Keywords: disinflation; disinflation factors; economic policy
Sustainable reduction of inflation remains, even after more than a decade of economic transition, one of the key tasks for the majority of central and east European countries. In the present paper we employ an iterative multisectoral model underpinned by estimates of sectoral price functions to simulate six disinflation scenarios for the case of Slovenia. The model simulations show that sub-stantial progress in disinflation can be made already in 2004. However, instead of relying on a single anti-inflationary tool, stabilization of the inflation rate at around 3 – 4 % per annum demands highly harmonized implementation of at least three instruments: moderate deindexation of wages, rigorous price policy in those segments of the Slovenian economy where lack of competition does not assure price stability, and a prudent monetary policy.
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Keywords: Competitiveness; export; foreign direct investment; structure effect; trade analysis.
The research paper discusses the concept of competitiveness of economy and analyzes export as an indicator of it. The analysis is started by the historical review of export development. Statistical data show that three Baltic countries have been following different path of export growth since Russian crisis. Different export market orientation and manufacturing sector’s longer reorientation process provide an explanation. Furthermore, the historical analysis shows that export growth relation with foreign demand growth and GDP growth is not as strong as it might be expected. In order to estimate possible long-run GDP growth prospects, the structural analysis of trade is performed. The conclusions of the latter revealed high dependence of trade on conjuncture in foreign markets and supported the need of further price and non-price competitiveness analysis. Surprisingly, the results of the former indicate that price indicators do little to explain export development. Conversely, the results of the latter, based on CMSA methodology, show that market orientation of Lithuanian exports adds the most to its competitiveness; meanwhile the product orientation is generally unfavorable. Finally, the relation between FDI structure by countries and trade flows of processed industrial supplies is analyzed. Although data analysis does not reject the existence of such hypothesis, a more detail analysis should be conducted in the future.
More...Keywords: deprivation; Eastern Europe; social class; life course
This paper employs the factor analysis technique and data from the UNDP/UNICEF Social Inclusion Survey to construct a material deprivation index for fi ve transitional societies in the Balkans (FYR Macedonia and Serbia), Eastern Europe (Moldova and Ukraine) and Central Asia (Kazakhstan). The distribution of deprivation between these societies can be largely explained by their level of economic development, but within-county variance is not limited to monetary dimension. Controlling for settlement type, human capital and employment status in multivariate settings, the paper tests the hypothesis of the continuous importance of occupational social class and the emerging role of diff erent life phases in individuals’ welfare outcomes. The results reveal that all specifi ed social classes and most of the defi ned life phases have diverse and statistically signifi cant eff ects on the constructed deprivation index and the likelihood of being under 70 per cent of the median deprivation threshold. Belonging to non-skilled manual, farmers and skilled manual social class as well as being a child or lone parent were revealed to have the highest risk of material deprivation. These fi ndings are in line with the conclusions made for the Western welfare democracies on the complementary nature of social class and life course dimensions in explaining social hardship.
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Keywords: child resilience; child abuse; developmental assets
The development ecology of Children and youths are not favorable in many parts of urban areas of Ethiopia. There are risk situations in schools, in the community and family environments. Among others, family disintegration for various reasons, in effective schools, as well as poor other social services, and expansion of illegal drugs and movies have made the lives of large number of children and youths vulnerable .Moreover, physical , sexual and labor abuses of children are prevalent in different settings and situations .However , despite the presence of such risk factors against the positive child and youth developments, there are stories of success achieved by children and youths who were once vulnerable and exposed to various types of adversities. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore developmental challenges and risks to children and youths in the town and protective factories and developmental assets that helped some children to overcome early life difficulties and become successful in their later life. Data from life histories of 30 successful children and young adults, interviews and group desiccations with the concerned bodies indicated that proper socialization, attachment to positive peers and role models, martial, financial and moral supports at appropriate times as well as children’ internal qualities could nurture resilience capabilities in children and youths who are growing in adverse situations. It could also facilitate attaining life goals.
More...Keywords: industry research; economic crisis; financial ratios; financial indicators; multicriteria decision making; SAW; TOPSIS; VIKOR; C44; G01; G11; G32; L25;
The paper analyses the impact of the economic crisis of 2008 on Lithuanian industries. The research involves 68 industries identified according to the 2nd-digit level classification of economic activities by Statistics Lithuania. Considering industry to be a complex phenomenon, the crisis effect is evaluated complexly on the basis of the system of 10 financial state and performance indicators belonging to four main groups of enterprise financial ratios: profitability, liquidity, solvency and asset turnover. SAW, TOPSIS and VIKOR multi-criteria decision making methods, widely applied in construction, economics and management, are selected as mathematical tools for quantitative assessment of the economic crisis effect on Lithuanian industries. By applying multi-criteria decision making methods relative positions (ranks) of industries are determined for every year of the period of 2006–2011. The ranks and their changes are further analysed distinguishing pre-crisis, crisis, and post-crisis periods, determining the industries most and least affected by the economic crisis; also, the industries characterised by the fastest and the slowest after-crisis recovery.
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Keywords: Investment; investment laws; investment regulation; foreign investment; investment business; financial investment; investment policy; investment market; financial assets; resources; portfolio investm
Complex state investment policy, directed towards creation of advantage investment surrounding in the country, its regions and fields of industrial production, essentially grows inflow of investment resources into the economy. Therefore the necessity to optimize the state legal regulation of the investment process is raised on the foreground in this work. It has been substantiated that searching of new state instruments of regulation is necessary in the investment domain. This instrument must form advantage climate for capital investments, which will be adequate to the objects of stimulating savings and cardinal changing of total economical situation. It has been proved that today it is necessary to direct even small savings to the investment domain by protecting marketing principles for solving the most important problems in the sector of private industry.
More...Keywords: Deliberation; Educational reform; Public policy; National Team of Bologna Experts;
The project named Higher Education Reform was established in 2004 as one of the implementation elements of the European higher education policy. The core activities of the project were executed throughout the formation of National Teams of Bologna Experts who had the task and duty to contribute to the general and real awareness-rising on the topic of the higher education reform among different stakeholders in participating countries of the Bologna Process. The Croatian National Team of Bologna Expert (Hrvatska stručna skupina za Bolonjski proces) was established in 2011. Among the diversity of activities executed by the student representatives in the Team, the important place is reserved for the deliberative workshops held during 2013. The target groups of the deliberative workshops were students and other stakeholders in the higher education. This paper presents the process of including the stakeholders in educational reform through the deliberative workshops. During the workshops, the organizers found out how the stakeholders are rethinking on some of the aspects of the Bologna Process, how they perceive and value the work of student representative and volunteering activities, and what they think about the extra-curricular activities of the student and how they value such activities. The form of deliberative workshops encouraged participants to freely and in constructive way express their thoughts and expectances in order to exchange ideas and knowledge about the matter, and to make a decision on common suggestions to solve a particular problem in the context of higher education (introduction of a new practice, modifications and alternations of existing practices, etc). This type of the application of deliberation method is extremely useful, which is the reason for the suggestion of the method’s use in preparing, implementing and evaluating the educational reforms.
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Keywords: quality television; series; social strata; living spaces; location strategy;
HBO Hungary’s original series, Aranyélet, proves to be an interesting case study in terms of location strategies in Eastern European TV shows. It is refreshing in the sense that – contrary to other TV programmes attempting to showcase life in Budapest – it does not feel the need to represent locality by swamping the viewer with iconic tourist destinations of the capital. Instead, the characteristic “Hungarianness” of the show appears through displaying personal living spaces of people from a wide range of socio-cultural backgrounds, all of which represent the typical Hungarian strata.In our paper, we have used a simplified categorization of social classes apparent in Hungarian society and connected these groups with characters of Aranyélet. Then, we have scrutinized the living spaces of these characters as represented in the show, paying special attention to their likely location, furnishing, building materials, and general condition. By this analysis, we aim to prove that the show tries to create an alternative mental map of Budapest and its population, covering all strata of society with painting a picture of their lifestyle and living conditions.Our paper draws on the work of Kim Toft Hansen and Anne Marit Waade, who, in their volume Locating Nordic Noir – From Beck to The Bridge, place a large emphasis on aspects of location studies in contemporary Scandinavian crime.
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Keywords: Public Procurement; Procurement; Open Bidding; Controlling Bodies; Tenders; Customers; Participants; Subject of Procurement;
The article examines public procurement in the state administration. Its decisive role in implementing the concept of sustainable development as an instrument of economic, social and environmental policy has been proved. Tactical and strategic goals of public procurement are detailed. Problematic aspects of public procurement (changing legislation, inconsistency of the concept apparatus and the lack of proper organization of supervisory bodies) are outlined. The authors of the article focus on the established components of public procurement in accordance with legal requirements, as well as the classification of procedures for their implementation. The peculiarities of implementation of procedures for different types of public procurement in terms of their value and the order of fulfillment are determined. The article deals with analytical evaluation of public procurement in Ukraine, including positive tendencies for the growth of quantitative and qualitative indicators. Examples of reasons for disqualifications and rejection of participants are given. Special attention is paid to the composition and subordination of the controlling bodies of public procurement. The present research deals with the main tendencies of the state financial control. The authors of the article study typical violations of control results. The necessity of reforming the control system in order to increase its effectiveness has been proved. Information on state control bodies and appeals in foreign countries is presented along with the need for elimination of duplication of functions and powers of the controlling bodies. The model of the organization of the state financial control through creation of a single controlling specialized body, the Public Procurement Inspectorate, which includes representatives of all state bodies and public organizations, is proposed to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of control.
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Keywords: Late Iron Age; La Tène culture; Celtic cemetery; NW Hungary
One of the important cemetery and settlement of the Celts lies in a plateau on the southern side of the the Öreg Rába river, in the vicinity of Győr-Ménfőcsanak. The first burials were found in 1967 during a short rescue excavation, however it made Ménfőcsanak a key La Tène site in the Carpathian Basin. Excavations investigated on a larger scale in the area of previously known cemetery in 1993–94. The burial rite of the necropolis was mainly inhumation and only two graves were cremated and two biritual graves. Celtic warriors with swords and richly furnished female with fibulae, coral, amber, and glass beads jewelry were also buried in this part of cemetery. Few graves were limited by rectangular enclosing trenches. According to find analyzing this part of the cemetery dates to the LT B period, and that is why Ménfőcsanak became an important archaeological site in terms of burials in the history of the Celtic “migrations” in the fourth century BC.
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Keywords: Leather Industry; Business Science; Meta-Analysis;
In the leather industry, a production process that is the subject of many different disciplines is dominant. Many studies on these branches of science have examined the sector in detail in terms of production. On the other hand, studies dealing with the sector in terms of business administration department and sub-disciplines are not common.In this study, academic publications examining the relationship between the leather industry and the business administration department are the subjects. 98 scientific studies obtained after the search in the Web of Science database were examined in terms of the form of publication, the year of publication, the country where the publication was made and the sub-disciplines of the business department.
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Keywords: interior space; interiority; relationship; representation; identity;
There is something remarkable about focusing your attention on an object. Staring thus reveals a whole aura of the object, a bridal veil, which, when removed, accounts for a miraculous understanding of its properties. This union of the gaze with the object takes place especially in moments of respite. A suspension of time is needed to provoke the persistence of a single action. Isolation allows and even conditions such occurences which, multiplied in a limited space, propose a new awareness of our perception of it. We thus realise its relation to us, our own relation to the objects around us, and the capacity of a space to be structured in accordance with human behaviour. The effect that a space has on us goes beyond its mere functionality. In isolation (such as that imposed by the SARS – CoV-2 virus pandemic) we understand perhaps more clearly the need for a sense of belonging to a place, and the importance of its function of representing us.
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Keywords: Tomáš Berka; theatre scenography; theatre poster; book design; music; film;
Tomáš Berka graduated from Department of scenography at Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under the professor Ladislav Vychodil in 1974, lived a parallel life as a visual artist and rocker, author of incidental and later also film music, as well as co-creator of music albums with the group called Fermata for decades. He was tempted away from the theatre by the illusion of film and the collaboration with international production teams and established film directors when creating large-scale films and constructing film sets. As a representative of action scenography, he had the opportunity to work with various directors on many, but predominantly on the Bratislava stages during the 1970-80s. He did not use the curtain or horizon on small stages; he worked with acronyms, movement of parts of the set and stage props, as well as metaphor. Tomáš Berka connected the auditorium with the stage on several occasions. He made a distinctive mark in graphic design; his theatre posters are typical for their characteristic outlines and colouring (regardless of the linocut or offset technique). Based on selected productions from a total of over a hundred works, the study presents Berka’s contribution to Slovak scenography from the 1970s to 2005, when his last theatre work was recorded. Tomáš Berka (together with Jozef Ciller, who is older than him and his classmates Ján Zavarský and Rasťo Bohuš) is one of the leading representatives of Slovak scenography that fundamentally influenced the direction of Slovak theatre development. Tomáš Berka is the only one among the stage designers who have also penetrated the world of music and, in recent decades, the international film industry. The study of his scenography completes the portrait of the stage designer’s work in Bratislava companies as it was unjustly marginalised also by foreign critics. While at the same time, several productions that he was engaged in which made an impact by their use of action scenography were produced in confined spaces of the petit stage of the former Divadlo na korze (Theatre on the Promenade), as well as in alternative non-theatre spaces. Tomáš Berka’s production of posters reflects the artist’s vision of society from the beginning of Normalisation, i.e. from the 1970s to the search for a path towards democracy in the first half of the 1990s.
More...Keywords: children; ambience; serving; canteens; food
The purpose of this study was to investigate the ambience factors which affect children’s consumption of school meals, in order to provide policy makers and school canteen managers with practical recommendations on how to improve children’s food intake in the future. The study was conducted in four schools in Belgrade, over a period of two weeks, adopting the techniques of in-field observation and content analysis. Overall, forty visits to school restaurants were performed and 205 pictures were gathered on those occasions. The results show that all three investigated aspects (i.e. kitchenscape, tablescape and platescape) affect children’s food consumption, as well as their willingness to eat specific food items. The avenues of further research as regards this topic are also addressed.
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Keywords: companies; strategy; enterprises recovering; Covid-19 pandemic;
The main aim of the article is to identify and define the scope of contemporary strategies of companies recovering from the pandemic crisis and their further actions in a post-crisis situation. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the digital revolution in the behavior of market players, especially consumers around the world, as previously, the increase in their use of various digital tools was gradual, and due to the crisis, it became abrupt. The strategies of the market situation as well as the strategies of forecasting and dealing with the future have begun to be implemented by many Polish and foreign enterprises. Hence, the objective of the paper is an attempt to identify the initial stage after the pandemic as well as the further scope of the development of companies’ post-covid adaptation strategies. The background for the problem is trends evoked by differences in companies’ actions after the pandemic as well as proposals for strategy building methods. What should be also mentioned are adaptation strategies used by companies during the pandemic i.e., digital winners, risk-takers, late-comers and losers. The research problem is what and how adaptation and post-pandemic strategies are implemented according to their scope (wide-ranging - black swans and gray rhinos) and the dynamics of change (purple cows and green frogs). Therefore, it is worth presenting practically implemented adaptation strategies based on the cases of Polish and foreign companies, their first step forward, i.e., returning to the growth path, albeit under different conditions. The applied research method here is the analysis of case studies.
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Keywords: foreign trade; European Union; Eurasian Economic Union;
This paper presented a brief analysis of the evolution of the foreign trade of the Republic of Moldova with the states of the European Union (EU) and with the states of the Eurasian Economic Union (EUEA) for the period 2015-2020. The period selected for analysis was determined by several reasons. Firstly, the ratification of the Association and Free Trade Agreement of the Republic of Moldova with the EU in 2014, which marked the beginning of a new era of economic relations between both parties and manifested itself in an unprecedented boom in trade, on the other hand, the emergence of a new economic and political entity, the EAEU. With the latter, consisting of 5 former Soviet states, the Republic of Moldova has established economic relations since the USSR and then the CIS. Within this organization, the Republic of Moldova has the status of an observer state, which, to a certain extent, would facilitate trade. Last but not least, the paper is an attempt to give a prompt answer on the place of the Republic of Moldova in the family of European nations and in the regional and international economic architecture. The paper presents a brief history of the beginning and evolution of political and economic cooperation with both unions. The article presents and examines statistical data on the main partner states and the main categories of goods exported and imported by both parties, as well as the states with the highest export and import rank in both unions.
More...Keywords: geocriticism; poetics; spatial turn; place; anthropology of things
The aim of this article is to capture one of the unveilings of the history of the manor house in Obory, near Warsaw, and to analyse the principle structuring the essence of transformation of this place in Miron Białoszewski’s work. Using the geocritical method, the author examines the relationship between characters and things related to this place selected by Białoszewski and the poetics he used. The frequently recurring motif of the wardrobe was juxtaposed with the analysis of inventories and wills belonging to the owner of the manor at the turn of the 17th and18th centuries, which are preserved in The Central Archivesof Historical Records in Warsaw. The main part of the article is devoted to the aesthetics and functions of 18th-century furniture in relation to the context of the court culture of that time, which Białoszewski explored poetically. In his works he played out the tension between the covering and uncovering of the secrets hidden in the complicated security systems of baroque furniture.This tension accumulates in the spatial nature of Obory: it is a remote and hidden place. Its location allowed Białoszewski to practice covering,uncovering and recovering the history of the manor. These practices not only constituted the structuring principle of the writer’s poetics, but they also open up the possibility of following the transformations of places of such semantic complexity as Obory. They allow us to capture the dynamics of changes that often involve inverting their previous meanings, e.g. in the context of agricultural reform, and also help to expose the related conflicts.
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Keywords: wabi-sabi; meditation; temples; Buddhism; minimalism;
The purpose of this paper is to look at austerity present in Japanese culture spaces, such as Japanese gardens, Japanese interior design, which is minimalist, Japanese haiku poems settings, and their connection with Buddhist philosophy. The Japanese do not seem keen on accumulating objects. Instead, they prefer to keep their space minimal. The emptiness in Japanese Buddhist philosophy appears in interior design and garden design. Moreover, the Japanese focus more on their surroundings, for instance on contemplating the seasons and on their awareness of the changing seasons. Buddhist temples allow a large view of the landscape. Meanwhile, the interior design remains minimalist, and it also allows the inhabitant to be surrounded by empty space. The Japanese are not so much focused on accumulating objects during their lifetime as Westerners are. What could be such reasons? Why is their focus on the aesthetics of the surroundings? What could this tell us about Japanese culture that makes it unique?
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