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Economics and business journals focus on publishing papers coming from the fields of applied economics, corporate finance, financial investments, markets, institutions, industrial organization, international trade, marketing and similar.
Business and Economics
Abstract
This paper explores the application of populism within the economic and political landscape of Ukraine under President Volodymyr Zelensky. Unlike traditional populist frameworks that may lean towards either left or right-wing economic policies, Zelensky's populism emerges as a hybrid model adapted to Ukraine's complex socio-political environment. By leveraging a centrist populist narrative, Zelensky sought to dismantle oligarchic influence, restore public trust, and implement broad economic reforms. The study critically examines how his populist rhetoric, initially focused on anti-elite and anti-corruption themes, transitioned under the pressures of governance and crisis, especially in light of the 2022 Russian invasion. Through a mix of qualitative and quantitative analysis, this research assesses Zelensky's policy decisions within the populist framework, highlighting both achievements and limitations. Ultimately, the findings reveal the adaptability of populist rhetoric in crisis and its constraints within entrenched political and economic systems. This analysis contributes to a nuanced understanding of how populist leadership can serve as a flexible, yet sometimes conflicting, strategy in achieving governance and reform in post-Soviet states.
Abstract
This study delves into the multifaceted impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Central Europe's cultural sector. Early responses to the pandemic predicted significant job losses and suggested that national governments would disproportionately neglect the pandemic's financial impact on the cultural sector and fail to prioritize cultural recovery. This research aims to examine policy implementation and its real-world effects on cultural employment trends in the crisis aftermath. We focus on the impact of public spending on cultural services in Central Europe, particularly the funding allocated to mitigate the pandemic's effects in 2020 and 2021. By analysing financial measures and comparing Eurostat's cultural indicators, this study seeks to deepen our understanding of cultural policies in the region. It highlights the diverse nature of these financial measures and assesses their effectiveness in sustaining cultural employment post-pandemic. With a few exceptions, the adopted measures helped to maintain pre-pandemic employment rates across Central European countries. Key findings reveal the vulnerabilities and adaptations of the sector, shedding light on the broader implications of COVID-19 on cultural policies in Central Europe.
Abstract
This study contributes towards understanding tax compliance by identifying taxpayers' characteristics affecting it. The purpose of this study was to identify significant characteristics of Slovenian taxpayers that affect corporate tax compliance. Data were acquired through the desk audit process conducted by the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia (FURS), focusing on the investment allowance of Slovenian corporate taxpayers. Econometric testing determined that a binary logit model was the most appropriate fit. Consequently, logistic regression analysis was performed on a large sample of Slovenian corporate taxpayers for the period between 2018 and 2021. A wide range of characteristics were considered, including the type of enterprise, age, size, industry, location and financial indicators. Eight characteristics were found to significantly impact tax compliance in Slovenia, including the size of the enterprise, organizational type, residing tax office branch, business sector, and the year the observed audit was conducted. Besides finding eight significant characteristics of taxpayers determining tax compliance, results also indicate the presence of local bias, with one of the tax office branches significantly impacting the number of irregularities found during audits.
Abstract
In this paper we investigate the drivers of efficiency of Central and Eastern European schools as a function of their inputs, outputs, and the environmental factors that influence their efficiency. The data contains 3,608 schools across 17 countries in the Europe-East region. We use a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis approach with a double-bootstrap truncated regression in the second stage to achieve our objectives. Our results show that on average many countries seem to have bottlenecks in their schools' performances in math subjects while reading subjects seem to be a major positive contributor to their efficiency. Moreover, food insecurity (as a result of financial troubles) has a severe negative impact on our sample's efficiencies, a similar effect was observed as well for the average level of parents' education.
Abstract
The study of sub-systems tends to be a disadvantaged endeavour within the discipline of International Relations. While the global level of analysis attracts more attention, contradictions in assumptions embraced by IR surface most readily on the sub-systemic level. This was the case with ‘Regional Power Research’ (RPR), a systematic study of post-Cold War emerging powers. RPR conceptualised emerging powers as autonomous regional powers and hypothesised that they would provide security as a public good within their regions. None of RPR's hypotheses could be confirmed empirically. The paper first provides a historically contextualised insight into the assumption of anarchy underlying RPR's hypotheses, and deconstructs the concept of public goods. It then presents findings from a longitudinal qualitative content analysis of the 1990–2021 national security strategies issued by the United States. Findings show that the world order that prevailed when emerging powers rose was markedly hierarchic, precluding autonomous security provision, an inherently hierarchic endeavour, by sub-global powers. Emerging powers embraced adaptive strategies and the global distribution of capabilities shifted. Findings confirm the need to ground hypotheses in empiricism, realigning regional and global level power research to reflect the changing degrees and spatio-temporal distributions of anarchy and hierarchy in the international system.
Abstract
The focus of the paper is how social professionals perceived their profession and its external judgment or recognition before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyse social workers' comments in online professional communities on social media platforms. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the investigation of the Hungarian social sector has received little attention compared to other human services professions, especially healthcare, and the analysis of social workers' online discourses is unprecedented nationally and seldom encountered internationally. The web-based content analysis covered a three-year period including the pandemic, and it is based on 6,692 online comments. According to our results, the entire comment stream is characterized by a mixed tone with a strong critical edge. The content analysis showed that Hirshman's theory provides a productive analytical framework to observe loyalty and voice and frame different levels of dissatisfaction and corrective mechanisms. Thus, we found four overarching phases and attitudes with moderate, strengthening, strong, and fading voice. Different intensities of loyalty and voice mirrored different stages and waves of the pandemic. Though the results of the content analysis resonate with previous research findings based on more conventional methods in many ways, they added further depth to domestic and international knowledge. While social workers' perception of their situation and prestige of social work was overwhelmingly negative, a method of coping with their burdens was through professional pride, solidarity, cohesion, self-compensation and compassion for their clientele.
Abstract
In our rapidly changing world characterised by globalisation, economic crises, a pandemic, and regional integration, the structure and functioning of welfare states have undergone significant transformations. These forces have shaped and continue to redefine welfare state models worldwide. This study examines the trajectories undertaken by European Union member countries regarding their welfare state models, particularly focusing on the transformative experiences of former communist states. Based on a critical assessment of previous research by a bibliometric analysis, our study comprehensively investigates five categories of factors (fiscal, economic, social, institutional, and political factors) influencing the configuration of welfare state models. Considering these five categories and using cluster analysis, we split European countries into five welfare state models. Our main contribution is the investigation of the migration of European Union states across various welfare state models during the 2003–2021 period. Policymakers can use these results to increase the well-being of former communist states within their clusters.
Abstract
Although the Feldstein-Horioka (1980) puzzle has been one of the most widely discussed problems in macroeconomics literature, long-run evidence regarding the validity of the Puzzle is missing. To extend the existing literature, we revisit the Puzzle for the case of the United Kingdom (UK) using data that covers almost two centuries, 1830–2016. We analyze the data using conventional and novel econometric methods to capture the stochastic properties of the variables and ensure robustness. To this end, well-known autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) and recently developed nonlinear ARDL and Fourier ARDL (FARDL) models are implemented. The coefficients derived from the ARDL, NARDL, and FARDL are 0.58, 0.64, and 0.56, respectively. All results show a long-term relationship between investment and savings rates in the UK. The obtained empirical results indicate that even in the long run, there is evidence for the existence of the Puzzle.
Abstract
This study investigates the technical efficiency of insurance companies in five Western Balkan countries between 2015 and 2022, using a two-stage double bootstrap data envelopment analysis (DEA). In the first stage, bias-corrected DEA efficiency scores are calculated. The second stage employs the bootstrapped truncated regression to investigate relationships between firm characteristics and these efficiencies. Our findings indicate that insurance companies in Serbia exhibit the highest level of technical efficiency, while their counterparts in Albania display the lowest level. Five key drivers of insurer efficiency are identified: firm size, specialisation, growth, solvency, and profitability, while the effect of ownership structure is not statistically significant. Further analysis of returns to scale indicates that most large and medium-sized insurers in Western Balkan countries operate under decreasing returns to scale (DRS). In contrast, most small insurers exhibit increasing returns to scale (IRS). This research contributes to a better understanding of factors influencing the efficiency of insurance companies in developing countries, with implications for insurance regulators, strategic management within the industry, and future research endeavours.
