Limiting Factors of Foreign Direct Investment Undertaken By Polish Enterprises

Limiting factors of foreign direct investment are of great significance for managers, governments, and scholars as they directly influence the profitability of a foreign subsidiary and a parent multinational company. The aim of the paper is to identify FDI limiting factors of host country location choices among Polish enterprises and differences in the perception of the factors depending on the establishment mode choice, i.e. whether it is through greenfield investments or acquisitions. The paper presents results of a field surveyed carried out in 2012–2013 among Polish companies. The research results revealed that regardless of the establishment mode choice, investors from Poland perceived market-related limiting factors as significant. The empirical findings also proved that there were no significant differences in the perception of the importance of FDI limiting factors, between investors who undertook acquisitions and those who decided to make greenfield investments. However, single cases of differences were identified at the level of the policy framework-related factors.     

The Impact of Administrative Reform on the Central Functions of Larger Polish Cities

The purpose of this research note is to identify the central functions of larger Polish cities, as well as analyze their transformations resulting from changes in the administrative division of Poland. We perform the study based on the central place theory by Walter Christaller using two measures: centrality index and centrality index adjusted to its demographic potential.     

Spatial Heterogeneity of Willingness to Pay for Forest Management

The paper investigates the spatial heterogeneity of public’s preferences for the implementation of a new country-wide forest management and protection program in Poland. Spatial econometric methods and high resolution geographical information system data related to forest characteristics are used to explain the variation in individual-specific willingness to pay (WTP) values, derived from a discrete choice experiment study. We find that respondents’ WTP is higher the closer they live to their nearest forest, and the scarcer forests are in the area where they live. Interestingly, the higher the ecological value of forests in respondents’ area, the more people prefer extending areas of national forest protection. We also investigate spatial patterns in individual-specific WTP scores and in latent class membership probabilities, finding that preferences are indeed spatially clustered. We argue that this clustering should be taken into account in forest management and policy-making.     

Sad or Happy? The Effects of Emotions on Stated Preferences for Environmental Goods

A substantial literature in behavioural science and psychology shows that emotions affect human choices and values. This paper investigates whether such emotional impacts are also present in stated choice experiments for environmental goods. If this were so, it would introduce an additional element of context dependence to the welfare measures derived from such methods, and would be at odds with the rational choice model underlying welfare economics. A laboratory experiment using three different emotion treatments was combined with a stated preference choice experiment concerned with changes in coastal water quality and fish populations in New Zealand. No statistically significant effects of changes in emotional state on estimated preference parameters, willingness to pay or the randomness of choices were found. The paper concludes by questioning, why such a contrast exists with empirical findings in behavioural science.     

A note on the estimation of total weight in chemical balance weighing designs

Summary This paper studies the problem of estimation of the total weight of objects using a chemical balance weighing design under the restriction |L−R| ≤a, whereL andR represent the number of objects placed on the left and right pans, respectively. A lower bound for the variance of the estimated total weight is given and a necessary and sufficient condition for this lower bound to be attained is obtained. Finally, weighing designs for which this lower bound is attainable are constructed.     

A characterization of the gamma process by conditional moments

Summary The gamma process is determined by the form of conditional expectations and conditional variances. Also a new characterization of the gamma law is obtained and then applied to characterize the gamma process among the processes with independent increments.     

When product type experimental design is optimal? Brief survey and new results

In the paper the problem of optimum experimental design for estimating parameters of multivariate regression functions is considered. We address the question: under what conditions one can compose the optimal design from partial designs, obtained by considering partial regressions, which depend on reduced number of variables. After reinterpreting and reviewing briefly existing results we provide some new conditions.     

Patterns and determinants of the horizontal and vertical intra-industry trade of regions: panel analysis for Spain & Poland

ABSTRACT

Most of the empirical studies in the literature on intra-industry trade are conducted at the country level. Countries, however, differ in terms of granularity and internal heterogeneity. In the present study we empirically identify the determinants of the overall IIT as well as its horizontal and vertical components in the trade of Spanish and Polish NUTS-2 regions with all existing trade partners over the period 2005–2014. In order to obtain unbiased results, we utilize a semi-mixed effect model, estimated with the PPML method. We estimate the models jointly for all Spanish and Polish regions and then disjointly in a comparative manner – in order to identify incongruities of reaction to the various factors investigated. These include both traditional factors and a number of unorthodox factors such as regional path dependence, quality of regional institutions, the core or peripheral status of the reporting region.     

An empirical analysis of constitutional review voting in the polish constitutional tribunal, 2003–2014

Different theories have been developed, mainly in the context of the United States, to explain judicial decision-making. In this respect, there is an important ongoing debate over whether judges are guided by the law or by personal ideology. The analysis of the decision-making in the Polish Constitutional Tribunal seems to support the existence of some party alignment. It is to say that judicial behavior is influenced by the ideology, either because judges’ preferences coincide with the interests of a specific party or because the judges are incentivized to show their loyalty to a party. Party alignment exists but subject to institutional influences. These results are in line with previous findings for other constitutional courts in Europe.