A Knowledge-Based Economy: New Directions of Macromodelling

Development of “new economies” leading to economies mostly based on knowledge implies the construction of new long-term macroeconometric models. They should incorporate the impacts of new technologies being endogenized, as well as human capital. The paper discusses several issues related to the extension of the notion of production function. They cover first of all the measurement and explanation of total factor productivity (TFP), the role of domestic and foreign R&D expenditures, as well as educational expenditures. The discussion is extended to include proposals to construct new submodels explaining the sections of research and education and also the ICT industries.

The impact of bankruptcy regimes on entrepreneurship and innovation. Is there any relationship?

International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal - The literature review indicates that bankruptcy law may play an important role in and be one of the factors influencing the development of...     

Is Religion a Determinant of Financial Development?

International Advances in Economic Research - Studies on the determinants of financial development have been silent on the role of religion. Growing evidence in the literature about how financial...     

Transmission of monetary policy and exchange rate shocks under foreign currency lending

This paper analyses the differences in reaction of domestic and foreign currency lending to monetary and exchange rate shocks, using a panel VAR model estimated for the three biggest Central and Eastern European countries (Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary). Our results point toward a drop in domestic currency loans and an increase of foreign currency credit in reaction to monetary policy tightening in Poland and Hungary, suggesting that the presence of foreign currency debt weakens the transmission of monetary policy. A currency depreciation shock leads to an initial decline in foreign currency lending, but also in loans denominated in domestic currency as central banks react to a weaker exchange rate by increasing the interest rates. However, after several quarters, credit in foreign currency accelerates, indicating that borrowers start using it to substitute for depressed domestic currency lending.     

Empirics of hills,plateaus, mountains and plains: A Markov-switching approach to growth

Most economic growth research has been aimed at explaining cross-country differences in average growth rates. However, it is well known that growth experiences differ over time within a country almost as much as they differ among countries. This paper builds on Pritchett's (2000) [Pritchett, Lant, Understanding patterns of economic growth: searching for hills among plateaus, mountains, and plains, World Bank Economic Review, May 2000, 14 (2), 221–250.] observation that the growth process can be thought of as transitions between different growth regimes and proposes a framework for systematic analysis of such regimes and the dynamics of the transitions. I estimate a Markov-switching regression to characterize four distinct growth regimes and transitions between them. The results show that countries switch among regimes of stable growth, “miracle” catch-up, stagnation and crisis with the transition probabilities determined by the quality of institutions. Better institutions appear to improve long-run growth by making episodes of fast growth more persistent. Low average growth rates in countries with weak institutions are a result of these countries spending more time in stagnation regimes rather then being incapable of fast growth at all. Weak institutions do not rule out growth takeoffs but limit their sustainability. The approach directs attention to shifts in growth performance and highlights the fact that identical average growth rates can mask very distinct growth paths.     

Development of tourism in Polish poviats in the years 2010–2017

Quality & Quantity - Poland is divided into 380 poviats. However the statistical data on the development of these small regions is available from official statistics, there is no study known to...     

Stock market volatility around national elections

This paper investigates a sample of 27 OECD countries to test whether national elections induce higher stock market volatility. It is found that the country-specific component of index return variance can easily double during the week around an election, which shows that investors are surprised by the election outcome. Several factors, such as a narrow margin of victory, lack of compulsory voting laws, change in the political orientation of the government, or the failure to form a government with parliamentary majority significantly contribute to the magnitude of the election shock. Furthermore, some evidence is found that markets with short trading history exhibit stronger reaction. Our findings have important implications for the optimal strategies of institutional and individual investors who have direct or indirect exposure to volatility risk.     

Cost of severe hypoglycaemia in nine European countries

Objective: Complications contribute largely to the economic gravity of diabetes mellitus (DM). How they arise and are treated differs substantially between countries. This paper assesses the total annual, direct, and indirect cost of severe hypoglycemia events (SHEs) in nine European countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia/the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (MK), Poland, Slovenia, and Spain.

Methods: Data was collected on epidemiology, treatment structure, SHE-driven resource consumption, and unit costs. Two systematic reviews—on the SHE rates and the resources used for treatment—and data on the days-of-work lost due to SHE along with salaries and employment rates were used. The total SHE cost in each country was calculated and how the differences are driven by individual parameters was analysed.

Results: The annual costs of SHEs varied in absolute terms from €379,951.25 in MK up to €58,429,684.40 in Spain, or—when expressed per one drug-treated DM patient—from €5.47 in Bulgaria up to €17.74 in Spain. Indirect cost constituted between 6.01% (MK) and 26.49% (Hungary) of the total cost. The differences between countries are driven mostly by the cost of treating a single event, and this is related to general differences in prices.

Limitations: The main limitation is the lack of good quality data in some parts, and the necessity to use mean-value imputations, experts’ opinions, etc. Additionally, we only considered DM treatment as the SHE driver, while other elements, e.g. style of living, may contribute substantially.

Conclusions: A common framework can be applied to estimate the economic burden of SHE in various countries, allowing one to identify the drivers of differences in cost. Treating DM is complex, and so no resolute conclusions ought to be drawn as to whether SHE management is better in one country than another.     

The role of stakeholders on rejection of bankruptcy applications in the case of “poverty” of the estate: A Polish case study

The aim of this article is to supplement the Law and Economics area of science with regard to the scope of the ex ante effectiveness of bankruptcy law using the example of Poland. Bankruptcy law is effective in the ex ante stage when it eliminates from the market insolvent entrepreneurs who cannot even afford to cover the costs of bankruptcy proceedings. In these cases, the bankruptcy court should dismiss the petition for bankruptcy because of “poverty” of the insolvent estate. As a result, the insolvent debtor should be liquidated and deleted from the register of companies. This paper investigates entities whose bankruptcy petition has been rejected due to “poverty” of the insolvent estate. The study shows that, after the filing has been dismissed, the majority of these entities are not liquidated. To determine who is responsible for this state of affairs, the article identifies the stakeholders at the time that applications are filed for bankruptcy proceedings and also after the bankruptcy petition has been rejected. The article highlights stakeholders' diverging interests, strengths, and weaknesses to assess their potential impact on bankruptcy procedures that should be dismissed due to “poverty” of the insolvent estate.