scholarly journals IMPACT OF POLITICAL AND FISCAL DECENTRALIZATION ON THE GOVERNMENT QUALITY IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 285-302
Author(s):  
Josip Visković ◽  
◽  
Paško Burnać ◽  
Maja Herman
Keyword(s):  
Fiscal Decentralization ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Additional Contribution ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Political Decentralization ◽  
Government Quality ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact

Since the 1970s, the process of decentralization has spread throughout the world, and today more than 95% of democratic countries are decentralized. Decentralization should lead to a well-organized and more efficient local government. Nevertheless, the empirical results are rather vague. The motivation for this paper is to examine the impact of political and fiscal decentralization on the quality of government in seventeen countries in Central and Eastern Europe for the period 1998 - 2012. The main objective of the paper is to explore whether fiscal decentralization positively influences the quality of government and whether political decentralization reduces its positive influence. An additional contribution of the paper comes from the introduction of a decentralization interaction variable. Our results have shown that fiscal decentralization has a positive impact on governance, while political decentralization was found to be statistically insignificant. Our results also showed that richer countries have higher government quality, that government size increases the level of corruption and decreases government quality, and that in more democratic countries politicians behave more responsibly and accountably, which decreases the level of corruption and increases government quality. We conclude that political decentralization cancels out the positive effects of fiscal decentralization on the quality of government, which can be explained by less developed institutions at the local level in Central and Eastern European countries.

scholarly journals Patterns of Interrelationships between Inflation, R&D, Innovation, and Economic Growth: Evidence from Central and Eastern European Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-33
Author(s):  
Ljubivoje Radonjić ◽  
◽  
Nevena Veselinović ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Output Growth ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact

The primary objective of the article is to examine the nexus between inflation, R&D, patents, and economic growth within a group of Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs). The examination is conducted in two parts. First, the impact of total R&D expenditures on economic growth is observed, as well as the influence of growth on private and public R&D investments. Second, the conversion from private and public R&D investment to innovation, measured by the number of patents, is observed. Throughout the analysis, economic growth and inflation are representative of macroeconomic stability. The outcomes of the panel auto-regressive distributed lag estimation indicate that total R&D expenditures are essential and positively significant for economic growth in the observed countries. The results also show that output growth has a remarkably positive impact on generating private R&D expenditures. Such an influence is also found, but at a weaker level, in the case of public R&D expenditures. In this part of the analysis, inflation has demonstrated a harmful influence on R&D expenditures. The results of the second part indicate that public and private R&D expenditures, at a significant level, generate innovation activities, while the impact of inflation has proven to be unimportant.

scholarly journals Mining, Poverty, and Income Inequality in Central and Eastern European Countries: What Do the Data Tell Us?

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-25
Author(s):  
Kunofiwa Tsaurai
Keyword(s):  
Income Inequality ◽  
Random Effects ◽  
Poverty Reduction ◽  
Common Ground ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Infrastructural Development ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact

The study investigates the effect of mining on both poverty and income inequality in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) using econometric estimation methods with panel data spanning from 2009 to 2019. Another objective of this paper was to determine if the complementarity between mining and infrastructural development reduced poverty and or income inequality in CEECs. What triggered the study is the failure of the existing literature to have a common ground regarding the impact of mining on poverty and or income inequality. The existing literature on the subject matter is contradictory, mixed, and divergent; hence, it paves the way for further empirical tests. The study confirmed that the vicious cycle of poverty is relevant in CEECs. According to the dynamic generalized methods of moments (GMM), mining had a significant poverty reduction influence in CEECs. The dynamic GMM and random effects revealed that the complementarity between mining and infrastructural development also enhanced poverty reduction in CEECs. Random effects and pooled OLS shows that mining significantly reduced income inequality in CEECs. However, random effects and the dynamic GMM results indicate that income inequality was significantly reduced by the complementarity between mining and infrastructural development. The authorities in CEECs are therefore urged to implement mining growth and infrastructural development-oriented policies in order to successfully fight off the twin challenges of poverty and income inequality.

scholarly journals The impact of real exchange rates on price competitiveness in Eastern European countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-55
Author(s):  
Nadiia Proskurnina ◽  
Jürgen Kähler ◽  
Rosario Cervantes-Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Exchange Rates ◽  
Real Exchange Rates ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Local Exchange ◽  
Developed Economies ◽  
Countries In Transition ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact

The subject of this paper is empirical research on studies of exchange rates in Eastern European countries, such as Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Belarus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, (North) Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia, in order verify the validity of theories that explain these changes. This research aims to explain the mixed evidence of the Balassa-Samuelson effect in Ukraine, taking into account the intentions of Ukraine to become a member of the European Union. Unlike previous works, the attention is shifted to a review of empirical evidence and the identification of main factors that limit the ability to verify the theory. The main conclusion is that all the currencies studied underwent substantial real appreciations during the study period. Thus, it can be concluded that an adequate monetary policy in countries under study is very important, given that local exchange markets are not sustainable enough and the volatility of exchange operations is higher than in countries with developed economies. However, the Balassa-Samuelson Hypothesis (BSH) can explain the impact of the real exchange rate due to changes in productivity in countries in transition.

scholarly journals An impact of macroeconomic stabilization on the sustainable development of manufacturing enterprises: the case of Central and Eastern European Countries

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aleksandra Pieloch-Babiarz ◽  
Anna Misztal ◽  
Magdalena Kowalska
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Slovak Republic ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Macroeconomic Stabilization ◽  
The Sustainable Development ◽  
Manufacturing Enterprises ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Sustainable development is a socioeconomic development that respects environmental protection. It can be analyzed at a macro- and microscale. The goals of sustainable development are realized by ordinary people, politicians, organizations, and enterprises. At the enterprise level, sustainable development means an improvement in quantitative and qualitative conditions of running a business, the use of pro-ecological standards and solutions, and support of employee development. The sustainable development of enterprises depends on several factors, including macroeconomic conditions. The main aim of this paper is to show the impact of the macroeconomic stabilization on the sustainable development of the manufacturing enterprises in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs). We examine only the CEECs which are the members of the European Union. Considering this, we focus on the eleven counties (i.e., Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia) in the period from 2008 to 2018. The main hypothesis is formulated as follows: Macroeconomic stabilization has a statistically significant impact on the sustainable development of manufacturing enterprises in the period from 2008 to 2018. The results of the study indicate that in all analyzed countries there is a statistically significant relationship between the indicator of sustainable development (SISDE) and the indicator of macroeconomic stabilization. The highest level of correlation was observed in Czechia, Poland, and Hungary, while the lowest in Estonia.

Redistribution and the Quality of Government: Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Bilyana Petrova
Keyword(s):  
Welfare State ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Welfare State

Abstract The welfare state literature has largely ignored the impact of a country's quality of government on its levels of redistribution. Using cross-sectional time-series analysis of twenty-one Central and Eastern European countries, this article shows that environments characterized by higher levels of corruption, rampant bureaucratic inefficiency and ineffective enforcement of the rule of law are associated with lower levels of redistribution. Poor government directly affects the supply side of the redistribution process by hindering countries’ ability to allocate funds to redistribution and deliver them to their beneficiaries. Contrary to existing demand-oriented perspectives, the proposed causal mechanism does not blame lower redistribution on the lack of public support for the welfare state. Rather, it focuses on the capacity of states to adopt and implement inequality-reducing policies. The results are robust to numerous extensions and model specifications.

The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Economic Growth and Electricity Consumption

2020 ◽  
pp. 307-324
Author(s):  
Burcu Berke ◽  
Gülsüm Akarsu ◽  
Gökhan Obay
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Information And Communication Technologies ◽  
Electricity Consumption ◽  
Communication Technologies ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Economic Variables ◽  
Information And Communication ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
The Impact

Information overload is an important issue in the digital economy. Although, information can be easily accessed and disseminated by widespread use of information and communication technologies (ICT) since 1990s; among countries, there are still significant disparities in information access and utilization as well as ICT access and usage. ICT affect economy, industries and companies holistically and have important functions like increasing economic growth and promoting development. The basic purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of ICT on economic growth and electricity consumption for a group of Balkan and Eastern European countries by using other economic variables that affect electricity consumption and growth, such as income and electricity consumption for control purposes. This study employed a panel data method on a group of Balkan and Eastern European countries to verify the effect of other economic variables, primarily electricity consumption and found that ICT had positive impacts on economic growth.

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