Suchergebnisse

This study examines the impact of government ideology on e-waste recycling in 30 European countries from 2008 to 2018. This study seeks to enhance the e-waste recycling literature by introducing a novel determinant, examining the unexplored relationship between government ideology and e-waste recycling rates in European countries, thus addressing a substantial research gap. Utilizing panel quantile regression on an unbalanced dataset, the findings revealed that the increased influence of right-wing parties in government was associated with lower e-waste recycling rates. Conversely, greater influence of left-wing or center-wing parties was correlated with higher recycling rates across all quantiles analyzed. The estimation results remain robust when different indicators of government ideology were employed. Overall, the study underscores the importance of political ideology in shaping e-waste recycling policies and environmental sustainability efforts. It emphasizes that effective policies should align with the political commitment of the governing body.

Economic development has resulted in structural transformation towards economies based on services, which has raised some concerns about the limited opportunities for sustaining productivity growth. The aim of this paper is to examine total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the service sector in comparison with total industries and the manufacturing sector, as well as within the service sector. The study is based on the data from the EU‑KLEMS database (2017), and it covers the years 1995–2015. It refers to EU countries, making it possible to carry out a comparative analysis between countries, in particular between the 'old' and 'new' member states. The study demonstrates that productivity growth in services was significantly lower than in manufacturing, but compared with total industries, the disparity was not significant. Productivity growth was usually higher in the 'new' EU countries than in the 'old' ones, except for information and communications services, which, on the whole, were the main driving force behind the productivity growth in services. ; Rozwój gospodarczy przyczynił się do transformacji strukturalnej w kierunku gospodarek usługowych, co zrodziło obawy związane z możliwościami utrzymania wzrostu produktywności. Celem niniejszej pracy jest zbadanie wzrostu łącznej produktywności czynników produkcji (TFP) w sektorze usług w porównaniu z gospodarką ogółem i sektorem przetwórczym, jak również wewnątrz sektora usług. Badanie przeprowadzono w oparciu o dane pochodzące z bazy EU‑KLEMS (2017) i obejmuje ono lata 1995–2015. Badaniem objęto kraje UE, co daje możliwość analizy porównawczej między krajami, a w szczególności między krajami 'starej' i 'nowej' UE. Z badania wynika, że wzrost produktywności w usługach był znaczenie niższy niż w przetwórstwie, ale w porównaniu z gospodarką ogółem różnica nie była już znacząca. Wyższy wzrost produktywności notowały kraje nowoprzyjęte do UE niż kraje starej UE, z wyjątkiem usług informatycznych i komunikacyjnych, które ogólnie były siłą napędową wzrostu produktywności w usługach.

Economic development has resulted in structural transformation towards economies based on services, which has raised some concerns about the limited opportunities for sustaining productivity growth. The aim of this paper is to examine total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the service sector in comparison with total industries and the manufacturing sector, as well as within the service sector. The study is based on the data from the EU‑KLEMS database (2017), and it covers the years 1995–2015. It refers to EU countries, making it possible to carry out a comparative analysis between countries, in particular between the 'old' and 'new' member states. The study demonstrates that productivity growth in services was significantly lower than in manufacturing, but compared with total industries, the disparity was not significant. Productivity growth was usually higher in the 'new' EU countries than in the 'old' ones, except for information and communications services, which, on the whole, were the main driving force behind the productivity growth in services. ; Rozwój gospodarczy przyczynił się do transformacji strukturalnej w kierunku gospodarek usługowych, co zrodziło obawy związane z możliwościami utrzymania wzrostu produktywności. Celem niniejszej pracy jest zbadanie wzrostu łącznej produktywności czynników produkcji (TFP) w sektorze usług w porównaniu z gospodarką ogółem i sektorem przetwórczym, jak również wewnątrz sektora usług. Badanie przeprowadzono w oparciu o dane pochodzące z bazy EU‑KLEMS (2017) i obejmuje ono lata 1995–2015. Badaniem objęto kraje UE, co daje możliwość analizy porównawczej między krajami, a w szczególności między krajami 'starej' i 'nowej' UE. Z badania wynika, że wzrost produktywności w usługach był znaczenie niższy niż w przetwórstwie, ale w porównaniu z gospodarką ogółem różnica nie była już znacząca. Wyższy wzrost produktywności notowały kraje nowoprzyjęte do UE niż kraje starej UE, z wyjątkiem usług informatycznych i komunikacyjnych, które ogólnie były siłą napędową wzrostu produktywności w usługach.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic exhausted healthcare systems around the world, including European Union countries, with healthcare workers at the frontline. Therefore, new health laws and policies have been introduced at the national level in order to offer greater legal protection for health workers. Since the introduction of COVID-19 vaccination, it has led to the development of specific laws to define the compulsoriness for particular categories. This review aimed to evaluate the system of medical liability, focusing on the ten countries of the European Union with the highest rate of vaccination coverage against SARS-CoV-2. A country-by-country analysis was conducted on the different medical liability systems of individual professionals, in general, and with specific focus on the vaccinating doctors. Additional search was conducted to investigate which European states have introduced specific policies in this field, to identify the implementation of any new laws alongside the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, and to assess which countries have adopted the European Digital COVID Certificate and funded specific compensation programs for COVID-19 vaccination. Our results highlight an extremely fragmented European scenario; therefore, this work could be a starting point to define a common approach for medical liability and related policies in the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper aims to examine the innovation performance of 28 European Union countries. Hypothesis of the paper states there is a significant difference of innovation performance between the old and the new EU members. Furthermore, the role of SMEs regarding innovation capacity may not be the same across EU. Using K-means clustering results indicated Germany, Ireland, France, Luxemburg and Austria as the most innovative countries and Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia as the least innovative countries. Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom and Spain were found to have a medium level of innovation performance. Furthermore, United Kingdom surpassed the average innovation level of the cluster for the small sized enterprises. Croatia was below the average level of the cluster regardless of the size of the enterprise. Romania was the outlier with the least innovation. In order to facilitate more innovation these findings may be valuable in creating more country specific recommendations for entrepreneurial policy. ; Cilj ovog rada je ispitati inovacijske učinke 28 zemalja Europske unije. Hipoteza rada navodi da postoji značajna razlika u inovacijskoj izvedbi između starih i novih članica EU. Nadalje, uloga MSP-a u pogledu inovacijskih kapaciteta možda nije na istoj razini u cijeloj EU. Korištenje rezultata klasteriranja K-sredinama označilo je Njemačku, Irsku, Francusku, Luksemburg i Austriju kao najinovativnije zemlje, a Bugarsku, Estoniju, Latviju, Mađarsku, Poljsku i Slovačku kao najmanje inovativne zemlje. Utvrđeno je da Češka, Hrvatska, Cipar, Danska, Finska, Grčka, Italija, Litva, Malta, Nizozemska, Portugal, Slovenija, Švedska, Velika Britanija i Španjolska imaju srednju razinu inovacijske izvedbe. Nadalje, Ujedinjeno Kraljevstvo premašilo je prosječnu razinu inovativnosti klastera za mala poduzeća. Hrvatska je bila ispod prosječne razine klastera bez obzira na veličinu poduzeća. Rumunjska je odstupala s najmanje inovacija. Kako bi se olakšalo više inovacija, ovi nalazi mogu biti korisni u stvaranju više preporuka za poduzetničku politiku specifičnih za pojedinu zemlju.

Background: During the past decades, many governments have introduced patient cost-sharing in their public health-care system. This trend in health-care reforms affected the European Union (EU) member states as well. This article presents a review of patient cost-sharing for health-care services in the 27 EU countries, and discusses directions for their improvement. Methods: Data are collected based on a review of international data bases, national laws and regulations, as well as scientific and policy reports. The analysis presents a combination of qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Results: Patient cost-sharing arrangements in the EU have been changing considerably over the past two decades (mostly being extended) and are quite diverse at present. There is a relation between patient cost-sharing arrangements and some characteristics of the health-care system in a country. In a few EU countries, a mix of formal and informal charges exists, which creates a double financial burden for health-care consumers. Conclusions: The adequacy of patient cost-sharing arrangements in EU countries needs to be reconsidered. Most importantly, it is essential to deal with informal patient payments (where applicable) and to assure adequate exemption mechanisms to diminish the adverse equity effects of patient cost-sharing. A close communication with the public is needed to clarify the objectives and content of a patient payment policy in a country.

Corruption and shadow economy are two critical problems which feed each other and pose an obstacle against the economic development of countries, especially those with weak fundamentals. Central and Eastern European countries have experienced an absolute political and economic transformation after the downfall of the Berlin Wall. This study researches the effect of corruption and rule of law on shadow economy in 11 transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe over the 2003–2015 term with panel cointegration and causality tests considering heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The cointegration coefficients revealed a complementary interplay between size of shadow economy and corruption. Furthermore, the causality analysis indicated that there was a bilateral causality between control of corruption and shadow economy in all the cross-section units. However, there was a two-way causality between rule of law and shadow economy only in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Furthermore, there was one-way causality from rule of law to shadow economy in Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Corruption and shadow economy are two critical problems which feed each other and pose an obstacle against the economic development of countries, especially those with weak fundamentals. Central and Eastern European countries have experienced an absolute political and economic transformation after the downfall of the Berlin Wall. This study researches the effect of corruption and rule of law on shadow economy in 11 transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe over the 2003–2015 term with panel cointegration and causality tests considering heterogeneity and cross-sectional dependence. The cointegration coefficients revealed a complementary interplay between size of shadow economy and corruption. Furthermore, the causality analysis indicated that there was a bilateral causality between control of corruption and shadow economy in all the cross-section units. However, there was a two-way causality between rule of law and shadow economy only in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania. Furthermore, there was one-way causality from rule of law to shadow economy in Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia. © 2018, © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

The objective of this study is to explore the impact of electronic commerce on employment rate for a sample covering the whole 27 Member States of the European Union (EU-27), from 2010 to 2019. Moreover, this research explores the clusters of nations with reference to electronic commerce adoption and employment rate dynamics. The outcomes of cluster analysis show that Western Europe reveals the most developed e-commerce marketplace in EU-27, shown by Internet accessibility and high penetration rate of digital tools, and the lowest figures are registered in the Eastern part of Europe. Furthermore, the empirical findings of the panel data fixed-effects and the generalized least squares regressions suggest that electronic commerce influences employment rate positively. By including country-level control variables (real GDP growth rate, research and development expenditure, employed ICT specialists, enterprises with Internet access), the outcomes reveal that one percentage change in enterprises' total turnover from e-commerce sales, enterprises' turnover from web sales, and enterprises with e-commerce sales of at least 1% turnover will increase employment rate by 0.205, 0.258, and 0.350 percentage points. Furthermore, the econometric evidence from the method of moments quantile regression models with fixed effects reinforces our findings. Enterprises' total turnover from e-commerce sales and the percentage of enterprises with e-commerce sales of at least 1% turnover positively influence employment rate for all quintiles, but in the case of enterprises' turnover from web sales, the effect is positive only for the quintiles ranging from 0.5–0.8.

Contemporary satellite Earth Observation systems provide growing amounts of very high spatial resolution data that can be used in various applications. An increasing number of sensors make it possible to monitor selected areas in great detail. However, in order to handle the volume of data, a high level of automation is required. The semi-automatic change detection methodology described in this paper was developed to annually update land cover maps prepared in the context of the Geoland2. The proposed algorithm was tailored to work with different very high spatial resolution images acquired over different European landscapes. The methodology is a fusion of various change detection methods ranging from: (1) layer arithmetic; (2) vegetation indices (NDVI) differentiating; (3) texture calculation; and methods based on (4) canonical correlation analysis (multivariate alteration detection (MAD)). User intervention during the production of the change map is limited to the selection of the input data, the size of initial segments and the threshold for texture classification (optionally). To achieve a high level of automation, statistical thresholds were applied in most of the processing steps. Tests showed an overall change recognition accuracy of 89%, and the change type classification methodology can accurately classify transitions between classes.

The article presents research results on the analysis of green jobs in the European Union countries with respect to selected indicators characterizing the member states. For the empirical analysis a regression model was applied. As a dependent variable a number of jobs in the renewable energy sector in 2012 per million inhabitants of the countries was used. In the linear regression model the explanatory variable was a share of expenditure on R&D in GDP [%]. Studies show that the increase in research and development expenditures have a real, measurable impact on the availability of green jobs in the EU countries. Research results were presented on the background of the strategy "Europe 2020". ; Artykuł przedstawia wyniki badań empirycznych w zakresie analizy liczby zielonych miejsc pracy w krajach Unii Europejskiej w zależności od wybranych wskaźników charakteryzujących kraje członkowskie. Do analizy wykorzystano model regresji liniowej. Za zmienną zależną przyjęto względną liczbę miejsc pracy w sektorze energetyki odnawialnej w 2012 r., tj. liczbę stanowisk w przeliczeniu na mln mieszkańców krajów. Zmienną objaśniającą w skonstruowanym modelu stanowił udział nakładów na B+R w PKB [%]. Przeprowadzone badania wykazały, że zwiększanie roli badań i rozwoju ma mierzalny wpływ na zmiany w zakresie dostępności zielonych miejsc pracy w krajach UE. Wyniki badań przedstawiono na tle założeń strategii "Europa 2020".