scholarly journals On the use of panel stationarity tests in convergence analysis: empirical evidence for the EU countries

Equilibrium ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariusz Próchniak ◽  
Bartosz Witkowski

The study examines the concept of stochastic convergence in the EU28 countries over the 1994–2013 period. The convergence of individual countries’ GDP per capita towards the EU28 average per capita income level and the pair-wise convergence between the GDP of individual countries are both analyzed. Additionally, we introduce our own concept of conditional stochastic convergence which is based on adjusted GDP per capita series in order to account for the impact of other growth factors on GDP. The analysis is based on time series techniques. To assess stationarity, ADF tests are used. The study shows that the process of stochastic convergence in the EU countries is not as widespread as the cross-sectional studies on b or s convergence indicate. Even if we extend the analysis to examine conditional stochastic convergence, the number of converging economies or pairs of countries rises, but not as much as it could be expected from the cross-sectional studies.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 44
Author(s):  
Alexander Baranovsky ◽  
Nataliia Tkachenko ◽  
Vladimer Glonti ◽  
Valentyna Levchenko ◽  
Kateryna Bogatyrova ◽  
...  

Traditionally, public procurement has been associated with the measurement of achieving savings. However, recent research shows that the economic impact of public procurement is not limited only to savings, but by measuring the impact of four capitals—natural, human, social, and economic—on sustainable well-being over time. Ukraine is a country with a very low gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, which exacerbates the problem of the impact of public procurement results on the population’s welfare. Ukrainian public procurement legislation allows customers to apply non-price criteria (the share of non-price criteria cannot be more than 70%), which, together, are taken into account in the formula of the quoted price. The studies show that the effect of the use of non-price criteria depends on the relevance of the method of the evaluation of non-price criteria. The most important non-price criteria for Ukrainian customers by product categories and the methods of their evaluation are analyzed according to the Bi.prozorro.org analytics module. Therefore, it is concluded that the quoted price method, which is used in Ukrainian practice, is not relevant in comparison with the method used in the EU. A survey of the government buyers on the practice of applying non-price criteria was conducted, and the areas of their use were identified.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7650
Author(s):  
Astrida Miceikienė ◽  
Kristina Gesevičienė ◽  
Daiva Rimkuvienė

The reduction of GHG emissions is one of the priorities of the EU countries. The majority of studies show that financial support and environmental taxes are one of the most effective measures for the mitigation of the negative consequences of climate change. The EU countries employ different environmental support measures and environmental taxes to reduce GHG emissions. There is a shortage of new studies on these measures. The aim of the present study is to compare the effectiveness of the environmental support measures of the EU countries with the effectiveness of environmental taxes in relation to the reduction of GHG emissions. This study is characterized by the broad scope of its data analysis and its systematic approach to the EU’s environmental policy measures. An empirical study was performed for the EU countries with the aim of addressing this research problem and substantiating theoretical insights. A total of 27 EU member states from 2009 to 2018 were selected as research samples. The research is based on a cause-and-effect relationship, where the factors affecting environmental pollution (environmental taxes and subsidies) are the cause, and GHG emissions are the effect. Statistical research methods were used in the empirical study: descriptive statistics, the Shapiro–Wilk test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), simple regression and cluster analysis. The results show that the older member countries of the EU, which had directed the financial measures of environmental policy towards a reduction in energy consumption, managed to achieve a greater reduction in GHG emissions compared to the countries which had not applied those measures. The Central and Eastern European countries are characterized by lower environmental taxes and lower expenditure allocated to environmental protection. The countries with a higher GDP per capita have greater GHG emissions that the countries with lower GDP per capita. This is associated with greater consumption, waste, and energy consumption. The study conducted gives rise to a discussion regarding data sufficiency in the assessment and forecasting of GHG emissions and their environmental consequences.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 24-32
Author(s):  
Anastasiia Samoilikova ◽  
Rosen Kunev

This article generalized modern tendencies and actual peculiarities of health care financing. The key aim of the research is to investigate the dynamics of health care financing as a factor of economic growth based on EU countries analysis. Systematization information sources connected with health care financing and its structure indicate that the EU countries analysis of dynamics of health care financing and its impact on economic growth was conducted fragmentary. This issue is still actual both for scholars and policymakers, especially for Ukraine, based on European trends. Investigation in the article is made according to the following stages: 1) introduction and relevance grounding; 2) literary review and identifying the necessity of research in this scientific area; 3) describing methodology, research methods, and current hypothesis; 4) characteristic of research results and confirming the hypothesis of the positive impact of the health care financing on economic growth; 5) making conclusions. Methodological tools of the research methods were structural and comparative analysis, logical generalization, and scientific abstraction. The methods of cross-country statistical and analytical analysis using the Excel 2010 software package for the sample from 14 EU countries for 2009-2018 (limited number of countries and limited data in 2018 relate to the data availability on open website of the EU statistical office) were applied to analyse the structure of health care financing, in particular financing schemes, main providers, and health care functions. The top countries in health care financing were identified. The methods of empirical analysis using the STATA software package for this data sample were used to confirm the hypothesis about the positive impact of the health care financing on economic growth – the GDP per capita. The nature of the analysed indices distribution was estimated based on results of Shapiro-Wilk test. So, Pearson or Spearman correlation coefficient was chosen. The statistical significance and strength of the relationship between the indicators of total expenditure for health care, and in particular government financing and compulsory contributory health care financing, voluntary health care financing, and household out-of-pocket payment for health care and the change of GDP per capita were assessed through a correlation analysis. The time lags of achievement the most statistical significance by this relationship was also identified. The results of the research show that the impact of health care financing on the change of economic growth is very high in 12 from 14 investigated EU countries (with lags of 1–3 years) and high in 2 from 14 countries (with a lag of 1 year). The character of this relationship for the most countries (9 from 14 countries) is direct (positive), and for 5 countries it is inverse (negative). The results of the research will be useful during future fundamental and practical research connected with health care financing and its modelling, for scholars and government officials to reform the health care system and its financial mechanism.


Author(s):  
Andrea Molocchi

- The relation describes the European strategy on energy and climate under the UNFCCC process for the post Kyoto period (after 2012), by which on march 2007 the EU Council adopted general targets at 2020 for a 20%/30% emission reduction, 20% renewables and 20% energy saving. Furthermore it highlights the main features of the legislative proposals published by the European Commission (EC) to implement the strategy on the 23rd January 2008, soon after the Bali COP13 (so called "energy and climate package"). The package contains proposals to implement the 20% emission reduction through EU level defined caps in the ETS sectors and by national targets differentiation in the non-ETS sectors (respectively under the "ETS revision directive" and "Effort Sharing Decision") and a further directive proposal to implement the 20% target for renewables through national target differentiation as well. The burden sharing criteria applied by EC in the energy package proposals are based on GDP per capita and they do not consider any environmental efficiency criteria, such as carbon intensity or potential for renewable sources based on land availability. As the Impact Assessment produced by the Commission itself shows, the way the "solidariety criteria" has been applied produced estimated costs on GDP highly differentiated between Member States and non-coherent with the GDP per capita distribution. Nevertheless, these burden sharings have not been timely corrected by the EC to bring optimisation with GDP per capita rankings in the UE. In addition, the EC package does not contain legislative proposals aimed to implement the 20% energy saving target. Recent disclosure of information by EC consultants (NTUA - Primes Model) shows that the implicit energy saving potential of the proposed package is limited to 7%, thus far away from the announced 20%. Due to these lackings, the EC package and related burden sharings may not be considered coherent to the EU Council spring 2007 mandate. European Parliament or Council emendments aimed at a higher efficiency and fairness for the whole package are deemed necessary by the author, even if politically difficult to be introduced.Key words: Energy & climate package, GHGs, energy efficiency, renewable sources, European policy.


2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 468-478
Author(s):  
Maharani Tristi ◽  
Harianto Harianto ◽  
Amzul Rifin

This study aims to analyze the impact of the tariff and non-tariff policies implementation of the importing countries on the export performance of Indonesian processed tuna. A cross-sectional gravity model analysis was conducted to find out the impact of these policies on exports. The variables used include GDP per capita of the importing countries, population, economic distance, export prices, actual exchange rates, tariff policies, and non-tariff policies in the form of sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT). The estimation shows that the variables of GDP per capita of the importing countries, population, exchange rates, export prices, and SPS give a positive and significant effect on the trade of Indonesian processed tuna commodities. On the other hand, economic distance and TBT policy give a negative and significant impact on the volume of this particular commodity. Meanwhile, the tariff policy implementation also give a negative effect on the export volume, but it is not significant.   Keywords: cross sectional gravity, export performance, non-tariffs, tariffs


Author(s):  
Agnieszka Sapa ◽  
Łukasz Kryszak

A significant feature of world trade development is the diminishing role of developed countries in the international agri-food market. The share of the European Union in processed food export has been reducing steadily from 2000, giving place to developing countries at the same time. Considering studies devoted to the factors influencing bilateral trade, the question to what extent the trade of processed food depends on consumer preferences represented by absolute differences of GDP per capita (Linder hypothesis), geography, and trade liberalization remains open. It is interesting in the context of the new demand-oriented trade theory and the globalization process that causes a shrinking distance. The main purpose of the paper is to indicate the impact of consumer preferences and geography on the export value of processed food of EU countries in 2000-2019. To achieve this goal, the gravity model was constructed and estimated via Hausman-Taylor panel regression. The dependent variable was the bilateral export value of processed food of EU countries. The independent variables included GDP, geographical distance between partners, differences of GDP per capita of exporters and importers as a proxy of the Linder hypothesis, membership in a preferential trade agreement, and being landlocked. Research confirmed the validity of the Linder hypothesis and the significance of geography and regional trade integration in shaping the export value of processed food of EU countries.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 3750 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Toader ◽  
Bogdan Firtescu ◽  
Angela Roman ◽  
Sorin Anton

The accelerated development of information and communication technology (ICT) over the past two decades has encouraged an increasing number of researchers to examine and measure the impact of this technology on economic growth. Our study aims to identify and evaluate the effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic growth in European Union (EU) countries for a period of 18 years (2000–2017). Using panel-data estimation techniques, we investigate empirically how various indicators of ICT infrastructure affect economic growth, proxied in our study by GDP per capita. Within the estimates, we have included some macroeconomic control variables. Our results indicate a positive and strongly effect of using ICT infrastructure on economic growth in the EU member states, but the magnitude of the effect differs depending on the type of technology examined. Regarding the impact of macroeconomic factors, our estimates indicate that inflation rate, unemployment rate, the degree of trade openness, government expenditures, and foreign direct investments would significantly affect GDP per capita at EU level. The findings are broadly similar to the theoretical predictions, but also to the findings of some relevant empirical studies. Our research reveals that ICT infrastructure, along with other macroeconomic factors, is an important driver of economic growth in EU countries.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 231-244 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Mazurek

Abstract The aim of this article is to compare 2008-2010 recession magnitudes in individual EU countries. For the comparison the recession magnitude scale was used. The strongest recession during the examined period took place in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Greece and Ireland, while the weakest recessions in the EU occurred in France, Malta and Cyprus. Poland and Slovakia were the only two EU countries that didn’t fall into a recession, that’s why they were not included in the study. The main findings of the paper are that EU19’s recession was much smaller than both the Great Depression of the 1930s and the recent Great Recession in the USA. Furthermore, with the use of a linear econometric model it was found that recession magnitudes in EU countries were directly proportional to the countries’ GDP per capita in 2008 and growth prior to recessions, while countries’ economic openness was indirectly proportional to recession magnitudes, all the relationships being statistically significant.


2020 ◽  
Vol 185 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Oleksandr Sushchenko ◽  
◽  
Ievgen Volkovskyi ◽  
Viktor Fedosov ◽  
Nadiya Ryazanova ◽  
...  

The concept of sustainable development brought new constraints for the old-fashioned business models. At the same time, it created new opportunities for those who have a forward-looking strategy and strive to overcome «the limits to growth», in other words, to ensure a long-term blended value creation with economic and non-economic benefits. There are numerous sets of the sustainable development indicators and indices, but the weights of each particular component are different and need further clarification. Nowadays, the environmental risks in general and climate-related in particular are priced (e.g. environmental taxes) and have a strong impact on the social and economic relations by creating negative and positive externalities for our daily life. For this reason, economic agents are forced to become sustainable to the non-financial risks through switching to the new environmental and social business models. For this reason, better sustainable development indicators are crucial for an improved management of the non-financial risks and sustainable blended value creation. Hence, the aim of this paper is to examine the role of environmental risks in shaping sustainable development conditions on the macrolevel and to elaborate the ways for a better management of the non-financial risks (Environmental, Social and Governance - ESG). For this purpose, the impact of the most important environmental risks on the main economic and social indicators has been examined (e.g. Human Development Index and GDP per capita). Such an approach allowed us to identify the extent to which specific environmental factors influencing social and economic development can reshape the sustainable development conditions. In course of research, two sets of countries have been singled out to verify statistical significance of elaborated models. To achieve this goal, the authors have split an available dataset into two groups: EU and non-EU countries. The reason behind it is the fact that EU countries are among the leaders in the area of sustainable development and have already undertaken related environmental improvements in the last decades. Moreover, the above-mentioned countries are continuing such successful pathways today and with the new European Green Deal could go even far beyond this frontier. The results of current research suggest that existing indicators cannot fully encompass all the aspects of sustainable development and should be revised. Such findings relate both to the composition of the indicators and the weights attributed to each particular component. The application of regression analysis showed that such factors as water and air quality and biodiversity have the strongest explanatory power - 67% of the fluctuations in GDP per capita and 87% in case of HDI. The R -squared is ranging from 0.7 to 0.8 in both cases and confirms consistency of the elaborated models. To verify the results achieved, the similar models have been prepared only for the EU countries. As a result, all independent variables demonstrated the same significant impact on GDP per capita also for the EU countries. However, in this case the R -squared is only 0.27 due to the fact that ESG indicators within the EU area are rather homogenous. The impact of environmental factors on the level of HDI for the EU countries is much stronger comparing to GDP per capita. An overall explanatory power of the model for the EU countries exceeds 0.45 (R -squared). The most influential factor is the quality of water resources. Other important independent variables in the model for the EU member states are biodiversity and air quality. The authors argue that it is necessary to incorporate the above-mentioned environmental factors into the updated version of the Human Development Index as the most appropriate indicators of sustainable development. Consequently, the weights of the components should be recalculated to improve management of the non-financial risks on macrolevel, facilitating the blended value creation process.


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