Das Direktanspruchsstatut nach dem EuGH-Urteil „Odenbreit“

This Article deals with the impact of the ECJ’s decision in the case “Odenbreit” in which it allowed the injured person—in the concrete case injured in a car accident—to sue the liability insurer of the tortfeaser, both domiciled in another Member State, by means of the direct action, in the Member State of his or her own domicile. As a consequence, the court situated at the domicile of the injured person has to apply foreign law, which brings about some disadvantages to the injured person. The application of the lex fori, however, enjoys several advantages. The analysis shows to what extent the application of the lex fori would be possible de lege lata and de lege ferenda.     

External and Internal Factors Motivating Outsourcing of Business Services by Meeting-Industry Companies: A Case Study in Krakow,Poland

The aim of this article is to evaluate the external and internal factors motivating the selection of business services to be outsourced by key meeting-industry (business tourism) players, with a particular focus on knowledge-intensive business services. The case-study method was adopted in the article to analyze the motivation behind outsourcing of knowledge-intensive business services by meeting venues and event companies in Krakow (Poland). The results confirm that event companies tend to subcontract out core services connected with the organization, promotion and/or management of events, event services, and technical support for events.     

Perceptions of older consumers regarding food packaging as a prerequisite for its improvement: A case study of Polish market

In many societies, the scale of demographic change associated with increased longevity has the potential to influence the market for consumer goods. As a result, continuous improvement in packaging design that takes into account the needs of older people should become an important challenge for both packaging producers and product manufacturers. Due to the fact that there is limited research concerning the design of food packaging for older people, the aim of the study was to identify the expectations of this group of consumers in this respect. Milk packaging was selected as a model subject of study. Factors influencing older consumers and their buying patterns when purchasing milk have been thoroughly examined. The research was conducted among people over the age of 60 with the use of three methods: a questionnaire (600 subjects), an in‐depth interview (60 subjects) and eye tracking (30 subjects). The results of the study show that older consumers have specific preferences regarding packaging type and design. When considering milk packaging, for example, they prefer glass bottles, simple graphics and font and subdued colours. They most frequently look for information concerning the product's expiration date, its producer's name and its composition. Eye tracking revealed that the older the consumers are, the more problems with finding expiration date they have. The time required to find such information, however, strongly depends on where exactly the expiration date is printed on the packaging. The preferred place in this case is the top of the bottle. Older consumers identify product's brand with the name of the producer. Moreover, the absence of the term ‘ingredients’: on the milk packaging oftentimes causes confusion among older people, who are concerned about potential food additive content.     

Delegating effectively across cultures

This article builds on the contingency approach to global leadership to examine empowerment in a cross-cultural context. Drawing upon ethnographic research on employees of a French NGO in Madagascar, our study demonstrates that effective empowerment is not dependent on the amount of delegation, but rather it is dependent on how delegation is performed. Understanding the cultural representations of formalization, skill development, collective work, and decision-making appeared to be crucial to effective delegation in Madagascar. This result suggests that managers should adapt the way that they empower their teams based on the conditions and forms of delegation prevailing in local cultures.     

One Monopoly Is Better Than Two: Antitrust Policy and Microsoft

The Department of Justice recent case against Microsoft is that it should not be allowed to aggressively maintain control over the internet browser market with the objective of preventing the internet from becoming the platform that could ultimately destroy Microsoft's operating system market. The aim of this paper is not to attack the Department of Justice case. Rather, it is to argue that for consumers one monopoly dominating both the operating system and applications is better than two separate monopolies. In our model we integrate Cournot's theory of two goods that are jointly used in the production of a third composite good with the fixed-proportion model. Utilizing our model we develop a possible explanation for Microsoft's actions – protection of its monopoly profits in the operating systems package market. Additionally we show that the price of the final product is lower if one firm monopolizes all markets. Consequently, the ordered split-up of Microsoft by Judge Thomas P. Jackson, aiming at creating two separate companies, one that will produce the windows and the other the operating systems, will harm consumers.     

Analysis of business failures in France

In the present economic situation, business failures are a matter of major concern to government and business alike. The current period of slow growth in France, and the rigidity of its productive system make it more important than ever to act to insure the survival of its industrial fabric. This necessity has found recognition in the fact that the French Parliament is now discussing a Government bill designed to head off business failures by means of a series of early-warning signals. Under this bill, the company auditors' obligation is widened to include the duty to report to the company any factor liable to compromise the continued operation of that firm. The context within which the Banque de France's ‘Centrale de Bilans’¹ is currently pursuing its work favors the development of a discriminant function capable of detecting symptoms of business failure at the earliest possible opportunity. This work has been facilitated, and usefully guided, by Altman's pioneering research in this field since 1968, as well as by the work of Blum, Deakin, Edmister and Taffler, to rite just a few names from the Anglo-Saxon world. In France, the most recent research has been initiated by the CESA [Altman et al. (1974)] and pursued by Collongues, Sulzer, Conan and Holder, as well as by certain banks. But in this last case applications have remained strictly limited.     

The Effectiveness of Fiscal Policy Over the Business Cycle: A CEE Perspective

In this article we analyze the effectiveness of fiscal policy—for a group of four Central and Eastern European countries. The recent literature shows that fiscal multipliers in the developed economies are higher during recession than expansion. So far, similar empirical analyses have been lacking for CEE countries. The results presented in this article show that fiscal multipliers in CEE countries differ with respect to the phase of the business cycle. Based on the SVAR methodology in which we allow for deterministic regime switching, we show that the government spending multipliers are significantly higher when the output gap is negative.     

Heterogeneous determinants of local unemployment in Poland

We identify determinants of large disparities in local unemployment rates across Poland. Using an extensive panel data-set on the NUTS-4 level (i.e. the poviats level, or districts or counties level) we examine a wide range of determinants of local unemployment. Our research examines two groups of the determinants: one related to equilibrium theory and the other related to disequilibrium theory of local unemployment. We find that demographics, education and sectoral employment composition exert a stronger impact over rates of local unemployment than various demand factors. The impact of the determinants, while robust for outliers, is not homogeneous across Polish regions. In particular, in the most depressed local labour markets, skill improvement programmes do not appear to work and unemployment rates are relatively less responsive to investment. Our research suggests that there is no easy cure for local unemployment in Poland, but a few policies have the potential to slightly reduce existing disparities.     

On the hellwig method of feasible portfolio construction

The work feasible portfolio is built into the work, that is, the k-dimensional Q column vector with components q_i where q_i 0 for i=1,...,k and q₁+...+q_k=1. We define i=1,...,k in the following way:

Wage and Price Inflation in Poland in the Period of Transition: The Cointegration Analysis

The paper focuses on the long run relationships between wages, prices and labour productivity in the Polish economy by applying recent developments in the field of multivariate cointegration analysis. We followed modeling strategy which is suggested by Greenslade et al. (1999) and present all stages of the analysis which leads to the fully economically identified system of equations representing long run relationships. The investigation is based on the quarterly data from 1992.1 to 1999.2 which covers the period of transition of the Polish economy from the centrally planned system towards the market one. Basing on the empirical results we can argue that wages (costs) were one of the main forces driving inflation in Poland during that period. Also labor productivity proved to be stimulated by the increase of the real wages. On the other hand the hypothesis concerning the relationship between wages and unemployment was rejected by the data.