The climate policy in the conditions of financial crisis
Polityka klimatyczna w warunkach kryzysu finansowego
Keywords: Climate policy; cost of meeting EU climate regulations
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Keywords: Climate policy; cost of meeting EU climate regulations
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Keywords: Pension funds; consumption; investments; BMA; Sweden
Sweden at the beginning of the 1990s was overtaken by the financial and housing market crisis. Economists claim that Swedish example is similar to the 2008 global financial crisis. It is also postulated that aberrant consumption pattern was observed in Sweden in the late 1980’s. In this research I investigate the impact of the ATP-pension funds investment on the consumption in Sweden over the period since its creation to the Swedish financial crisis (1961–1994). The analysis is divided in two steps: in the first one pure consumption model is augmented by the ATP pension funds investment. ATP investments are assigned to three groups: Swedish Company Shares, Government Bonds and Housing Market Securities. The second goal is to find the true determinants of the consumption. Using Bayesian inference I show that pension funds investment in the housing market assets spurs excess consumption, so decrease net savings.
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Keywords: Non-agricultural activities; income from other sources; social security contribution; health insurance contribution; tax due
The aim of this article is to evaluate tax burdens in Poland in 2008–2014. Based on this evaluation, the authors attempt to verify the hypothesis that tax burdens imposed on individuals involved in non-agricultural activities are lower in comparison with taxation of income from other sources.
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Keywords: Local government unit; local government finances; the financial balance
The article discusses the problems of financial sustainability of LGU. It is so important that the local authorities are increasingly complex entities that carry out different tasks, both pecuniary and unpaid. This applies in particular to large units, such as cities and towns, but also to the province government. For this reason, these units are obliged to maintain the continuity of tasks and to provide the required level of development of the LGU. The basis for the discussion was identifying the differences between the budget balance and financial balance, with particular underlining of the importance of long-term sustainability. The aim of the research is to identify the instruments of stabilizing the financial balance of LGU in the long-term horizon. On the basis of the identification of the elements of the financial capacity of LGU and the factors that should be taken into account in the financial projections key instruments of stabilizing the long-term sustainability of LGU are suggested.
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Keywords: Finance; local government; the financial potential
The article discusses the problem of measuring financial potential. It discusses the basic dilemmas associated with the choice of the factors used to measure the potential financial and presented the dilemmas associated with the measurement of potential. The aim of this article is the discussion on the essence of the potential financial dilemmas in the context of selection factors to measure and regularity of his conduct. The article is theoretical and comparative.
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Keywords: ATM network; the countries of Central Europe; payment cards
The author of the article attempted to analyse the development of ATM networks in the countries of Central Europe – Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia in the period 2000–2014. In all these countries we noted a significant increase in the number of ATMs. In the analysis of the factors affecting the volatility of the ATM network the GRETL program was used. The analysis of the research panel showed thatthere was one important direction of the relationship between selected explanatory variables and the dependent variable which was a network of ATMs in different countries. The detailed analysis of particular countries proved, among others, that the increase in the number of payment cards has a positive effect on the development of the ATM network, and that the decrease in the number of outlets and banks also promotes the growth of the number of ATMs in the analysed banking systems.
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Keywords: Cooperative savings and credit unions; credit unions; regulations; prudential regulations
Since 2012, in the sector of the cooperative savings and credit unions there have been introduced significant changes in the regulations covering a range of the activity, aimed at increasing the scope of regulation of this market segment and making them resemble the banks. The aim of the study is to assess the key regulatory changes carried out from the perspective of economic business and to explore the perception of regulatory changes by the employees of credit unions from the area of Wielkopolska region. Among the various analyzed regulatory changes only a few have clearly positive assessment. The majority is different depending on the perspective of time (usually a short-term negative and neutral – long term). The surveyed employees indicated that state supervision and deposit guarantees are the most important changes in the regulation of credit unions.
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Keywords: technical efficiency; communes; European funds; entrepreneurship
In the context of the EU financial perspective 2014–2020, it is necessary to assess the efficiency of the solutions used in the period 2007–2013. Activities involving direct and indirect support for the development of business entities accounted for almost 63% of the total EU budget for rural areas. The aim of the study is to evaluate the efficiency of entrepreneurship support in rural communes in Poland. The main input in measuring the efficiency ratio was disbursed expenditures (volume of funds spent under three operational programs) to the achieved results expressed in the number of operating entities. The study involved 1202 rural communities located in rural areas in Poland. Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) has been used. The results indicate the unsatisfactory efficiency of the instruments used in the light of the results achieved, and significant spatial, size and income differences in individual efficiency ratios of communes.
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Keywords: banking economic cycle; business survey indicators; forecasting; banking
Due to the updated information and the promptness of accessing it, the business tendency surveys can be regarded as an interesting source of information about the current and future changes in the trends of the economic situation. The objective of the research was to evaluate to what extent the surveys of the banking situation reflect the overall economic situation as well as whether they allow to predict it. The surveys used the results of the banking situation studies conducted by TNS Polska, which were compared with the changes in GDP in the years 1997–2014. Mutual correlation coefficients, vector error correction models as well as the surveys of cointegration and causality based on those models were used in order to evaluate the relationships. The conducted surveys revealed that the surveys of the banking situation reflect the changes in the overall economic situation, but their predictability is almost nonexistent.
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Keywords: shadow bank; shadow banking system; loan; unfair market practices; parallel banking system; informal banking
The main object of this study was to present the client’s situation in the non-bank market and to show how consumer rights are violated by the use of a variety of unfair market practices. The subject of the following analysis is to answer the research question: how the services of loan companies break the security of their clients interests? The threatened interests of clients of the loan companies described in the article prove that the protection of consumer rights is extremely important and should be updated constantly in order to protect consumers in the most efficient way. They should take into consideration market changes as well as remove nascent violations.
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Keywords: state aid; de minimis aid; public finance; self-government units; entreprenaurship
Public aid is a particular kind of support provided by the state to economic operators. This aid can be granted to finance, among others, the projects co-financed with UE funds, specialized advisory and training services, tax subsidies. Public aid is provided first of all for the development of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (businesses). The aim of this article is to point out the significance of the state aid as an instrument of the state influence on the economy and discuss the role and the main conditions for the application of public aid.
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Keywords: State Treasury; ownership; ownership of the State Treasury; the companies with the shares of the State Treasury
The Treasury, on behalf of the State, acts as the owner of companies being under its control. It is a disabled owner who cannot or is not able to articulate its own interests, which manifests itself in the absence of a clearly formulated ownership policy guidelines. Consequently, this situation leads to a lack of effectiveness of supervisory authorities activities, supervising, on behalf of the owner, the companies with the shares of the Treasury.The aim of the study was to identify the role of the Treasury as the owner of companies. It presents the powers and the legal framework of the State Treasury as the owner and also the list of companies held in the hands of the Treasury. The study is of an exploratory character. The study is based on secondary sources of information. The analysed material included the economic literature in the field of ownership transformation in Poland, the Ministry of Treasury publications, reports and studies of the Central Statistical Office and legal acts.
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Keywords: DEA; healtcare systems; accessibility; out-of-pocket
Accessibility to effective healthcare services is an important socio-economic problem. The aim of this article is to assess the impact of the financing structure of health systems on population health outcomes. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was adopted. The impact of the private spending structure, taking into account out-of-pocket payments on the patient’s health outcomes, measured by life expectancy and level of health needs compliance, was studied. The ranking of the European Union (EU) countries was established and in-depth analysis of the five best and five worst countries was carried out. Health outcomes depend on the financing structure. In countries with high levels of out-of-pocket payments health outcomes are significantly worse.
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Keywords: individual retirement accounts; voluntary form of saving; pension schemes
The aim of the article is to characterize the voluntary forms of pension savings in Poland. The article describes the rules for creating and functioning them. The article presents the development of individual retirement accounts and individual retirement security accounts market in Poland between the years 2010 and 2014. Moreover, the article describes the factors hindering the development of individual forms of saving, such as: low income, lack of habit of saving and lack of knowledge of individual retirement accounts and individual retirement security accounts functioning. Retirement coming only from the first and second pillar may be insufficient to ensure an appropriate level of retirement benefits. Therefore, individual retirement accounts and individual retirement security accounts, acting in the third pillar, should become an important component of future benefits. It is important to take appropriate educational activities to increase Poles’ awareness of pension. The participants of the pension system should have the necessary knowledge of fundraising to individual retirement accounts and individual retirement security accounts and the benefits of saving in their farmework.
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Keywords: aging population; demographic changes; pension system
The second demographic transition refers to changes in fertility pattern, i.e., birth rate drop and the shift of the dominant of childbearing age. The recovery process across generations remains below the replacement of generations rate. Demographic changes are accompanied by a continuous lengthening of the human life, which is connected with the rapid growth of an aging population and decrease in the number of people of working age. Heavy burden of the pension system becomes a threat to the preservation stability. Retirement age needs to be modified, so that the life span extension become synonymous with elderly prolonged activity. It is necessary to take the action in order to maintain appropriate balance between number of people of working age and those who have been retired. This article provides the proper approach to demographic structure changes and its impact on retirement plan system in Poland. The purpose of this article is to present the impact of an aging population on the pension system in Poland. The scope of the study includes a literature review and use of the data of the Central Statistical Office.
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Keywords: fiscal expansion; monetary expansion; zero-bound interest rate; deflation; public debt
The article discusses the problem of fiscal expansion ineffectiveness observed in many countries after 2007. It contains two parts. The first explains the causes of this ineffectiveness. It is a theoretical analysis of economic mechanisms that can be at work in specific conditions, i.e., monetary accommodation, low economic activity, low interest rates and public debt. They all weaken the demand effect of budget deficit. The conclusions are drawn from the combined analysis the modified Keynesian liquidity preference, Tobin’s analysis of public debt and q theory. In the second part the above mechanisms are illustrated by the experiences of several economies (selected euro zone countries, US, UK and Poland). We observe that despite large cyclical budget deficits in 2008–2009 the economic activity remains low and the conditions rendering fiscal expansion impotent still persist.
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In the age of financialization, i.e. since 1970s, in the financial systems of individual countries occurred many tendencies and phenomena influencing shape and functioning of financial intermediaries. The aim of the paper is to characterize one of the most important among them, namely the process of bank disintermediation, visible in financial systems of many countries. The process may be interpreted and analyzed in many dimensions. Its defining and understanding is of crucial importance when one assesses its consequences for the financial stability and access to financial services. In the paper disintermediation is considered in the context of diminishing trust in financial institutions and in connection with the process of financialization. After discussing definitions and features of disintermediation, there are characterized in details causes and consequences of the process. In final section some conclusions with reference to non-banking financial institutions are drawn.
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Keywords: Roman Catholic church music; Byzantine Orthodox church music; Kyiv-Pechersk choral style; sacred music; performance practice
Fundamental differences between Kyiv-Pechersk choral style and Western model of performance of religious chants can be considered in various contexts and at several levels. One should take into account diversity of church rules (canon), mentality, even geographical location and physiological capabilities of voices of the singers coming from a particular area. The performance practice is also connected with such factors as cultural traditions, language, way of life and social issues related to faith. It is therefore understandable that, after a short period of a fragile cultural unity of the Church, different traditions emerged. The author argues that the way of singing is directly dependent on the fundamental philosophical and theological ideas, originating from the Church canon. Then, the differences between chant performance in two main branches of the Christian Church seem to be a consequence of the distinct ways in which the theological doctrine, dogma of the Church, the temporal and spatial principles of worship and art developed in Roman Catholic and Byzantine Orthodox traditions. The two different perceptions of communication with God and its influence on church singing are considered by the author as an exemplary case.
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Keywords: Hildegard of Bingen; Ordo Virtutum; Strzelno; medieval art
Composed by Hildegard of Bingen in the Rhine-Hessen region in the middle of the 12th century, the liturgical drama Ordo Virtutum depicts a symbolic internal struggle for the fate of the soul between the virtues and the devil and is originally transposed into the language of low-relief found in the church owned by the Canonesses Nuns convent in Strzelno, a little town situated on the border of Kujawy and Wielkopolska regions in Poland. The aim of this article is to present how two visions of the same concept complement each other in an intriguing way, although they are expressed by two separate, yet merging languages of music linked with the text and low relief. Most of the musical and literary personifications of both Ordo Virtutum and low reliefs featuring figures in Strzelno are still comprehensible, despite being created eight centuries ago. They introduce the audience to the world of medieval sermons, theological treatises, lectures on ethics and moral theology. Both works show a holistic vision of the world, held by people of the medieval era. In that vision what is spiritual, mystical and elusive for the outward physical senses intertwines and is closely linked with what is tangible, material and directly perceptible. Hildegard’s music praised not only the works of God but also the virtues as deeply human attributes, linked with effort and choices of a free human being, capable of establishing a relationship with God. The column of virtues in Strzelno introduces to the sacred sphere a multitude of figures that become an icon of widely accessible perfection. It seems that both artists aimed at educating their audience as beauty was supposed to ennoble by giving the strength to the truth so that it could lead to good, also the ultimate good — God.
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Keywords: Karol Szymanowski; Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz; semiotics; intertextuality; comparison of arts
The purpose of this article is to define the possible meanings and connotations of musical compositions and their conversion into the lingual substance of poetry. Since the issue is varying internally and always needs particular examples, the undertaken analysis concerns two pieces of art: Fountain of Arethusa by a Polish composer Karol Szymanowski and a sonnet of the same title written by his friend and relative, writer Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz. Firstly, the matter of literary title and its associations is compared in both pieces, which leads to conclusion that while the name of composition generates loose and imprecise connotations, literature requires more specification, nonetheless both the composer and the poet understand mythical subject alike and reception of the work of the latter is based on emotional and semantic qualities similar to those included in the composition. Then, the subject of musical genre is depicted, with emphasis placed on literary connotations and their implications in the process of transcription of music into words. As the poet uses sonnet, which apparently has got poor connections to music, the motives of such choice are enumerated, including significance in European culture and interior dichotomy, both of which one can find in Szymanowski’s work. Further, the article describes relations between music character indications in musical score and particular lexemes in the poem. Musical work can exist in literature in many ways, first of which is being a theme of objective or subjective description. Such illustration of music in the poem is analysed. Then the euphonious and rhythmic features of the text are described in order to prove that music exists in the sonnet in its sound as well as being a scheme which is reinterpreted and imitated by the writer. The analysis shows that although one cannot translate musical matter into words, it is impossible to ignore many intersemiotic correlations between music and literature. Every example of such coexistence – either on the ground of semantics or form – must be studied individually.
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