to socio-economic development. For the analysis of the institutional environment the indices published by the World Bank under the name of Worldwide Governance Indicators were used. The analysis of socio-economic level of the countries is based on Sustainable Society Index and its components, which include a wide range of factors related to well-being. The analysis was conducted in two stages. The first stage is a general study of the correlation between WGI and SSI for 151 countries from different continents. The second stage includes a more detailed analysis conducted for the European Union, using the cluster method and the analysis of the level of indicators in groups of countries. The study is based on the data from 2010.

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

In this paper, we studied the relationship between female labour force participation and economic development in the 28 countries of the European Union during the period 1990&ndash ; 2016. The analysis was carried out from two different viewpoints: first, we studied all the countries of the EU-28, and second, the evidence was disaggregated into two groups of countries: old (EU-15) and new (EU-13) member estates. The data used came from the World Bank open data repository and Eurostat. The methodology used consisted of the estimation of static (Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Fixed Effects (FE)) and dynamic (generalized moments model&mdash ; GMM) models. Results for all European countries (EU-28) were consistent with the hypothesis which suggests the existence of a U-shaped relationship between female labour force participation and economic development. When the sample was broken down into groups, we found evidence that confirms the feminization hypothesis for the new countries of the EU, but not for the old ones.

BACKGROUND: UNAIDS has set a 90-90-90 target to curb the HIV epidemic by 2020, but methods used to assess whether countries have reached this target are not standardised, hindering comparisons. METHODS: Through a collaboration formed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) with European HIV cohorts and surveillance agencies, we constructed a standardised, four-stage continuum of HIV care for 11 European Union (EU) countries for 2013. Stages were defined as: 1) number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in the country by end of 2013; 2) proportion of stage 1 ever diagnosed; 3) proportion of stage 2 ever initiated ART; and 4) proportion of stage 3 who became virally-suppressed (≤200 copies/mL). Case surveillance data were used primarily to derive stages 1 (using back-calculation models) and 2, and cohort data for stages 3 and 4. RESULTS: In 2013, 674,500 people in the 11 countries were estimated to be living with HIV, ranging from 5,500 to 153,400 in each country. Overall HIV prevalence was 0.22% (range 0.09%-0.36%). Overall proportions, of each previous stage, were 84% diagnosed, 84% on ART, and 85% virally-suppressed (60% of PLHIV). Two countries achieved ≥90% for all stages, and over half had reached ≥90% for at least one stage. CONCLUSIONS: EU countries are nearing the 90-90-90 target. Reducing the proportion undiagnosed remains the greatest barrier to achieving this target, suggesting further efforts are needed to improve HIV testing rates. Standardising methods to derive comparable continuums of care remains a challenge.

Abstract
Territorial cohesion and improved accessibility are among the main objectives of the European Union (EU) Cohesion policy. Although there is a wealth of literature on the impact of investment in transport infrastructure on overall accessibility levels, only a few studies have tried to evaluate the possible link between transport infrastructure investment (TII) and economic growth in the EU. Our research aims to evaluate the impact of TII on economic growth in the EU. The methodology is based on nonlinear neoclassical specification, which includes a multiplicative term to evaluate if the absence of corruption mediates the effect of TII on growth. Our unbalanced panel data covers 27 EU countries (Cyprus is excluded due to missing data and the United Kingdom is a part of the sample) from 2000 through 2019. Our research confirms a positive and statistically significant impact of TII on economic growth but with a diminishing return. Estimating the absence of corruption as a possible moderator of the effect that TII has on growth shows that control of corruption plays a significant role in the TII growth nexus. We find that in countries with a low level of control of corruption, TII has a statistically significant negative effect on growth.

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.